Sarah Montoya

👋🏼Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a mom of 3 and renter in San Francisco. 🌁 My husband grew up in San Francisco and I moved here when I was 24. After moving around every 2-3 years of my life SF was finally a place I could call home. My family of five started in a sweet one bedroom apartment and we are incredibly grateful for our home we now rent, but San Francisco needs to do better. San Francisco deserves affordable homes for everyone and we can have them- if we expand development and actually build multi family homes and mixed use buildings that normal people can live in. I’m incredibly grateful that after 2 moves and one abusive landlord my current landlord is family and she is committed to never evicting us, but being a tenant means I’m not building equity: I’m not providing for my kids future, I’m only maintaining stability in their present. Growing up never really fitting in I have found my home in San Francisco and my husband grew up here - being close to family is worth the sacrifice for us, but we shouldn’t have to make such a huge sacrifice just to live close to aging family and have family support. My husband is a teacher and I work in nonprofit, we both have masters degrees and jobs: we should be able to own a home. With the median home price $1.48 Million- families need an income of $404,000 to own a home. That’s a $10k a month mortgage! According to Zillow income needed to comfortably afford a home is up 80% since 2020, while median income has risen 23% in that time. The housing shortage is a self created problem and we can fix it. We can lower the cost of homes and without hurting the invest current homeowners have made. We need to build and we need to do it now. Cities cannot thrive without families. Cities cannot thrive without teachers, social workers, baristas, librarians, principals, janitors, and grocery clerks. Communities need middle income and low income workers, and those workers need stable homes. I love San Francisco and I want her to thrive ❤️ If you feel the same way I do I encourage you to check out what @yimbyaction is doing to #endthehousingshortage Save and share because stories matter ❤️

Last week I learned that there are over 94 MILLION mom voters 🗳️ Fantastic Humans, that is not a small number!!! We can make HUGE CHANGES to our country by voting with the LOVE of a Mother. We can protect trans kids, end gun violence, educate and feed children!! We can have childcare, elder care, and healthcare!! Our children can be safe out in the world. We can have walkable streets and access to nature. We can put an end to climate change. ❤️Moms we can make all of this happen❤️ It’s a long but quick road to November and it’s time to get to work. Shirt: @allianceofmoms Source for 94M mom voters @momsrising Mom Power Boot Camp #MomTheVote

🌎Hapy Earth Day Weekend🌍 (also 4/20 - so be prepared for crowds) 🌁Save and share this list for an AMAZING Weekend full of fun and secondhand sales!!! Friday Friday Film at the Crossing The Parent Trap 5:30 Saturday 2024 “Bug Day” at Randall Museum: Insect Olympics, Bug Treats & Live Music (SF) 10-2pm SF’s 1st Ever GG Park “Field Day” w/ Free Kickball + Volleyball Tournament (2024) 10-4pm Golden Gate Park (Robin Williams Meadow) Book Inc Warehouse Sale Books Inc. Opera Plaza 10- 5pm SF Earth Day Celebration: Free Carousel Rides, Live Music & Giveaways (Yerba Buena Gardens) 10-3pm Buffalo Exchange’s Earth Day $1 Sale (Haight & Mission Dist) 11-8pm SF’s “Secondhand Saturday” Outdoor Market w/ Sunset Mercantile (2024 Kickoff) 10-4pm Free National Parks Day: Muir Woods + Yosemite for National Park Week 2024 7am-9pm Free Sail Boat Ride Day: Treasure Island Sailing Center’s Opening Day 2024 10-3pm Sunday 2024 San Francisco Earth Day Festival, The New Farm, 10 Cargo Way 11-7pm Bernal Heights Earth Day Stroll 2024, Bernal Heights Branch Library 11-3pm Earth Day Celebration at SF’s Botanical Gardens 11-2pm All Weekend SF’s 2024 Cherry Blossom Festival (April 13-21) Japantown Peace Plaza 11-6pm (Parade on Sunday) “Cary Lane” Haight St. Sample Sale: 40-80% Off (April 20-21) 11-6pm EarthFest 2024 at the San Francisco Zoo & Gardens (April 20-21) $31* ❤️Follow @sarahromontoya for all your San Francisco Family Fun planning!

