Waiting at the Homeless Services Center on River Street. Photo by Chip Scheuer.
When the Shelter Project’s Paul Brindel heard about the proposed changes for homeless services in the aftermath of the murder of 38-year-old Shannon Collins, one concern echoed through his head.
“I hope that as a result of this horrible crime, homeless people will not find it so much harder to find legal, affordable shelter,” says Brindel, the Community Action Board program director who will be retiring this year after 30 years of service.
Brindel, like most people, was shocked by the stabbing allegedly carried out by San Francisco transient Charles Anthony Edwards III, who spent four nights at the Paul Lee Loft, the part of the Homeless Services Center reserved for individuals. But Brindel calls the incident “a law enforcement issue and a mental health issue,” not a “homeless issue,” and worries about a community backlash.
Last week, three members of Santa Cruz City Council proposed a new eight-point list of suggestions, including a provision barring any new homeless facilities. That particular suggestion is a step Brindel is calling unnecessary—especially considering the data shows the majority of Santa Cruz County’s homeless population is from the area.
But the councilmembers say changing local homeless people’s access to services is not the goal.
Councilmember Ryan Coonerty, who outlined the proposals along with Vice Mayor Hilary Bryant and Councilmember Lynn Robinson, says the city already serves more than its fair share of the county’s homeless. He says the city is stretched too thin to dream of putting in new shelters.
“The city of Santa Cruz has far and away the most facilities in the county, which has an impact between the jail, the Homeless Services Center, Emeline [Avenue clinics] and a number of other smaller facilities,” Coonerty says. “We think the other jurisdictions need to share in both the location and cost of these facilities.”
Not all of the new proposals affect homeless shelters. Other items on the list include expanding a program that provides bus fare to send transients where they have family or support and asking the county jail to return prisoners to their communities of origin, instead of just releasing them onto Water Street. Other proposals would ensure a closer relationship between shelters and police.
Homeless Service Center Boardmember Claudia Brown says the shelter was already moving in this direction. “These ideas are, as far as I’m concerned, really good,” Brown says. “They’re things we had been working on anyway. We want to keep our campers and the city as safe as possible because we are serving some of the most vulnerable people in the county.”
Councilmember Katherine Beiers, who also serves on the board, says all of the proposals are fine but says the rule barring any new facilities is an odd one, even if the city doesn’t have the funds right now to put up a new facility.
“If someone came in and said, ‘We have the land and the money, we want to build a family shelter,’ I would accept that,” Beiers says. “Just to draw that line I find a little bit onerous.”
According to the Homeless Census and Survey, there were 2,771 homeless people in Santa Cruz County as of early 2011. That’s a 22 percent increase over the previous homeless census, done two years earlier.
According to the same report, 67 percent of the county’s homeless population lived in Santa Cruz County before becoming homeless, a 5 percent increase over 2009.
One source of contention is whether or not that 67 percent figure, representing homeless locals, is really such a significant chunk of the county’s homeless population.
Coonerty says supporting the homeless when even a third of the county’s homeless population comes from out of town can pose a difficult burden for the city. “A third of 3,000 people’s is 1,000 people,” Coonerty says, citing the report. “That’s a lot of people for a city the size of 58,000.”
Brindel, who served on a statewide committee called Housing California in the 1990s, sees it differently. “That’s always been an issue because every community I know of always thought they had more than their fair share of homeless people,” he says.
City councilmembers and the Homeless Services Center boardmembers agree that these provisions are all in the name of public safety—both for the homeless population and for the greater community. Monica Martinez, executive director for Homeless Services Center, who worked with councilmembers on the new proposals unveiled last week, says the provisions are only part of the battle to build a better city.
“We are all committed to making a safe, healthy and vibrant community,” says Martinez. “These policies are tactics that may help us achieve these goals. But I want to be clear that these are just strategies. They will not help us address the root problem of homelessness.”
