Michelle Shoresman Michelle Shoresman

Together for a Stronger SLO

Together, we can help SLO thrive by creating diverse neighborhoods with access to nearby parks and services. We can build safe routes to schools for students who walk and bike and make housing more affordable so families that work in SLO can afford to live in SLO. We can expand open space and protect our environment by increasing access to affordable clean energy solutions. Together, we can make San Luis Obispo the best it can be.

The last few years have been tough on everyone. Homelessness has worsened during the pandemic. I’ll continue and improve collaboration within our region and among Central Coast communities to create more very-low income, emergency, and supportive housing for our hardest to serve neighbors. We can do this…if we do it together.

INCLUSIVITY

Our community’s ability to thrive depends on embracing differences and creating spaces that support diverse cultures, family structures, gender identities, abilities, and religious beliefs. Inclusivity is essential to resiliency, as well as encouraging economic growth and social success.

In my 20-years of experience with public health, I have learned that inclusive and equitable access to services is also inextricably connected to economic success and resiliency. It is well-documented that individuals without easy access to child care, healthy foods, transportation and exercise also suffer economically. For these reasons, I support:

  • Funding cultural events and public art that represents and celebrates gender and cultural differences.
  • Efforts to create a multicultural or diversity center in San Luis Obispo.
  • Changes in zoning requirements and other initiatives to make child care more accessible, and close to home and work sites.
  • Partnerships within the city to expand and support minority-owned businesses.
  • Initiatives that allow people from minority groups to be heard on issues that adversely affect them within the City of San Luis Obispo.
  • Efforts to build healing relationships between law enforcement and communities of color.

OPEN SPACE & THE ENVIRONMENT

San Luis Obispo is known for its clean air, hiking trails and conservation of beautiful open spaces. Our city is also a leader in environmental protection, as one of the first in the nation to embrace bold goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

As a mother, I want my son to inherit a San Luis Obispo that continues to preserve open space, reduce carbon emissions and build people-centric infrastructure and healthy neighborhoods where families can thrive. I believe active and mass transportation should be a priority so that people who are able can walk, ride or take the bus to basic services, child care and work. As a council member and former city planning commissioner, I have already furthered these goals by:

  • Approving an ordinance that requires new housing construction be 100% electric.
  • Advocating for increased funding for bikeways and pedestrian route connectivity as well as safe routes to schools.
  • Ensuring that all new, approved developments include easy, safe and plentiful bike parking and access to charging for ebikes and cars.
  • Supporting the conversion of the city’s bus fleet from gas-powered to electric buses and installing the charging infrastructure to support this conversion long-term.
  • Voting to adopt the Sustainable Groundwater Management Plan.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Everyone who works in San Luis Obispo should be able to live in San Luis Obispo. This means increasing the housing supply for residents at all income levels, whether you are looking to rent or own a home. As a council member, I will continue to encourage the City of San Luis Obispo to keep funding deed-restricted, low-income units and expand the important work being done by HASLO and other creators of low-income and supportive housing, while also encouraging builders to expand “missing middle” housing development.

As a planning commissioner and council member, I have voted to:

  • Recommend objective design standards to help streamline the building permitting process.
  • Approve financing for a 68-unit affordable rental project to be constructed and managed by People’s Self Help Housing on Bullock Lane.
  • Approve 94 affordable units for low-income families on Bridge Street to be built and managed by Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo (HASLO).
  • Approve “missing middle,” deed-restricted and mixed use commercial developments at 600 and 650 Tank Farm Road.

HOMELESSNESS

Housing the unhoused is a regional problem that demands regional solutions. I will work with regional and county partners to expand the range of housing opportunities for SLO’s unhoused residents, such as safe parking, shelters, tiny homes and other individual units, as well as assisted living for the aging and medically fragile.

Keeping people housed requires more than physical structures, however. In addition to housing, we must collaborate regionally to provide more mental health care, addiction treatment, dementia care, in-home assistance and help with other daily needs.

In my job with the County Public Health Department, I have worked in partnership with CAPSLO, Five Cities Homeless Coalition, ECHO, Transitions Mental Health Association and many other local agencies to provide health care assistance to unhoused people in need. I will continue to bring these connections and collaborations to the community, as a council member.

In my first year on council, I have:

  • Voted to provide more than $2 million to affordable housing, including a renovation of the Anderson Hotel and the Palm Street Studios (built by TMHA).
  • Collaborated with CAPSLO Homeless Services to help individual community members understand and navigate needed services.
  • Proposed language to the City’s Legislative Agenda related to homeless services, a document used to guide advocacy at state and national levels for things the city needs.
  • Approved the creation of a strategic plan for homelessness response within the City of San Luis Obispo.