Quick Take
A homeless encampment sweep along Coral Street in Santa Cruz last week was pre-planned, said a city spokesperson, and resulted in several arrests. Two homeless advocacy and mutual aid groups expressed their disapproval of the practice of sweeps and called on the city and county to invest in supportive measures rather than on resources for sweeps.
The City of Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Police Department performed a sweep of a homeless encampment in the Coral Street area near the Housing Matters campus last Monday, Jan. 27, which resulted in a number of arrests.
City spokesperson Katie Lee told Lookout late last week that the sweep was a planned operation, and included housing and substance-abuse workers from Housing Matters, the city’s outreach team and the county’s focused intervention team — a group of both law enforcement personnel and mental health clinicians who aim to connect those in need with support resources.
Lee added that seven people were arrested during the sweep. Some were arrested for drug-related crimes, while others had warrants out for their arrest. Lee did not specify details of the charges.
However, among those arrested was Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs, for what Lee said was “intentionally resisting or obstructing officers while performing duties.”
“The police had to put caution tape up to block off the area,” she said, “and they asked him not to pass the line, and he ignored them.”
Some expressed their disapproval of the sweeps, as they believe that the city is taking away survival equipment from people who are braving the winter weather on the streets.
Alicia Kuhl, president of the California Homeless Union’s Santa Cruz chapter, viewed the sweep as cruel and unnecessary: “Why are people being left without survival gear and blankets on one of the coldest nights of the year, and to what benefit do the police have by arresting Keith for documenting it?” she wrote in an email to Lookout.
Members of two groups, Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom and People’s Aid, sent a statement — signed by their members — that said the sweep was performed in the midst of an especially cold string of nights and emergency winter shelters were filling up quickly.
They also pointed out that the sweep took place just three days before the annual point-in-time count, which seeks to provide a picture of homelessness throughout the county. The statement suggested that the sweep was an attempt to decrease the number of homeless people counted during the count.
“It is a great cruelty and shame that our city chose to destroy so many people’s survival equipment during dangerously cold nights,” read the statement.
Housing Matters staff offered support to those getting moved and provided coffee and snack bags to get people up and moving.
“We witnessed case managers checking in with clients, waking people up, and at the end, even helping carry personal items,” the groups’ statement read. The groups’ members expressed relief that the focused intervention team was present, as they view the team’s presence as “a step towards understanding that sweeps are brutal physically and mentally traumatic experiences.”
The statement asserted that sweeps like the one on Jan. 27 are largely for optics, and “have always been an inhumane and ineffective way to address the crisis of homelessness in Santa Cruz.” The groups called on the city and county to instead use the resources it uses for sweeps on things like rental caps, reliable food sources, child care and basic medical care for the homeless community.
“Until then,” the statement concluded, “we hope to see all service providers at the city and county level take the necessary step to be present during sweeps so as to support our unhoused neighbors as they suffer routine upheaval and displacement.”
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