Santa Cruz County “All-In” on plan to reduce homelessness

The latest county surveys show there are more than 3,000 homeless people in Santa Cruz County, but Wednesday, an announcement was made that aims to change those numbers.

Dozens of people representing all types of community groups including law enforcement showed up for the “All-In” program announcement at the Aptos Blue housing complex.

The collaborative effort has taken a year’s worth of work from 300 people all over the county to come up with a plan to combat long term homelessness.

Part of the problem now is when a homeless person comes to a service provider, they are diverted to different agencies.

What”All-In” hopes to do is work to pin point the right help right from the start.

Experts in every field say they hope to build 2,000 housing units in the next couple of years throughout Santa Cruz County.

“We hope that we can bring the resources into our county to make all the recommendations real, but also use the resources we have right now smarter and better and more efficiently so that every penny is spent the best way it can be to end homelessness,” said Mary Lou Goeke, Executive Director of United Way of Santa Cruz.

Program participants say they have based a lot of the plan on what Los Angeles is doing, housing homeless first then taking care of any drug or mental health problems the person may have.

Santa Cruz Mayor Don Lane says some of the funding already existed in local governments, so that money will be shifted to places where it will be more effective.

Another large chunk comes from local churches, the United Way and other homeless organizations.

Business owner Dan Kraft said over the years he’s gotten to know some of the people who hang out near his business and has tried to help them.

“Coming out of their tents and meeting them, I was stricken by how real and needy and unselfish. And even to the point self-incriminating honesty and that changed how I looked at these people,” said Kraft.

Kraft has owned the Kraft Body Shop for 50 years and says although he’d like to something to help long term, it’s not fair to neighbors if they feel differently.

Last Saturday Sheriff deputies responded to complaints near South Rodeo Road and issued several citations. 39-year-old Jennifer Howard was arrested for having drug paraphernalia giving a false ID, and had an outstanding warrant.

“So that’s become an issue and we don’t let knowingly any criminals be down here. We’ve worked, we’ve cooperated 100% with the sheriffs department,” said Kraft.

“we have people camping and all that is done is they are moved somewhere else, we haven’t really gotten anywhere,” said Mayor Don Lane.