<\/p>\n
Santa Cruz, Ca. — HUFF met today with a homeless couple today who had their adorable daughter, 8-month old Baby I, removed from them by the Santa Cruz County Child Protective Services, and placed in foster care.<\/p>\n
Her intact family had been living in their van, until a car accident put them on the streets. Without money or jobs, they were living day to day on donations from kind-hearted strangers mostly in motel rooms.<\/p>\n
Applying for help at the Homeless Services Center, the couple were told that the 3 programs they qualified for, 1 in Watsonville, the Mary,Joseph & Jesus program, & New Life Community Services were all full so they signed up on the waiting list.<\/p>\n
They made plans to apply the following week for services at the Rowland Rebele Family Shelter but were approached by a CPS worker who said she had received calls concerned about the family.<\/p>\n
Since Baby I’s father, who has been the mother’s partner for the past 12 years has been struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, CPS assigned the mother a service plan.<\/p>\n
At the well-baby check, a CPS worker told the mother a removal hearing was to be held in a Watsonville court at 9AM<\/span><\/span> a scant 12 hours later.<\/p>\n The mother told the CPS worker they had been able to find shelter at a private home in the Live Oak area of Santa Cruz, and had been housed for the past three days.<\/p>\n Despite that the CPS worker”forgot” to give her bus passes as she had promised, the mother was left to find her own way to the hearing.<\/p>\n Court documents claimed among other things that the couple had been offered housing but refused it.<\/p>\n At the hearing,Judge John Gallagher ordered Baby I removed from her parents and placed in foster care pending a hearing.<\/p>\n When the mother surrendered Baby I to authorities, the CPS worker told her she would need to find” different housing” as her current housing would not be acceptable. When she asked why, she was told the information was”confidential.”<\/p>\n Based on this and other findings, HUFF passed a resolution “strongly condemning the removal of Baby I from her parents by CPS because of their homeless status absent any abuse or neglect.”<\/p>\n Those wishing more information can contact Attorney Ed Frey at 831 479-8911<\/a> , Keith McHenry of Food Not Bombs at 831 515-8234<\/a> or Becky Johnson at becky_johnson222@hotmail.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[3,14],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}