SANTA CRUZ — In a recent report on homelessness, local authorities uncovered what one official called a “profound inequity” in how Santa Cruz County invests its dollars.
Human Services Director Randy Morris, referring to results of the county’s most recent single-day homeless point-in-time count, highlighted the funding disparity in a dramatic two-year decrease in the city of Santa of Cruz’s homeless population, even while Watsonville’s count ratcheted up 60% in a one-year comparison.
“There’s been a long history of less investment in services in South County and there is a profound and disturbing increase in unsheltered in South County,” Morris told the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors during a six-month homelessness update Tuesday.
Both Morris and Housing for Health Director Robert Ratner have responded to critiques of the single-day winter count as being unreliable by saying that it has federally mandated parameters — including time of the count — and may be an undercount, “but a consistent undercount,” according to Ratner.
The update included news that a major $8 million tiny-home homeless navigation center, dubbed Recurso de Fuerza and initially aimed at housing homeless individuals living along the Pajaro River in Watsonville who have and will be displaced for a river levee improvement project, has been delayed and “is not getting as developed as fast as we would like,” said Ratner.
Long-time small-scale homeless shelter provider Association of Faith Communities, however, “is able and willing to expand their rotating shelter and safe parking program in the South County, not just in the short term, but long term,” Ratner said. Association of Faith Communities Board Chairperson Judy Hutchinson confirmed an ongoing effort to recruit faith institutions to the effort while overcoming misconceptions, she said.
“We’re working on it,” Hutchinson said. “It’s taking a little longer than we thought it would.”
With the county’s Coordinated Entry database, which aims to connect people experiencing homelessness with available programs, involved staff are working to do what they can with limited funding, according to Ratner. He said the protocol is shifting toward providing immediate action for those entered into the system, rather than just adding them to a list.
“We only refer 150 to 200 people to permanent housing programs because that’s the resource turnover amount we typically have. So we tell people that now,” Ratner said. “We don’t want to give people false hope. So, we’ve got to then get people directed to other resources.”
Community member Carol Polhamus, speaking on behalf of the Santa Cruz neighborhood group Westside Neighbors, asked the board about the county’s progress in expanding safe spaces parking and examination of underutilized government facilities countywide for shelter use in each district.
“The city (of Santa Cruz) has stood up safe spaces but the county has not, instead providing funding to the (Association of Faith Communities), which provides limited overnight parking — and that’s good,” Polhamus said. “But it’s not low barrier. It requires insurance and registration to park.”
Calling permanent housing an “aspirational goal” and citing the county’s lengthy waiting list for government-assisted housing vouchers, Polhamus called for short-term solutions for shelter and free parking sites for homeless individuals. She added that “neighbors are tired of experiencing the consequences of inaction.”
Ratner responded that funding set aside in a coming three-year community program investment program includes a $1.5 million set aside for affordable housing and shelter, including $500,000 specifically for South County with legal assistance, one-time financial assistance and connection services to avoid displacement. The other million dollars, he said, will be used to fund shelter and safe parking programs countywide, especially when the money can serve as a local matching contribution for larger state and federal grants.