We are Turning Housing Into Stability (THIS) House, a housing cooperative in a duplex in the the Grant Park neighborhood in Santa Cruz, California. In the summer of 2025, the owner of the house we live in informed us of his desire to exit the rental business and sell our home. Rather than face the competitive and exhausting rental housing market, the residents of THIS House approached the owner with a proposal: instead of selling to the highest bidder, give us an opportunity to purchase the property at a fair price and convert it to an affordable resident-owned and managed home. Thrilled at the opportunity to sell the home in a way aligned with his values, he offered us a new lease that included the right of first refusal to purchase the house. Since then, we have been working in partnership with the Monterey-based Opportunity Housing Trust to arrange financing, technical support, and legal advice to develop a permanently-affordable, resident-owned limited-equity cooperative.

Our decision to form this cooperative grew out of years of members' first-hand experience with displacement, high rents, and unstable housing arrangements, as both renters and advocates. Renters in Santa Cruz - the most expensive rental market in the US for three years running - face climbing rents year over year, limited rights against causeless eviction, and intense competition for few available rentals. Although Santa Cruz has several new large apartment buildings under development, most units available are offered at market rates unaffordable to the majority of working people and the affordable units under development are inadequate to house the number of people who need them.

Thanks for YOUR help!