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No Place Like Home Event

On October 19 at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, over 600 people gathered to hear findings from a study McKay and his colleague Miriam Greenberg led about housing in Santa Cruz. For the past two years, the two sociology professors – joined by a team of 200 undergraduate students – gathered data about what living in Santa Cruz is really like. Greenberg and McKay collaborated with organizations that serve a diverse range of county residents, particularly some of the most vulnerable populations, including the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, Community Bridges, and California Rural Legal Assistance.

The result is No Place Like Home, an interactive website that culminates Greenberg and McKay’s research.

Photos by Melissa De Witte.

  • Byers
  • Joni White
  • No Place Like Home door mat
  • No Place Like Home poem: You can hear when people hit the walls. When they whisper through the walls. Birds sing through the walls. Wind blows through the walls. You pay for the walls, but the walls are thin. The walls are white. Am I spelling that right? You pay for the walls but you don't get to keep them. You can paint them but they will paint them over. I like it here. Why are we leaving? Why are we leaving? Where are we going? Raccoons in the trash cans grunting and moaning. No it's not gonna get you. It's just the walls. Deep breaths through the walls. Water runs through the walls. Power lines buzz. In the winter you can see your breath. Let's hope the house doesn't spit us all out. The wind ripped the roof off the patio. Anyway the walls are thin.
  • 2 people
  • 2 people
  • 1 person
  • Sociology professor Miriam Greenberg
  • Alum Thomas Gelder
  • What does home mean to you? poster
  • Sociology professor Craig Reinarman (left) and Steve McKay (right)
  • What is your biggest housing problem? poster
  • How do we fix this? poster
  • How do we fix this? poster
  • 2 students
  • People talking
  • Sociology professor Steve McKay talks with students.
  • 3 students
  • 1 student
  • What are solutions to the housing crisis? poster
  • Dean of the Social Sciences Division Katharyne Mitchell
  • What makes you feel at home? and How much do you pay for housing? posters
  • Joni White and Hilda Chow
  • 2 students
  • Several dozen community organizations tabled at the event.
  • People at information tables
  • People tabling
  • Home Is... poem
  • Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County
  • Community Studies professor Mary Beth with Environmental Studies professor Andrew Szasz
  • Student Union Housing Working Group and Students United with Renters
  • Enrique
  • 1 person
  • “We can get caught up in [the statistics], overwhelmed by them, even paralyzed by them. We did this project because we felt numbers are not enough. We wanted to understand broader questions: how are renters are experiencing this unprecedented situation? How are people creating home in a housing crisis? How can we understand the roots of the crisis, and possible responses to it?” said Sociology professor Miriam Greenberg
  • Over 600 people gathered to hear findings from a study McKay and his colleague Miriam Greenberg led about housing in Santa Cruz - a place considered to be one of the least affordable places to live in the United States.
  • Gretchen Dumas and Liliana Garcia from the CLRC
  • What are solutions to the housing crisis? poster
  • Policy changes that would address the housing crisis: poster
  • How do we fix this? poster
  • Describe Santa Cruz in one word poster

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