This Week on the Central Coast
Monterey addresses rent, Watsonville hospital approved for sale, Hope gets a donation, Project Ohana begins in MPUSD, free Watsonville Film Festival movies
Monterey City Council discussed the issue of rising rent
The city council brought up the topic with the intent of bringing it to light. Council members were told to come back at the next meeting with ideas of how to address the issue of rising rents. Rent prices have been a growing problem for several years now, often driving residents away to other cities and forcing them to commute to work.
The Public Affairs Director at the Monterey Bay Aquarium spoke out at the meeting, saying that higher rents are affecting their staffing. Their employees can’t afford to live in the area, which results in smaller staffs and forcing them to limit operating hours. This is not a problem unique to the aquarium.
The leading ideas addressing rent prices are rent control or the creation of a rental registry. Rent control would set limits on how much a rental owner could charge their tenants and would most likely increase by a percentage each year.
A rental registry would simply be a system of collecting and managing data. It would act as a reference of rental owners, providing contact information and notes about the properties. It is intended to streamline communication of problems to the owners so they can fix the problems before they become more costly citations. This helps tenants and owners in the same way: the rental properties are better maintained and worth the price.
I do not believe either of these options will fix the issue of rising rent in Monterey, though I think it is great that it is being given the attention it needs to have. I’m interested if anyone has better ideas that address rent in the area. Leave a comment below if you do!
A local group is one step closer to purchasing Watsonville Hospital
Watsonville Hospital has been owned by for-profit groups for over 20 years. This week, a judge approved the sale of the hospital to the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project (PVHDP). “Healthcare districts are local government entities that are legally separate from counties and cities”.
The hospital serves all of Watsonville, plus residents in North Monterey County. Though the sale was approved, PVHDP must close the sale by August 31, 2022.
Hope Services awarded money to help adults with disabilities
Hope Services was awarded just under $16,000 by the Parking for Hope event residents participated in during the week of Christmas. The event collected all money paid to parking meters in downtown Santa Cruz during the week and donated it to Hope Services.
The company provides training and supports adults with developmental disabilities in hopes of giving them a better chance at securing a job. Hope Services also runs the Downtown Litter Abatement Crew that employs six workers with disabilities that clean litter in the downtown area.
MPUSD began a mental health project for students
Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, in cooperation with Montage, is beginning a behavioral health initiative called Ohana. The project connects child therapists with students to help them cope with whatever might be stressing them, from something as complex as social situations to simply discussing test-taking strategies. The project is focused on middle school because those years are “a real turning point for young people in terms of identity, sense of self, and sense of the world.”
Ohana will be directed by Molly Hansen, who is a licensed therapist. She will lead weekly sessions which focus on improving students’ social-emotional skills. She hopes students will learn enough to be able to eventually help each other without her help. “I want the students to feel confident enough in these skills that they can teach each other.”
Hansen will also create a curriculum for teachers to use in their own classes, which will allow the project to continue to be effective long after she is no longer directing it.
Watsonville’s Film Festival is making all its films free online this year
Watsonville’s Film Festival will be screening the movie “Real Women Have Curves”, a 2002 Sundance Film Festival winner based on the screenwriter Josefina Lopez’s life. Lopez will be available for conversation after the movie.
The screening begins at 6:00PM on March 12 at the Henry J. Mello Center. Tickets are free.
In addition to free tickets at the festival, other films, in English and Spanish, will be available to watch online beginning the day before, March 11.
