 My name is Maria Cadenas. I'm a proud resident of the City of Santa Cruz, a mom, a renter, an immigrant. And today I'd like to make my announcement as a candidate for Santa Cruz City Council. Most recently, I launched UndocuFund Monterey Bay, which was an effort to address the fact that due to the pandemic, many in the most harmed in our community will be undocumented workers. These are our neighbors who have lived here for 20 years. This is a time for us to have deep conversations about what being a good neighbor is. And that includes housing. As a city and as a region, our people need to be able to live and have a room of their own. We need to look at affordable housing. We need to look across income. But most importantly, we need to be willing to accept the fact that it will change our communities in order to provide housing and a roof for every single one of the people already living here. Neighbors who are currently overcrowded and single family homes deserve better. And I think we can do better. I'm running to provide a Santa Cruz for all because I know we can do better. I know that the future that we hold is available to all of us. I'd like to say that everything begins with love. As silly as it may sound, it begins there. We must connect to each other as people. As people and as neighbors. And start from there. The policies ahead have difficult conversations, but they are doable and they're manageable and we can get it done. This is a critical moment in time. Or we have to look at how we are investing to ensure that our budgets reflect our values. This is hard because comfort and habit are hard to break. But we have to do it. Just because we've done it so long for this way doesn't mean it's the right way. Let's refocus on our values, analyze our budgets and make sure that they reflect the communities that we want to be.