2020 Santa Cruz City Council Candidate
Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson
What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?
I look at every issue through the lens of equity. It is difficult to select only three but I would say racial and social inequities, economic recovery, and affordable housing are currently pressing issues facing santa cruz. These societal challenges are not new and are embedded in a long history of racism and poverty and very much present today. COVID has exacerbated these issues and shed further light on the systemic inequities that exist. Now is the time for us to find new openings for solutions and change. We must work together to drive that change.
Please name one city ordinance or policy that creates negative racial impacts? Will you work to change this ordinance or policy? How will you work to change it?
I will work to directly address any city ordinance or policies that create negative racial impacts. I will do this by inviting those who have been impacted to share their concerns, insights and work together to generate solutions. One tool that the city has recently adopted, and which I supported in its development, is the Health in All Policies (HiAP). HiAP is a quality of life framework and approach to policy making that integrates health, equity and sustainability considerations across sectors. For example, the recent decision to disallow street venders near the boardwalk was contentious and was met with outspoken pushback. This policy was viewed as one that created negative racial impacts, in particular to the street vendors who were predominately Latinx community members . Reasons named for the decision to discontinue vendors were due to COVID public health concerns. This is an instance that the HiAP framework could have come in handy to assess the decision from all lenses including racial equity.
What city council actions will you support to implement antiracism in policies, funding, training, hiring practices, partnerships or any other way within your power? Be as specific as you can.
I will support city council policies, funding, trainings, hiring practices and partnerships that support antiracist actions. The Health in All Policies again is a framework that will be an effective tool and was adopted last year for this very purpose-to ensure that equity is used as a lens in policy decision making. As a city, we can take specific actions including: analysis of staffing demographics to determine diversity gaps; hiring practices that are culturally responsive including effective outreach to Black, Indignous, People of Color (BIPOC) community members and hiring of individuals that are aligned with our values of equity and antiracism; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion trainings for every staff, commissioner and councilmember (this is an action that the city will start implementing as a result of the Health in All Policies adoption last year); and funding decisions that support BIPOC individuals, organizations and businesses. All of this will take deep listening and strong partnerships with BIPOC members of our community.
How would you effectively build a coalition to address issues of racial justice in Santa Cruz County?
I have spent all of my career in public health and social service on addressing equity and in many instances racial equity. I have accomplished this through community organizing, coalition building and partnership addressing equity issues such as: immigration reform, criminal justice reform, youth and young adult homelessnes, youth substance use prevention, and prevention of childhood obesity. Each of these issues disproportionately effect BIPOC community members. Although there are different tactics based on the varying topics, the foundations of engaging community are the same. To effectively build a coalition to address issues of racial justice in our community, I will support non-traditional, cross sector and cross county partnerships; transparency; cultural responsivity; integrity; and meeting each community where they are at. I will create opportunities to co-design and co-creation solutions with BIPOC community members to ensure they are relevant and address our community needs. Most recently I have done this around immigration reform. I secured a $3million dollar State grant for a community based organization that works on immigration rights. As part of these grant efforts, I was invited to lead the design, implementation, and panel moderation of a regional convening event on immigration. The convening was hosted by the Thriving Immigrants Collaborative and held in February 2020 and was attended by over 200 community members, elected officials, and providers. Although COVID hit shortly after, there have been two follow-up stakeholder meetings to move forward with actions identified at the convening event. As an elected official, I will stay engaged and active in implementation of actions generated by our community, and partner with organizations and county partners to ensure equitable access to resources to the immigrant population in our community.
How will you use your role on the city council to educate the community about racism in our city?
Racism must be explicitly exposed, in the everyday, if we are to dismantle it and rebuild a more just and equitable future. It is the everyday actions and conversations that fuel the larger societal narrative and system shifts. As a mom and a woman of color to biracial boys, I truly believe this starts at home. The conversations I have with my boys regarding the history of racial injustices in this country and in my home country help them understand the world around them and help them make different choices. One of my sons and I recently participated in the BLM mural project in front of city hall. The act itself was meaningful but it was the follow-up conversations the days after that were moments for learning and education. This is true for how our community can approach racism. I will not shy away from the topic of racism when it comes before the council and will call it out myself when I notice that policies, processes or systems perpetuate racism. As an elected official, I will not only expose and speak out against racism in our community, but I will work with the BIPOC community members to learn, grow, and amplify community led solutions.
What have you learned recently about your role in racism?
