The Santa Cruz Sentinel is a daily newspaper published in Santa Cruz, California, covering Santa Cruz County, California, and owned by Media News Group. A city-hired consultant’s feasibility assessment and analysis report on creating a Santa Cruz Mobile Crisis Response program also is due in February.Newspaper in Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz Sentinelģ24 Encinal Street, Santa Cruz, California United States Renovations to the property’s hygiene bay and Paul Lee Loft also are due to conclude by February.Ī California Coastal Commission’s permit hearing of the city’s Oversized Vehicle Ordinance’s on-street overnight parking restrictions remains pending. In other updates, city Homelessness Response Manager Larry Imwalle told the council that the former 32-bed River Street Shelter is scheduled to be razed in February and that it will fill the vacant space with new “sleep cabins” at the Housing Matters campus on River Street. The city was granted $14 million in one-time state homelessness response funding this year and has budgeted spending nearly $16.6 million on related efforts through June 30. John Laird’s office, fellow county jurisdictions for increased shelter contribution assistance and consideration of local revenue opportunities. Huffaker said city staff has been seeking future funding help from state Sen. “We’ve made some tremendous progress this year and much of the work that we’ve been able to stand up is vulnerable without a sustainable funding stream.” “I do think the work that the team has highlighted today really underscores what we can accomplish when we have resources,” City Manager Matt Huffaker said. With the help of county partners, the city outreach team was able to advocate for and refer hundreds of individuals to mental health, medical, drug treatment and benefits assistance services, Leonard said. He recounted the city outreach team’s intervention in an estimated 50 separate overdoses that required a medical antidote in the past two years. Substance abuse, including the often deadly opioid fentanyl, has ravaged the streets of Santa Cruz, as it has nationwide, Leonard said. “For every story we hear about a couple like this, there are still, like, hundreds of people who are getting the abuse of law enforcement but not getting the help into housing,” Meisler said.ĭuring the afternoon presentation, fellow city homeless outreach worker Jeremy Leonard offered details of a darker side to local homelessness, which touches at least an estimated 2,299 individuals countywide and 1,439 within city limits, according to a single-day homeless point-in-time count in February. Because that, as we know it, is not always the case and it’s incredibly difficult work.”Ĭommunity member Reggie Meisler later criticized the city for helping to create some of the couple’s housing stability woes by not creating policies that cause police to ticket and tow vehicles in which individuals live. Clearly, by my getting so emotional, it’s been a privilege to help them finally get out of homelessness. “It means so much to me that I’m still in touch with this couple and have the opportunity to continually witness their successes. “Working with this couple to obtain housing reinforced the need there is for permanent supportive housing, but also for the need there is for more housing stabilization support,” Hernandez said. The city was able to beta test an “outreach module” update to the database to track 170 people out of an estimated 225 staying at the city’s San Lorenzo Park Benchlands encampment before its closure last month. An “active, supportive and transparent collaboration with other agencies” coordinated by the database is crucial, Hernandez said. Another key tool, she said, would be an expansion of the existing national database used to coordinate services, the Homelessness Management Information System, to include those living outside of traditional shelters. encampment for giving the couple the final leg-up it needed. SANTA CRUZ - Detailing the pathway of a local couple from homeless to housed, a Santa Cruz city outreach worker was moved to tears Tuesday.Īs part of a quarterly homelessness presentation to the Santa Cruz City Council, Monica Hernandez credited the city’s nearly year-old 1220 River St.
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