18 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JANUARY 15-21, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com world, it’s where the highest return is expected,” Simon says. About 200 investors have provided the money in the New Way fund, approximately $12 million. They include local foundations, a health care network, local banks and private individuals. They invest their money into the fund and receive a return of 4.25-percent interest over 10 years. So far, these efforts have resulted in the completion of a 12-unit transitional housing project in Oakland and seven units of permanent supportive housing in a historic Santa Cruz Victorian home. The 121-unit permanent supportive Harvey West Studios in Santa Cruz is under construction, after New Way Homes owned and funded the pre-development of the project, then transferring it over to owner-operator Housing Matters. There are more units planned in Oakland and Santa Cruz, some of which have been approved and have development applications submitted. Another project Simon is involved in through Workbench, in collaboration with real estate firm CRP Affordable, is a 100-unit, 100-percent affordable apartment building currently under construction in Scotts Valley, slated for completion in 2027. Simon and his team are also working on a project in Salinas that might have already been built by now, had fate and market conditions not intervened. When Simon began the quest to build a 100-percent affordable apartment building at 467 and 459 East Market St. in Salinas, the plan was to build it using only private capital, no government subsidies. He had to pivot after the cost of construction materials soared to an estimated 60-percent higher than pre-pandemic levels and a leaking underground gas tank that didn’t exist on any land records was uncovered. “The fundamental problem now is that it’s too expensive to build. The state legislature solved the problem that most of the housing we needed wasn’t legal to build. Now it’s legal—it’s too expensive,” he says. “It breaks my heart…Fundamentally, you just can’t build most types of housing in Salinas and not lose money right now.” The project is relying on government support—so far it used a $2 million state grant to clean up the underground leaking gas tank. Simon reported to the Salinas City Council in September that they’re drawing up new plans—the first set of plans became too expensive to build, exceeding $40 million, not including other costs like financing. The forthcoming plans will include more than 75 affordable units, from studios to three-bedroom apartments, plus commercial space featuring a kitchen incubator with El Pájaro Community Development Corporation. Through Envision Housing and Workbench, Simon relied on provisions in two State Senate bills, SB 423 and SB 330, that streamline the approval process, where city planners approve the final plans, instead of going through public hearings. Despite having to abandon using private investment only for the Salinas project, Simon is still committed to building housing that is less expensive without using government subsidies, which can be difficult and time-consuming to obtain. “There’s 40,000 units of [affordable] homes approved in California, waiting for tax credits and competing year after year. The bottleneck is not the development side of getting projects going,” he says. “The bottleneck is the amount of money and public funding, and it’s very expensive.” Funding is one piece of the equation. Another piece is in the hands of local governments. Salinas architect and founder of the Salinas Planning and Research Corporation (SPARC), Peter Kasavan, believes the city has the capacity to build more infill projects, but it will take changes when it comes to land use policy and the costs of development permits and fees. “The important thing is the government, or the city in charge, has great influence on all three of those areas. There’s an opportunity to ameliorate some of the headwinds to the housing crisis,” Kasavan says. Through SPARC, Kasavan, with the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce, organized the Salinas Community Housing Action Plan forum on Thursday, Nov. 20, focused on individuals creating infill projects in their own neighborhoods by taking underutilized and vacant properties and creating multi-unit projects of smaller, lower-priced homes and rentals. Kasavan opened the forum by pointing out that Salinas has some of the highest-priced housing in the country. “How do we allow that?” he asked. “The [Salinas City Council] can’t solve this by themselves. The [city] staff can’t solve it by themselves, and the community can’t solve it by themselves, but together we can solve it.” Kasavan is now turning his attention to pressing the city for zoning and land use changes, which could allow for smaller units and higher density in some neighborhoods, making it easier to build infill projects and homes on smaller lot sizes. “For instance, the zoning code calls for single-family residences to be on minimum lot sizes. Plus, you would have to have a garage for two cars,” he says. “So we can’t afford to house our people, but the old zoning code wants us to house cars.” The city’s permitting process also needs revamping, he says. “Permitting is particularly onerous in the City of Salinas, and it doesn’t need to be. We need to reduce barriers.” He hopes that changes at the city, combined with the entrepreneurial “There’s an opportunity to ameliorate some of the headwinds to the housing crisis.” Below left: Peter Kasavan inside his Salinas architecture office. Right: Kasavan has designed a number of civic-minded projects, including the downtown Salinas arch and the Ted Taylor Ag Vocational Center at Rancho Cielo. DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS
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