As an immigrant from Iran and a woman of color, I stand in solidarity with the global uprising to declare that Black Lives Matter and to end the centuries of racism embedded in this country and beyond. I have experienced racism first hand here in the United States, as a refugee in Germany, and a student in France. This includes name calling, bullying, and straight out refusal of services and housing. My husband and I, who is white, have experienced racism and have been the recipients of hate because we are in a biracial marriage. I am committed to actively reflecting on my own patterns of privilege and oppression. This includes reflecting on my Iranian culture and examining what biases are embedded in this culture. I have learned that in my home country, the predominant ‘ism’ and discrimination is around class, ethncity, and religion. Like racism in the United States, these ‘isms’ are rooted in centuries of structural and systemic discriminations. Understanding my history and cultural background provides me with insight on how I can address racism both personally and professionally. I have also learned that it is the everyday actions that impact societal narratives and systems that either perpetuate or dismantle racism. As elected officials and leaders in the community, we can take explicit actions both at the policy level and how we show up to shape our community response to racism.
What in your past record will give voters confidence that you will make substantial antiracist decisions on the Santa Cruz City Council?
As an independent consultant, I am selective about the projects I choose to invest my time in, and I choose projects that address equity and racism. Over the last 20 years, I have worked on community issues that address systemic racism, most significantly through my grant writing and community organizing efforts. I have secured millions of dollars in grant funding to support local juvenile justice reform efforts including: diverting and preventing Latinx and Black youth from criminal justice system involvement; addressing disproportionate minority confinement and disproportionate percentages of youth of color in the criminal justice system; creating a network to support BIPOC youth and families to prevent violence in their lives and their communities (the original funding for the Youth Violence Prevention Task Force); and funding to provide wrap around services for ‘low-level’ offenders who are often Black and Latinx. These projects include multi-pronged approaches that address systemic racial inequities by looking at and shifting policies and practices to address disproportionate rates of Black and Latinx youth and adults in our justice system; building the capacity of first responders, including police (for example, through implicit bias trainings), and increasing prevention, diversion, and treatment services (for example, I just secured a multi-million dollar grant that creates a hub for youth, in particular Latinx youth, to engage in prosocial activities while receiving prevention and diversion support). These projects have produced results for Latinx and Black individuals including decreasing recidivism, increasing community connectedness, and improving individual and family wellbeing. I have also worked on immigration rights, as described above, through grants, community forums, and leading staff retreats for organizations that provide this service. I choose to work on these projects because I care deeply about equity and dignity for all members of our community and am committed to dismantling racist societal norms and systems.
There have been numerous Grand Jury findings that point to a need for stronger City Council leadership. Do you support amendments to our City Charter that would help create a strong council and more oversight over city management as outlined in a recent Grand Jury Report, entitled “Failure to Communicate”? Why or Why not?
I have read through and delved deep into the recommendations of the ‘Failure to Communicate’ Grand Jury Report and agree that significant change is needed for us to not only function but thrive as a community. The last couple of years have demonstrated a need for internal policy and procedural changes to how the city council and staff conduct their work. The grand jury report provided 15 recommendations to improve city functioning. I believe that these recommendations are important to implement so that we may pursue a path of collaboration, solutions and action. I have built partnerships and facilitated difficult conversations in my work over the years. I know how to listen, hold multiple perspectives, find common ground and reach consensus. Our city has much work to do in the coming years and it will require a strong, functioning council and staff to work through our community challenges. I will contribute my experience and skills to help our city leadership unite and be in action around our city’s challenges.
Please share your concrete suggestions about how you will address the high cost of living and lack of affordability for average working folks.
We must take a holistic approach that includes addressing childcare gaps, availability of high waged jobs, food security, and affordable housing. With respect to affordable housing, I will focus on policies and programs that increase housing for a range of incomes, including very low, low, and middle incomes, for our community in alignment with our General Plan Housing Element and our Housing Blueprint.
