On a rainy January morning more than 13 months ago, teams of local government workers and volunteers tromped through the soggy corners of the county and counted homeless people as part of the 2009 Santa Cruz County Homeless Census and Survey.
On a similarly rainy afternoon just last week, the fruits of that effort were finally presented to the Santa Cruz City Council. The reason for the delay? “Time and availability.”
“We are simply very busy and very understaffed,” says Santa Cruz Housing and Community Development Manager Carol Berg, who worked to get the presentation of the census onto the council’s Feb. 23 agenda. “We have a lot of deadlines, especially in the fall, and this was really the earliest we could get it on the agenda.”
Berg and Peter Connery of Applied Survey Research, the group that organized and carried out the census, point out that the information was made available to city officials last May, when the study was published. Connery also says that a presentation was given to the County Board of Supervisors in August. The lack of a formal presentation to the city, he says, is not an indication that city leaders were not aware of the results, just that presenting them publicly perhaps wasn’t a priority.
The study itself showed a 19 percent drop in the number of homeless people counted, as compared with the previous census in 2007—surprising data to most, given the recession that has gripped the country since mid-2008. Dozens of other factors including drug use, mental health and levels of government assistance were also noted, lending valuable information to a city that has made providing services to the homeless a policy hallmark.
Berg says that the 2007 homeless census was presented to city leaders within a few months of the study’s publication. She also reminds that, in terms of city resources, 2007 was “a different time.”
Santa Cruz Council Finally Sees Homeless Census
Last year, several teams wiith homeless guides fanned out to count the county's unseen. 2009 photo by Jessica Lussenhop.
