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Santa Cruz City Council names homelessness, housing and infrastructure as 2025 lobbying priorities
Summary
The City Council adopted a focused legislative program that identifies homelessness response, affordable housing and infrastructure as the city’s top advocacy priorities and reaffirmed a broader six-area platform to guide state and federal engagement.
The Santa Cruz City Council on Jan. 28 adopted a 2025 legislative program that directs city staff and its state and federal lobbyists to prioritize homelessness response, affordable housing and infrastructure in advocacy to Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
The program, approved unanimously, also reaffirms a broader legislative platform covering transportation and infrastructure, sustainability and resiliency, public safety and community well-being, economic vitality, and housing policy. Councilmembers said the narrower set of priorities will give the city more leverage when pursuing funding and legislation.
Councilmember Chris Newsom, who moved the motion to adopt the priorities, said the three topics reflect “top of mind” issues for voters and municipal operations. “I support this direction and the legislative platform as well,” Newsom said when he introduced the motion. The council voted 7–0 to adopt the priorities.
The presentation before the vote included briefings from the city’s federal and state lobbyists. Federal lobbyist Chris Giglio described a recent White House memorandum that temporarily paused some federal grants and loans, and advised continuing to engage with congressional offices on outstanding awards. State lobbyist Amy Jenkins outlined the governor’s January budget blueprint and flagged large, near-term state shifts in response to recent wildfires; she urged cities to watch May budget revisions for new funding opportunities in climate resilience and disaster preparedness.
Councilmembers used the discussion to request more specificity for staff’s outreach. Vice Mayor Kalantari Johnson asked staff to track behavioral-health funding and implementation of state behavioral-health programs as they relate to homelessness. Councilmember Golder urged the addition of wildfire mitigation and homeowners insurance issues under public safety and resiliency advocacy. Several members also asked staff to monitor and push for funding streams that are measured on a per-capita basis, not only on point-in-time homelessness counts.
Staff said it will finalize a written legislative program that incorporates the council’s refinements and circulate the document to commissioners, department directors and the city’s lobbyists. The council intends to use the narrowed priorities to focus legislative trips and grant-seeking efforts while preserving the ability to comment on bills that fall within the adopted platform.