Santa Cruz is in the midst of a housing crisis that is impacting the makeup and culture of our community. Housing is a public health issue and impacts many other societal challenges. By increasing affordable housing we will improve community well-being and allow our teachers, fire fighters, seniors, families, and vulnerable populations to live in their community. Affordable housing, including mixed use density housing very low, low and medium incomes, must be a priority for our city. Since 2000 Santa Cruz grew by 8700 people yet we’ve been losing young families and workforce-with 4550 fewer citizens ages 25-54 and 1340 fewer young children. This is our ‘missing middle’. Our response must be to build more affordable housing. Addressing accessibility and affordability will be key to the housing crisis we have here in Santa Cruz. As with many California Coastal communities, access to land is challenging. An essential step is to inventory available land held by city and county, churches, schools, non-profits or individuals for affordable housing projects. In these projects, we must support inclusionary housing and density bonuses to improve affordability. We can also expedite and streamline our permitting process for building housing and ADUs. Updating our outdated zoning ordinance to comply with the general plan and allow for effective housing projects will also be an important strategy. Additionally, there are bills in the State Legislature that will make it easier to build housing. For example, bills that make it feasible for school districts to use public land and affordable housing tax credit funding to build homes specifically for their own teachers and employees. I will be proactive and work with our state legislators to pursue these types of legislation. It will be important to work with the University to provide new housing units on campus for additional new students admitted and new staff and faculty members hired. The city council will also need to explore sources of funding to finance affordable housing projects. I will actively pursue State and Federal funding opportunities, something that I have had much success with, in my career as a grant writer. I will also explore use of the City’s Trust fund. I supported Measure H two years ago and when we come out of the recession and the time is right, we as a community need to pursue this type of ongoing source of funding. This will open up more State and Federal resources. Housing is one important component to address the high cost of living for working members of our community, but again, we must address other gaps-cost of childcare, lack of high waged jobs, and food security-to have a complete and effective response.Income inequality is one of the issues that creates difficulty in living in the city of Santa Cruz. Would you, as a City Council Member be willing to introduce and create a Universal Basic Income (UBI) pilot program. If so, how would you propose funding such a program? If not, why not?
According to a study completed by JPMorgan Chase Institute, roughly 89% of Americans see their income fluctuate by more than 5% from month to month. The goal of UBI programs is to fight poverty and inequities by decreasing some of the income volatility and allow people to better plan ahead while meeting their basic needs. I have learned that a coalition of 15 mayors in the United States including Stockton, Oakland, Long Beach and Los Angeles are piloting UBI programs. I would support our city joining that coalition to support those most in need in our community. As we are facing a $12million dollar city deficit and know that cuts are on their way, we must get creative in how we will fund this type of a program. It will take bringing in outside funding resources and learning from the 15 pilot cities about how they have been able to secure funding.
The homeless population in the City of Santa Cruz has been an issue for many years. The current Covid-19 pandemic is acutely highlighting the need for safe and humane housing as well as long term food and housing security. How do you plan to work with City, County, and community to address this both in the short and long term?
I have worked on the issue of homelessness over the last two decades-through direct service, policy, strategic planning, project coordination and grant writing. My work has included: providing direct service to formerly homeless adults living in subsidized housing in the Tenderloin in San Francisco; working on policy reform in San Francisco; successfully acquiring multi-million dollar grants to address adult and youth homelessness in Santa Cruz; leading a community strategic planning process to develop strategies and solutions to address youth and young adult homelessness in Santa Cruz; supporting the coordination of project implementation; and securing multi-million dollar competitive grants. Homelessness is a multi-layered complex issue that no one city or jurisdiction can solve alone. Continued City and County partnership is essential. As we rebuild our community from COVID and now the CZU Lightening Complex Fires, we must look ahead at addressing our homeless crisis. We have spent significant time and resources assessing the issue and identifying workable solutions over the last several years. It is now time to act. Some of the immediate and medium term actions that we must take include: hygiene stations-restrooms and showers (continue post COVID); case management and linkages through a navigation center; safe parking at faith based parking lots; protection against unsanctioned camping; support of evidence based result producing strategies (i.e. Rapid Rehousing programs); and continued and proactive community engagement. Each of these efforts should be connected to supporting individuals with a path towards permanent housing. Additionally, our community should work upstream to prevent chronic homelessness. The 2019 Point in Time count showed that 28% of the unhoused are unaccompanied transition age youth, many who are transitioning out of our foster care system. We must prioritize supporting this population through partnership with county and service providers.
A “housing first” model may not be possible as there isn’t enough permanent housing available to house houseless citizens. What do you suggest the city do for the thousands of homeless in Santa Cruz for the upcoming winter?