🎢My family LOVES @cagreatamerica and right now is the sweetest time to go! 🎡Save and Share! They are celebrating Peanuts with characters roaming the parks, special shows and fun decorations. This little hug to start the day was the cutest moment!! AND right now tickets are kid prices for EVERYONE! That’s $39.99 per person! If you’ve never been they have a range of rides for all ages, food and games. The water park opens May 25th. We absolutely love it! 🚙Parking is $25 🌭There are tons of food options but they aren’t cheap ☀️Wear sunscreen and a hat - there ain’t much shade 💧And bring a water bottle! There are refill stations throughout the park 🚶🏽‍♀️Plan on walking a lot and wear comfortable shoes! 👶🏼Planet Snoopy is perfect for your little ones! They have rides my 4 year olds loved! Follow @sarahromontoya for more Bay Area Family Fun!

This Spring Break was rough on our family- last week I needed to travel for my grandmother’s memorial and my emotional health- which meant I couldn’t take time off for my daughter’s Spring Break and she had to go to camp. This week I was working during while my husband and twins were off. Out of respect for sissy they didn’t do anything extraordinary - which honestly made it pretty hard for them to feel excited about the time off. My husband is a teacher and needed the mental break but didn’t get it because I was working and he was parenting. We chose not to put the boys in camp because the cost is too high - especially when one parent is technically able to stay home. All of this basically just highlights how much of a transition my family has gone through since I returned to full time work and no longer work for myself. I left the full time workforce when my twins were born because we couldn’t afford childcare for 3 under 2 - that and pumping at work for twins felt impossible when the “pumping room” was in a different building and by the time I walked to the room I had already used my allotted 20 minute break. People often talk about the years that moms stay home as a luxury and although I did appreciate the time with my kids it never felt luxurious to know that we weren’t making the money we needed to provide for a family in the way we needed, but the alternative was actually spending more money than I earned on childcare. I’m not complaining about the past two weeks. I’m incredibly grateful for all the people that have showed up for me and for my family as I have taken care of my emotional health while grieving my grandmother, and as I have prepared to go to the @momsrising Mom Power Boot Camp to train me to be a better advocate for other moms. I have been beyond impressed with the way my husband has stepped up and sharing the mental load since I started working full-time in August. And still our working systems and our education systems are not set up to support families. Despite the fact that society cannot exist without families; community can exist without corporations, humanity cannot exist without families. #carecantwait 📸 @ksienkphoto

Last week I flew to Dallas to say goodbye to my grandmother one last time. She passed away at the end of December while my son was having a horrific recovery from getting his tonsils out. I flew out for the church memorial but at no point in the past 3 months have a felt I had the time or space to talk about her and grieve her the way I needed to. So I flew into Dallas a few days early before driving to East Texas to spread her ashes. When I think of my grandfather I always think about nature and as much as she loved nature when I think about grandma I think about her elegance. I think about the way she hosted with fresh and beautiful decorations every season. I think about how well put together she was, and all of her fantastic, colorful jewelry. And I think about being on the phone with her as a young single woman in my 20s moving to the big city of San Francisco and having her be the person who understood what it was to leave home and make a new life in the city. After getting married at the young age of 16, my grandmother who grew up on a farm ended up as a single mom to four kids in Dallas. She would reminisce with me about waiting at bus stops, and the adventure of figuring out life as a single woman in the city, and I always felt that it was such grace that she would imagine that what I was doing was anywhere near as hard as what she had done. She believed in me desperately, and I was so incredibly grateful. I have vivid memories of my grandmother and grandfather taking us to Reunion Tower. My sisters let me know we apparently only went once, but it felt so special I had to go back. What better way to remember my bold and brave grandmother than a night out in the city? I ate steak in honor of my grandfather and wore my grandmother’s necklace. I cried with @suzanneholsomback sharing the pain of loosing my safest people, loosing the people who could see me the most in the world, the people who taught me to adventure and love life. Grief is strange and hard and I’m not ready for them to be gone. Happy Birthday Grandma ❤️ Restaurant @crownblockdallas in @reuniontower Art @dallascontemporary Hotel @canvasdallas booked through @groupon