HUFF Questions for City Council Candidates on Homeless Issues 

---- Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom

1. With a homeless population of 1273 in the City limits (Homeless Census 2000) and shelter space in the ISSP program at 48 spaces tonight, and 150 in winter, what provisions would you make for those who cannot use the existing limited shelter?

Provide a safe and legal space for every one of those people to sleep. We need to look a different solutions that meet the needs of people in different places... the ISSP and the Armory, the two current solutions, are just not suitable or comfortable spaces for many people. We need to look at: a) a legalized campground, properly supervised, monitored (by both residents and law enforcement), and supported (with sanitation, hygine, food preparation and other services) - I'd support charging a reasonable fee of $100.00-200.00/mo. to those who can afford it. Similarly, we need to develop a legalized car park, where those in RVs and other vehicles can safely and legally park their vehicles. These two solutions would: a) get people out of the parks, and off the streets of neighborhoods b) provide them with the most basic and essential requirements for being able to function in society - a minimum level of shelter, personal security, and security for personal belongings ... these are basic, common sense solutions that could be implemented cheaply, and would save neighborhoods and the police money, hassle and time.

We also need to look at other solutions, ones that fit the needs of families, and of people who are not comfortable in dense environments. We need to look at smaller, distributed camping sites, at fully funding the Community Action Board's emergency housing voucher programs, etc. We should look at solutions modeled on ones that have worked before, such as the homeless garden project - I think we could work out short term, month to month leases with property owners throughout the city, and convert empty lots into community gardens and pocket parks, with resident caretakers selected from the ranks of the homeless - this could be very affordable, costing nothing more than the monthly rental cost for a portable building with hygine/basic kitchen facilities, and the service costs for regularly emptying the toilets. My neighborhood has no parks anywhere nearby, but numerous empty lots which could be transformed into small centers of community.

The ultimate solution is to address the jobs/housing imbalance, so that people can afford to live where they work, and work where they live. This involves expanding the city's economic base, and addressing the shortage of market-rate affordable rental housing; zoning regulations need real reform that allows the construction of more legal "granny shack" type units, more SRO housing, etc. We need to encourage and facilitate the construction of mixed use commercial/rental construction, and work towards a long term vision of what we want Santa Cruz to look like, and where we can put high-density housing.

2. 72% of homeless people in Santa Cruz say they are homeless because they cannot afford the high rents (Homeless needs assessment survey 2000). Some cannot afford a first, last, and security deposit. Others cannot get into housing because of past unlawful detainers or poor credit ratings. What would you do as a member of the City Council to prevent evictions? Or to help those who are already homeless to get back into housing?

As I mentioned above: a) support and expand CAB's emergency voucher program and other housing assistance programs; work with the county to establish similar mechanisms so that CAB can refer people to them when housing is found outside the City limits (to avoid situations like that faced by the woman who spoke at the HUFF candidates forum) b) we need to build a "ladder of housing", so that people can ascend and descend itself without precipitous falls... the bottom rungs are missing; if people cannot afford $1000+ a month, they have no option other than homelessness - they cannot move into smaller units (SROs, "granny shacks", temporarily legally tent or car camp, etc.) ... nor can they climb out of homelessness without first acending a $3000.00 cliff; they need more affordable options that allow the accumulation of the resources necessary to move into more formal and permanent solutions. As long as they're trapped in the catch-22 of homelessness, which often results in them having to spend more money than they would if housed, it will be much harder for them to escape.

3. In the absence of shelter space, carparks, and campgrounds and a law which makes it criminal to sleep at night, do you support suspension of the Sleeping Ban in non-residential and beachfront areas?

I support safe and legal places for people to sleep - all these solutions need to be put into place, and many can be put into place quickly. In the meantime, I support the right of homeless people to sleep or camp anywhere that does not generate problems, ideally this would be Safe Sleeping Zones as proposed in 2000, with real supporting infrastructures to address anticipated issues of hygine and personal security, etc. Until alternatives exist, we have no right to complain if people are not causing real problems.

4. Do you support immediate action to deal with the emergency shelter crisis by creating a homeless campground and a homeless carpark?

Yes.

5. Minors under age 18 compose a third of the homeless population of Santa Cruz. Also, foster children who recently turned 18 compose another homeless cluster. What specific strategies do you have to aid homeless children and young adults?

The system needs to address the needs of these young people... abandoning children on the street at 18 with no resources is insane, when more and more young people stay with their parents into their twenties. I support extending the age at which foster care can be provided to 25. Homeless minors under 18 need to be brought into the system - if they are part of a family, then that family needs support. Safe sleeping zones, car camps, etc. are all vehicles for addressing their short-term needs. As well, we should take advantage of the generosity of people like Greg Lopez, and support programs which link housed and homeless people in supportive relationships. This is an area where I think we, as candidates, and as an entire society, could use more information, insight and education.

6. Would you give amnesty to homeless people for past camping citations or warrants from past camping citations?

Yes.

7. Do you support the immediate repeal of the Blanket Ban (MC 6.36.010 section b) which outlaws use of a blanket between 11PM and 8:30AM?

I support unconditional and immediate repeal of this inhumane and supremely unjust law.