Every individual should have safe and secure shelter. The COVID crisis has given our community an opportunity to ‘think outside the box’ in responding to the immediate need to provide safe shelter for unhoused individuals. Since April, I have joined the County COVID emergency response team and co-led the effort to find safe shelter in place site for Transition Age youth experiencing homelessenss. Through partnership, we were successfully able to temporarily house 30 youth over a few weeks. Just in the last couple of month, three of these youth, (one who is a mother of an infant) have found permanent housing! It will be critical for our community to continue these efforts and ensure safe, supervised and sanctioned sleeping sites for individuals experiencing homelssness through the winter-for their own health and safety and to minimize public health concerns for neighborhoods and the community. Site options may include: church parking lots; church facilities; county and city facilities that are not being used due to COVID (i.e. Civic center, the fairground); school gyms and parking lots; and hotels (currently not being used because of COVID). This will take partnership with the county, and their leadership to utilize their structure and resources to address this immediate need. While we are addressing the immediate shelter needs, we must simultaneously link individuals to resources and a pathway to housing and pursue projects that increase our affordable housing stock
Are there aspects of the SC police contract that you think should be changed?
I will work with the current Mayor and Police Chief task force that includes Black community leaders to identify and implement changes in policies and practices that perpetuate racial injustices and redistribute funds to support prevention and diversion programming and staffing. Funds can be redistributed to support police training and supervision (e.g. implicit bias and how to divert individuals from incarceration by working with mental health professionals) and hiring clinical more social workers. I will also advocate for reforming current California State laws that limit the ability of local communities to investigate, supervise, and discipline police involved in negative behavior. While law enforcement and criminal justice reform are essential to addressing racial injustices we must also examine other systems that perpetuate systemic racial inequities. This includes education and health. A holistic approach is necessary to address the systemic racial inequities that have been brought to surface in recent months.
Given that the SCPD spends over 1/4 of the entire city’s 2020 budget on policing (estimated 30 million of 107 million total budget) and over half of the SCPD’s budget is spent on homelessness issues. Would you as a city leader support shifting at least 5% ($1.4 million) from the current police budget toward creating actual solutions to homelessness? Why or why not?
Some police functions would be better handled by other departments, such as health services, and in those situations, the Police Department budget would be reduced. Our city has been impacted by social conditions such as homelessness, substance abuse, and mental health, that diminish quality of life for our community residents, including those individuals who are experiencing these conditions. I have worked in the public health and social service field for the last 20 years and understand the challenges these social conditions bring for individuals and the community as a whole. Our city can’t and shouldn’t address these issues alone. It is essential that we work with our city and county system partners including law enforcement, public health, human services, and the Board of Supervisors to develop and respond with effective solutions. Our city can and should implement policies and programs that make better use of our police force while decriminalizing the symptoms and manifestations of mental health and substance abuse. Some of the initiatives that I will prioritize and support include:
● Expanding our police and social worker partnership by investing in additional social work liaisons
● Supporting our local law enforcement in obtaining the trainings and tools they need to address these issues
● Partnering to support programs such as navigation centers, that lead to a pathway to housing
● Partnering to support programs that provide substance use and mental health services
● Seeking State and Federal resources to fund these programs --We can reduce cuts to any department if we really focus on bringing in outside resources. This is something I have done successfully over the years.
As we address the immediate needs of our community, it will be important to have a holistic approach and work upstream by investing in the well-being of our youth-including addressing substance use prevention, early care and education, youth and young adult homelessness, and juvenile justice reform. These are all areas in which I have brought in grant funds, led strategic planning efforts, developed local policies, and led community collaboratives.Would you support creating an alternative 911 call line in a Cahoots-style triage system to address the mental health crisis, drug overdoses, and wellness checks as is now being done in Eugene, Oregon? If not, what other ideas do you have?
I would support an alternative 911 call line that is aligned with the Cahoots program, which has received strong support in various communities across the States. Locally, our Santa Cruz County NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) has supported it. I have worked on mental health and substance use for over two decades including securing grant funding to support community organizations that provide behavioral health services. When communities do not invest in these services, the results are criminalization of individuals experiencing mental health and substance abuse. Investing in experienced and trained clinical staff that can address these behaviors is essential. In the City of Santa Cruz, we have two clinical social workers that work with our local police department. We also have a probation ‘one stop shop’ center that provides clinical mental health support. I have successfully secured grant funds for these types of programs in our community. As an elected official, I will continue to support investments in upstream programs that divert individuals from the criminal justice system and connect them to much needed behavioral health care. This will take partnership with our local police department, Sheriff’s department, probation department, health services agency and community-based organizations. I have strong relationships with each of these entities and have helped strengthen partnerships between them in the past.
For the tenants living at the Tannery Arts Center who share the neighborhood with the homeless encampments along the river, calls made to the police are often met with hours and hours of wait time before assistance arrives. Many of these calls are concerns with domestic violence and drug abuse along the river and adjacent to the residential buildings. What do you believe is a solution to the lack of will to address the Tannery residents’ concerns for their neighborhood and the children who live there?
