Temporary homeless camp expected to open in Santa Cruz

A temporary camp for the homeless community is expected to open in Santa Cruz by the end of this month.

The city recently hired Chris Monteith as a program director for the River Street Camp project and plan to have the new camp staffed 24 hours a day.

The site located at 1220 River Street has the ability to hold roughly 50 tents and 100 campers. There will also be hygiene, mental health, substance abuse and other services available to help get individuals integrated back into the community.

Monteith says the number one goal is to provide a safe and secure area for individuals without homes to feel comfortable, “What we’re looking to bring is a safe environment where we can provide services to some of our own house population who are not currently receiving services.”

The camp does not come with a cheap price tag. With full 24-hour staffing and services the city says they will be spending about $91,000 a month. “$53,000 of that is for staffing so as you can imagine since it’s 24 hours staffing it’s quite a bit of resources that are put towards that in addition to maintenance infrastructure and services so food and transportation, all of the hygiene services as well as maintenance are the additional $40,000,” says Principal manager analyst for the City of Santa Cruz.

The city plans to clear out the current Benchlands homeless encampment once this new camp is operating. They plan to keep the camp open four-five months until they can find a permanent facility.

“We plan to close the Benchlands at the same time we’re opening the River Street camp and there will be transportation that’s provided. We’re in the process of figuring out all those operations but there will be a lot of city staff as well as operator staff that will be helping with this,” says O’Hara.

The city is still hiring staff to help run the camp, to check out more about the job description click here.