My life has been marked by seasons of triumph and challenge. I faced homelessness in my early teens and again in my late teens, sleeping in my car or couch surfing. These early experiences taught me the harsh realities of housing insecurity.
Today I am working toward a master’s degree in political science. Despite my progress, I continue to face housing challenges. Two years ago, I was homeless once more, and worked hard to gain stability again.
My story is one of resilience and determination, but it also shines a light on problems in our housing system that must be fixed. The high cost of living, jobs that don’t pay a living wage, and exorbitant rent prices in San Luis Obispo County are not just numbers on a page—they represent real struggles for real people.
The dream of owning a home in San Luis Obispo County, once an attainable goal for many, has now fallen by the wayside for countless residents. A recent report by Zillow reveals a troubling trend: three cities in the county—San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande, and Cambria—have sped into the exclusive “million-dollar cities club.” This dramatic acceleration in home prices underscores the pressing issue of housing affordability plaguing our community.
Such exorbitant costs deter prospective homebuyers and exert immense pressure on the rental market, where prices have also skyrocketed. This vicious cycle makes renting even a modest apartment a financial burden for many residents.
As home prices surge, landlords seeking excessive profits are hiking rents steeply. For residents already struggling to make ends meet, these increases can force them to choose between paying rent or meeting other essential needs such as food, clothing, and health care.
Recently, renters mobilized to form the San Luis Obispo Tenants Union (SLOTU), a coalition of renters and their allies seeking to repair the long-term damage done to our housing system by out-of-control costs, landlord neglect, and inadequate supply of the right kinds of homes in the right locations. SLOTU champions the cause of housing justice and advocates for safe, secure, affordable, and easily accessible housing as a fundamental human right.
SLOTU is pressing local governments to update and modernize their housing codes, provide more tools for code enforcement, and enact more robust tenant protections. We want city attorneys and county counsel to use their authority under California’s Tenant Protection Act to stop illegal rent increases and prohibit landlords from evicting tenants without cause.
The urgent need to reshape our housing system cannot be overstated. Beyond the economic damage, unaffordable housing threatens the social fabric of our community, leading to displacement, homelessness, and ever-widening inequality. If we stand together and demand meaningful change, we can create a future where every resident of our county has a place to call home—a future where housing is not a luxury for the wealthy few, but a basic human right available to everyone.
Shawna Stillwell
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Jul 25 – Aug 4, 2024.
There is no housing system. There is a free market. Landlords don’t make excessive profits. The make what the market will bear. If you can afford to live in an area, there is a remedy. Move someplace that you can afford. It happens regularly. That is why many are moving from California.
The housing shortage is inevitable, as more people want to live here than the area can support. Just look at the resistance to the Dana development in Nipomo. Many more like it would be necessary to satisfy demand , and the damage to the environment and quality of life would be staggering. Where do we find the water?
Having the government regulate or subsidize the market to reduce prices? The unmet demand will be event higher as even more people seek the sweet deals in our wonderful community. What makes you think that you will be one of the lucky winners who ends up receiving artificially low cost housing?
Beating up on landlords with tenant “protections” just lowers housing available, as fewer rental units are built, and existing units kept off of the market in order to avoid the onerous risks of ending up with a deadbeat tenant you can’t get rid of. California has enacted loads of such “protections” over the years, and housing just gets tighter and tighter.
The comment made by Tony on this post ignores one critical factor: artificial supply limits imposed by local jurisdictions at the request of neighborhood NIMBYs. Until we get rid of restrictions on height, density, form, parking, and more, it is not possible to claim that housing exists in a free market system. We should not limit our potential as a community by excluding people from living here. The people Tony is asking to “move someplace that you can afford” are our teachers, doctors, and service workers who have been priced out due to decades of policy development fueled by the desires of an aging population.
On a related note, it is laughable that SLO County is seeking to be designated as a pro-housing county in California when the unincorporated area of the County saw a total of 241 building permits for new residential units in 2023, zero being for multifamily. We need organizations like SLOTU and Generation Build to advocate for zoning reform to make it easier to house our population. Without new homes, the working and middle class will cease to exist in SLO County.
Carsen wants to turn slo into the JUNGLE that is all the big cities
If you want to see where SLO county is headed for in 10yrs time, all you need to do is look at south lake Tahoe.
Instead of building and protecting rents so they are affordable for the workforce needed for their tourist industry, they voted against rent controls and new buildings.
They have priced their workforce out of the area and the tourist industry there has suffered greatly.
Very simply all you have to do is study what happened in lake Tahoe California and State line Tahoe.
They allowed the free market determine the price of housing for the people who work all the hotels shops markets businesses restaurants. The blue collar workers of the area.
What happened? They priced their workers out of the area and have killed their tourist industry due to being unable to hire people willing to work for wages that can’t pay the rent.
Everyone ended up moving to sparks Reno area due to that area putting in rent control and aggressively building apartments to house workers in affordable places.
U all have about 8yrs before you see the effects and unlike Tahoe you all don’t have a winter to push the homeless out.