City of Santa Cruz declares a homeless shelter crisis

“That’s what it boils down to out here. Just keep trying to keep yourself fed, clean and dry and warm. Yeah, crisis. That’s a good word,” Wes, a Santa Cruz homeless man, said.

Its a feedback loop for many at the Benchlands. A center for the homeless problem in Santa Cruz.

The city on Tuesday night, declared a Homeless Shelter Crisis.

Nothing has changed in the last week, but the declaration opens more options to deal with the problem.

“We have seen an increase in our city. And we are finding that we need to respond differently. Innovate. Try different mechanism. So this is a tool we can use to find new shelter
for these people in need” Assistant City Manager, Tina Shull, said.

The most recent point in time count showed more than 12-hundred homeless people living in Santa Cruz, with 80 percent of them unsheltered. That’s a large gain over 2015.

“Allow us to modify some health safety and housing codes and create an alternative set of basic
minimum standards, which we would still maintain to expedite the shelter,” Shull said.

At the homeless camp Tuesday, I probably saw a dozen or so out, but many more were in tents. They would rather be elsewhere.

“And you don’t really have a lot of time to go to the agencies and apply for housing. The waiting list is super long,” Wes said.

I heard from one homeless man of more than 40 years. He says he understands the impact on the community too.

“Instead of having the same pattern of having people at a park, it makes it where people don;t want to bring their kids here, because you don’t know what these people are doing,” Stanton Wells said.

The city’s plan is a three-pronged approach. Take people off the street, into campgrounds, then eventually a permanent site.