Santa Cruz officials explore more shelter bed options as encampment closing date nears

The official vacate date for the homeless encampment near the Gateway Plaza in Santa Cruz is less than one month away.

City and county officials tell KION they are confident they will have enough bed space at shelters for anyone who wants one.

They have already handed out close to 20 vouchers for the VFW in Live Oak and say they are planning to do more out reach in the coming weeks.

“We have identified which beds we will use and which sites we will use. These are all models that have been in existence previously and sites that have been in use previously, so we expect this to be fairly smooth. There is a lot of work to do to get those stood up however so that is what we are doing right now,” says County spokesperson Jason Hoppin.

While they work at that, some people living in the camp right now say they don’t plan on leaving.

Michael Sweatt, who has lived at the encampment for a few months says he known of a new federal law that states if there are not enough beds for the homeless community then you cannot force them to leave.

“According to the law we don’t have to, they can come over here and tell us oh you have to leave today, but I am going to “that supreme court decision until I turn blue in the face. We don’t have to go anywhere because you don’t have the proper facilities house to house us,” says Sweatt.

City officials tell us they are aware of the ruling and are not currently enforcing an overnight camping ban.

Sweatt adds many homeless people do not like the shelters that are available because they are not open during the day and you have to be out at a certain time, “this is the thing that aggravates a lot of people that are homeless, is that you go to places like Salvation Army or different places like that and they are telling you okay you have to be up at 6 o’clock in the morning, you have to get out and stay out all day and find something to do.”

The county addressed the need for an all day shelter and says they are working towards building navigation centers in North and South County.

“It’s important to understand that the shelter plan is only a bridge, this will be a bridge from March 15 to approximately June or July 1 during the summer. We expect to have a navigation center set up. So this is a 24 seven facility where people can come and go and access services, charge their phones and they can store their goods there,” says Hoppin.