Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom -- 309 Cedar St. PMB 14B --
Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060  (831)423-HUFF

Oct. 14, 2004

Dear Scott Kennedy,

As a candidate for City Council, HUFF is seeking your positions on
homeless issues. Please answer the following questions and send your
reply.  I will post your response to our HUFF contact list (about 72
people) and publish your responses on our website.

Since you are an incumbant, please explain some of the positions/votes
you took in the past four years.

 Thank-you,

Becky Johnson, HUFF facilitator

QUESTIONS:

1.  At the housing candidate forum, your proxy, Vice-Mayor Mike Rotkin
said that "the City is conducting itself the best that it can. We don't
want to be the only City in the country that says c'mon down and sleep
on our streets." We are aware from past encounters that you continue to
support MC 6.36.010 sections a and b which criminalize homeless people for
sleeping anywhere out of doors or in a vehicle between the hours of 11PM
and 8:30AM.  You have even suggested as recently as last January that the
Sleeping Ban is good for homeless people.  Do you think that repealing
the Sleeping Ban will result in a massive influx of homeless people
to Santa Cruz as Vice-Mayor Rotkin has suggested?  On what do you base
this opinion?  Can you name a single example of when this has happened?

2. Can you elaborate on how the laws which criminalize homeless people
for sleeping at night actually help homeless people to sleep, thrive,
or prosper?

3. Since, even with the new Family Homeless Shelter coming on line this
winter, the majority of homeless people (1500 - 3000) will not have legal
shelter either this winter, or next spring when the armory closes. Are you
satisfied with "more of the same" where homeless people who are sheltered
in a car or a tent or are simply sleeping out in the open will be cited,
arrested, and criminalized for attempting to shelter themselves?

4. The National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C. recently
released as study in which they claimed the average cost of prosecuting
a camping or sleeping ticket with our police, courts, and jails costs
the taxpayers $1000 per citation.  Do you think this cost is justified?
How does receiving a citation affect the individual's chances to climb
out of homelessness?

5. You voted for some of the most restrictive ordinances in the country
which affect primarily homeless people downtown. You voted to support
a ban on sitting on the sidewalk 14 ft. from a building.  At the time
you said you had "no problem" with the 14 foot restriction. You made it
illegal to ask for food after dark with a sign. You voted to "move-along"
political tables on Pacific Ave. after only 1 hours time, subject to a
$162 fine.  The combination of restrictive ordinances downtown make the
act of tossing your carkeys to your wife illegal!  Can you assert that
these ordinances are not selectively enforced against the poor, youth,
and homeless people?

6. You have repeatedly voted to restrict parking of vehicles all over town
by limiting parking to homeowners with permits, including NO PARKING
at all from between Midnight to 5AM in downtown residential areas.
You voted to make it illegal to park overnight in non-residential areas.
Do you support ticketing, arresting, and towing the vehicles of people
who have no other place to go and are forced, by economic necessity,
to sleep in their car?

7. What will you do to minimize homeless deaths in this coming term?
(Santa Cruz had 43 homeless deaths last year)

8. Will you provide a later bus for homeless people sheltered at the
National Guard Armory so that people who have jobs can use the service?
This is something you have previously promised but have still not
provided.

9  Below is the HUFF election platform of issues for which we are seeking
support. Can you comment on which items you will support, and provide
any comments on items you will not support?





HUFF election platform

  1.. immediate ending of the sleeping ban and blanket ban
  2.. opening up a carpark and a homeless campground as a temporary
  immediate solution
  3.. Opposing widening hwy one as it will take funds away from social
  services for homeless people
  4.. Support city-wide rent control and a just cause eviction ordinance
  5.. Supporting infill housing to create low cost units for housing
  6.. Eliminate the policy of using the "Broken Windows Theory" as a
  police model for enforcement
  7.. Modifying the camping ordinance to allow one vehicle per driveway
  such as Eugene, Or has done with great success
  8.. Rescind any laws which prohibit giving away free food in public
  spaces
  9.. Take proactive steps to see that police enforce all laws equally
  10.. Return the Citizens Police Review Board ---eliminated under
  Mayor Reilly