Our city can and should implement policies and programs that make better use of our police force while decriminalizing the symptoms and manifestations of mental health and substance abuse. Some police functions would be better handled by other departments, such as health services. As mentioned earlier, one strategy would be to expand our social worker partnership by investing in additional social work liaisons. It will be essential that as city leaders we help facilitate an open, transparent and inclusive dialogue between community members and our local law enforcement.
Where do you stand on the new library/garage?
I support this project whose approval was based on the unanimous recommendation of the council committee that studied the concept for a year. It will directly bring 50 new apartments, facilitate the development of additional affordable apartments, replace downtown parking for local businesses, and create a first-class library for youth, families and seniors
Now that the City of Santa Cruz has just finished the historic painting of the Black Lives Matter street mural what are the top three actions you want to achieve in fulfilling its objectives with tangible policy changes and accountability towards equity, inclusion, and justice.
The time is not to take action and implement tangible policies and processes that help our community reach our equity, inclusion and justice goals. Top three actions include:
● Ongoing trainings for law enforcement to move the BLM agenda forward-i.e implicit bias trainings.
● Identify and shift policies and practices within our departments that perpetuate inequities and injustices (i.e. as was done with getting rid of predictive policing)
● Anti-racism trainings for every staff, councilmember and commissionWhat resources are you aware of that are being given out to the BIPOC community to ensure that our health, investment in businesses and quality of life are on par with the white population? What will you do while serving on the city council to guarantee this?
As a community, we must co-create strategies with Black, people of color, women and other marginalized groups. We can do this through culturally responsive outreach and engagement. Our outcome will be diverse leaders, innovators, workers, entrepreneurs, and creative problem solvers who will help move us towards community prosperity. If we truly want a diverse, inclusive and equitable community, we must remove barriers and expand opportunities for social and economic mobility for Black, people of color, and women. The city plays an important role in making this happen.
Some strategies may include:
● Working upstream by increasing financial security and assets through children’s and matched savings accounts.
● Targeting economic development of inclusive businesses within high-opportunity industries (such as the tech industry).
● Leveraging procurement and contracting to help entrepreneurs of color and triple bottom line businesses (i.e. social enterprises)-both of which are more likely to include workers of color.
● Increasing access to financial services and supports for prospective first time business owners who are from marginalized communities.
● Removing administrative barriers.
Additionally, several community based organizations are pursuing their missions to support the BIPOC community. This includes Community Health Centers, Thriving Immigrants Collaborative, Community Bridges Family Resource Centers, to name a few. As a city, we can deepen our partnership with these organizations and support their efforts.What is your top priority for our SC Youth, specifically the Black students who statistically are not graduating at the same rate as their white counterparts?
We must work upstream and start early. When we prioritize and focus on programs and activities that create healthy environments and alternatives for our youth, we invest in the future of our community. Specific strategies that will support Black students succeed and thrive include:
● Ensuring strong early care and education (I have supported through multi-million grants for our Head Start programs-which are often utilized by Black and Latinx families; and led our county’s early care and education strategic plan);
● Having policies in our community that make the healthy choice the easy choice for our youth, in particular those living in low-income neighborhoods (for example-decreasing alcohol outlet density ordinances (which is correlated to community violence in low-income neighborhoods), cannabis regulations, healthy food market ordinances- I have worked on all of these policies with our cities and county)
● Diverting youth from living on the streets (I have supported through securing grant funding and strategic planning)
● Supporting families by providing resources, parenting workshops, and wrap around services (I have supported through securing grant funding)
● And juvenile justice reform (I have supported through securing grant funding)
The school to prison pipeline is very real in the United States and here in our community. Recently I worked with a community based organization, juvenile probation and the County Office of Education to support the design, funding and implementation of diversion programs that utilize a targeted universalism approach to work with youth who may be on the path to justice involvement. This includes a program that provides counseling and family support to youth who have low GPAs and/or high absenteeism (both indicators of not graduating and often justice involvement in the future). Another program, which we just heard we received funding for, is creating a community hub in South County for youth and families to receive case management, linkages to resources, special events, and a safe physical space to convene (adjustments are will made to address COVID safety requirements). Essential to all of these efforts is authentic inclusion and voice of BlPOC youth. I have led focus groups with youth, co-created and led strategic planning strategies with youth, and really listened to their insights and wisdom as I do my community coalition work. Again, our city cannot do this alone. We must strengthen our cross county and cross sector partnerships to create the community we want for ourselves and future generations.