{"id":2719,"date":"2017-01-05T04:18:06","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T04:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/?p=2719"},"modified":"2017-01-05T04:18:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T04:18:06","slug":"shelter-expansion-investigative-scrutiny-contrasts-sharply-with-santa-cruzs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/shelter-expansion-investigative-scrutiny-contrasts-sharply-with-santa-cruzs\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelter Expansion & Investigative Scrutiny Contrasts Sharply With Santa Cruz’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTES BY NORSE:\u00a0 Santa Ana–a City that was the focus on extensive legal action on behalf of the homeless 25 years ago– has transformed a retrofitted bus terminal downtown into a 24-hour homeless shelter serving hundreds of people.\u00a0 Criticisms by those upset by the overcrowding, harsh treatment, and favoritism are chronicled below in these Voice of Orange County articles (see also the links in the story below).\u00a0 However apparently legal pressure and the (now unlikely) prospect of federal intervention (as happened in the Bell v. Boise case) did prompt a massive if typically off-target expenditure to open up what may be the largest shelter on the West Coast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Santa Cruz, in contrast, has essentially eliminated year-round shelter services at its Homeless (Lack of) Services Center. \u00a0 Gone are<\/span>both the emergency <\/span>shelter element (which was never more than 50 spaces) & the free meal aspect (shut down completely after June 2015)–actions that prompted the ongoing Freedom Sleeper demonstrations at City Hall. Fences, security guards, and ID cards have replaced the open campus practices of past years–apparently as a sop to NIMBY locals in the Harvey West Neighborhood Association and bigoted community groups like Take Back Santa Cruz.\u00a0 Disabled and ill clients have been literally thrown out on the street–to be subsequently hospitalized like Andy Carcero.\u00a0 Others have periodically <\/span>set up protest campsites outside demanding fair treatment.\u00a0 Mainstream and “alternative” media, unlike Orange County media, have paid no attention to the abuses at Coral Street and its slow steady descent into a prison-like posture. \u00a0 And for the thousands outside without even the possibility of shelter City Council throws money at police, rangers, and security thugs to “move along” disabled folks out into the rain from under the eaves of buildings. \u00a0 When will the simple realities of the presence of homeless people on the streets finally force authorities to abandon police-state tactics in favor of real resources?\u00a0\u00a0No time soon, I fear, without street and legal pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Homeless voices will be speaking out in the annual Homelessness Marathon January 19th<\/span><\/span> (http:\/\/news.homelessnessmarathon.org\/<\/a> ).\u00a0 For those interested in reading the (partial) Homeless Death toll in San<\/span>ta Cruz over the years, go to https:\/\/www.indybay.org\/newsitems\/2016\/12\/20\/18794863.php?show_comments=1#18795041<\/a> .
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By<\/span> Norberto Santana Jr.<\/a> 1-3-17<\/span><\/span>
http:\/\/voiceofoc.org\/2017\/01\/santana-focusing-homelessness-policy-is-biggest-challenge-of-2017\/<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s more important than ever this year that we stand by groups like the Midnight<\/span><\/span> Mission as we all try to do what\u2019s never really been done before in Orange County.<\/p>\n

Offer homeless<\/a> people a concrete strategy toward recovery.<\/p>\n

Yet we will all have to work together to find and finance our way there.<\/p>\n