8. Currently free meals are served at the Homeless Services Center at 8:00AM and 4PM 7 days a week, St. Francis Soup Kitchen at noon five days a week, by Food Not Bombs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, at the Elm St. Mission on Friday and Saturday nights, and by the Potter's Hand on Sundays at the Town Clock at 3PM. Do you generally support these private, charitable organizations that feed the indigent population? Would you publicly resist and effort to restrict, outlaw, or require permits, or require a license in order to give away free food?

Yes. As long as these organizations make good faith efforts to perform basic food safety functions, they should be left alone.

9. Dental care is largely non-existant for homeless people. Poor dental care has resulted in otherwise able-bodied people being unemployable and stuck with chronic pain. What would you do as a member of the City Council to provide dental care to those who need it?

Fund these services. It is insane, from a basic public health, budgetary, and human-rights perspective, for people to not have access to basic health care. It winds up costing our society, both in terms of human suffering, lost economic productivity, and increased public services expenditures, far more to not have these services in place, than to have them. I would work with the county and other jurisdictions to provide the funding necessary for a mobile dentist to have the equipment necessary to properly serve clients, and to ensure that Dientes and other clinics can reach as many people as possible. It is criminal that the heroic efforts of the single doctor who was willing to deal with this issue, went ignored and unrewarded, to the point that she was driven by financial and health considerations, to abandon these people. This harms everyone in the community, homeless, youth, elderly alike.

10. Shuttle Pick-ups for the ISSP shelter program are set at times which do not work for many working people. Will you push for a late night pick-up for homeless people who work so they may use the ISSP program even if they can't be there for the 3:30PM sign-up?

This is a "duh" proposition. It is just another obstacle put in the way of people trying their best to work their way out of homelessness, and it needs to be changed. This is basic common sense.

11. Medical care for homeless people is inadequate to the needs of most homeless people. Many who qualify for aid must wait months for the paperwork to be processed before they receive any medical aid. What would you do as a councilmember to insure that those who need medical care get it?

Work to minimize the paperwork. Work to provide bridge services that can be put in place before the paperwork is finished (as Second Harvest does with pregnant WIC applicants), etc.

12. Currently only two slots at any given time are available for homeless people seeking drug or alcohol treatment. Yet drunken or drug dependant homeless people are arrested and jailed regularly. Do you support the transfer of enforcement funds into rehabilitation funding?

This is another "duh" concept. Having the County Jail be the leading shelter for mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction/recovery, etc. etc. is insanely wasteful. Having 60% of arrests be for public intoxication is absurd. We need to fund prevention, not detention! Those arrested for these "crimes" should be immediately offered treatment and rehabilitation, and should not be regularly recycled through the criminal justice system, etc.

13. Recently the Homeless Services Center upgraded its kitchen and its cold storage capacity. But many who eat meals there, claim the food to be of an inferior quality and nutritive value. Private donations of food have dropped off exacerbating the problem. Will you facilitate donations to the HSC so that the quality of nutrition can be improved?

Yes, and facilitate funding, too. This is a problem across the board for food pantries and other organizations. There is a reason they food is given away, instead of being sold. We need to support organic agriculture, local farming/food co-ops, etc. We need to expand programs like the Homeless Garden Project and other urban garden models, so that healthy, nutritious, good tasting food is accessible to everyone.

14. Bus passes are an essential need for homeless people to go to job interviews and to work once they are hired. Yet these passes are never issued in sufficient quantities to those who need them and qualify for them. What will you do to increase the number of bus passes issued each month?

Fund them. This is a means of assistance that produces a return on investment of several orders of magnitude. We also need to supply people with access to bicycles, and even carpools and CalTrain passes, etc. if they find work over the hill. Furthermore, it should be a relatively simple matter to ultimately recover much of this cost - transportation loan programs should also be made available, and we should work with the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union to refer people to car loan, electric vehicle loan, electric bike and human-powered bicycle loan programs, etc.

15. Many homeless people are singled out and ticketed for minor crimes such as jaywalking, sitting, lying down, sleeping, begging, and for minor bicycle violations. Few can pay the tickets which amount to fines of hundreds of dollars. Will you act to ensure that laws currently directed primarily at homeless people as a means to "clean up" the visual aspect of Santa Cruz are not selectively enforced against poor and homeless people? Would you support a statement of policy which puts human need over business aesthetics?

Selective enforcement needs to be stopped. By lawsuits, if necessary. And yes, merchants fears should not trump basic human needs, although the needs of merchants, and the needs of homeless people should not be in opposition to each other. Further, these fines should be eliminated, as they serve to only further criminalize and impoversh those who can least afford them. Homeless people should not be trapped into an endless loop of warrants, arrests, fines, jail time, etc. - this serves no purpose for society as a whole.

16. The $10,000 Homeless Issues Task Force spent 8 months formulating 35 recommendations that were ignored by the CityCouncil. Will you re-examine those recommendations and bring them back for public discussion and implementation?

Yes. I support the institution of a permanent social services oversight board, with substantial staff support, with a major initial charge of revisiting these recommendations, and following up on what, if anything, has been done per the initial go around and direction from City Council members, etc.

Answers can be snail-mailed to: HUFF 309 Cedar St. PMB 14B -- Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060 or sent by fax to (831)429-8529