Santa Cruz County reveals draft roadmap to reduce homelessness
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION)
Santa Cruz County officials released a draft of a new strategic plan to address and reduce the number of homeless persons in the surrounding areas.
In 2018, Santa Cruz County counted more than two thousand homeless individuals living in the area.
That number will likely increase under another count expected in January.
Santa Cruz County Spokesperson Jason Hoppin says the county's goal is to reduce the number of unsheltered residents by 50 percent and reduce the overall homeless population by 30 percent by the year 2024.
Hoppin explains the county's main objective is to obtain more beds and housing for homeless residents.
“We can do that by preserving our existing shelter net work, if we can grow that shelter network a little bit more by about 160 beds over the next three years, provide about 360 slots for rapid rehousing and then an additional hundred units for permanent supportive housing...If we can do those three things we think we can reduce homelessness by about 50 percent," says Hoppin.
Local homeless advocate Keith McHenry says although he agrees with the county on the need for more beds and housing, he along with others who are currently residing in homeless camps do not believe the county's plan will work.
"The economy is clearly collapsing for most working Americans, we're already seeing an increased number of people becoming unhoused because of the pandemic, the strain on many businesses, people being laid off and running out of unemployment," says McHenry.
"There's going to be probably a doubling of the unhoused people in our county during these three years, so they would basically be playing catch up."
A major strategy in the county's plan involves having officials conduct an outreach to homeless communities around the area to collaborate possible solutions.
County officials say having input come directly from homeless individuals is what helped conceptualize this three year plan in the first place.
“We’ve had a lot of gaps in the past, we had a lot of gaps because people would, for example, go to the hospital and then they would be discharged from the hospital and they wouldn’t be connected to any services," says Hoppin.
"It’s going to take everyone working together, the county cannot do this alone."
McHenry says he feels the county should also consider immediate solutions.
“Showers, there could’ve been money spent on showers, it’d be wise to start building single room occupancy hotels and they should stop ticketing people, stop sweeping people and give them more time to stay where they are," says McHenry.
