Annual point-in-time count sees Pajaro River levee homeless encampments shift from Watsonville to Monterey County

In a striking reversal from last year, a group of volunteers conducting Santa Cruz County’s annual homelessness census Thursday morning counted just three people living along a stretch of the Pajaro River levee in Watsonville, an area that was brimming with tents a year earlier.

In contrast, tents were packed together on the Monterey County side of the levee, a dramatic change from 2024 that appears to be the result of a July cleanup operation by the City of Watsonville. The cleanup, which the city said was for “serious health, welfare and safety risks,” has effectively pushed most of the encampment into Monterey County, some homeless advocates say, highlighting the complex challenges of addressing homelessness across county lines.

As soon as Robert Ratner, director of Santa Cruz County’s Housing for Health Division, found out he would be part of one of three groups walking along the Pajaro River levee Thursday morning, he wondered what he would find. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve heard there’s anywhere between 100 to 200 people out there,'” he said. “So, part of me was wondering if we would see that many, or if they would be on the Monterey County side.” 

The point-in-time count is an annual federally designated effort meant to provide a picture of the state of homelessness in the county. Last year’s PIT count showed a 60% increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in Watsonville, while the city of Santa Cruz saw a 36% decrease. The group that surveyed the entire stretch of the levee counted more than 200 tents on the Watsonville side last year.

Roxanne Wilson, director of homelessness services for Monterey County, acknowledged the migration pattern among the area’s unhoused. Cleanups along the river — from either side — cause unhoused individuals to go back and forth, she said. At the time of Watsonville’s cleanup in July, several unhoused residents told Lookout they planned to move over to the Monterey County side of the levee.

Monterey County has not yet scheduled its own cleanup operation, Wilson added, but she believes one could happen in the future due to the influx of people camping there. 

“Since they did all the sweeps, it seems like there’s been less” people, said Dan Hoffman, pastor of Westview Presbyterian Church, which is involved in efforts to feed and house homeless residents in Watsonville. “It’s a little harder since they knocked down all the vegetation. People couldn’t find their space there. So I think it seems like there’s less [people] living down there.” 

The apparent shift across county lines comes as both Santa Cruz and Monterey counties grapple with solutions to the region’s homeless crisis. 

Watsonville city leaders are searching for possible ways to address last year’s sudden increase in homelessness, recently forming a homelessness task force to help. Mayor Maria Orozco told Lookout earlier this month that the city council wants to create a homelessness strategic plan based on information provided by the task force.

A joint 34-unit “tiny village” project to house the homeless, funded by an $8 million state grant, is also proposed to be built at Westview Presbyterian Church. Half of the funding will go to the construction of the tiny village and the other half will go toward supportive services. 

The project has caused controversy among some Watsonville residents, who strongly oppose the location of the “tiny village” near a residential neighborhood and have safety concerns. Resident Catalina Torres has filed a second appeal asking the city council to rescind the project’s zoning approval. A hearing is scheduled for next month.

Thursday’s annual point-in-time-count deployed about 120 volunteers across Santa Cruz County – 40 in Watsonville and parts of rural Aptos and Corralitos and 80 in Santa Cruz. There were 17 teams dispersed around South County, said James Connery, vice president of research and assessment for Applied Survey Research, the local nonprofit research consulting firm that helps collect data for the county’s point-in-time count. 

Ratner’s team, which included Watsonville residents Gavin Lopez and Pablo De Leon, counted just three unhoused people on a section of the levee near Pajaro River Park on Front Street around 7 a.m. Thursday. At least in that stretch of the area, most people were on the Monterey side. 

Ratner’s team wasn’t the only one tallying unhoused residents along the river. This year’s count had multiple teams on the levee, a change from last year, when there was only one team. Ratner said it’s possible that other teams surveying the levee might have seen more people Thursday morning than his team did. 

Ratner’s team was in charge of surveying areas of downtown Watsonville spanning East 5th Street, Rodriguez Street, East Front Street, all the streets in between and parts of the Pajaro River levee. 

By 5:45 a.m., Ratner, Lopez and De Leon hit the streets, trying to spot unhoused people in parks, parking lots or hiding behind storefronts. Lopez, who participated in last year’s count, helped identify people living in their cars, pointing out fogged windows in vehicles parked along Front Street. Volunteers do not interact with people they spot, as the count is merely observational. 

Whenever Lopez or De Leon identified people — some who were walking around the city, while others were bundled up with either sleeping bags or blankets — Ratner added them to a running tally. Each team had a designated recorder, who kept track of the number of people on an app developed for the count, said Connery. Teams had to collect basic information, like age, gender and location, based on what they can see, since volunteers aren’t interacting with members of the unhoused community. 

Ratner said he was surprised at the demographics in the area he was counting. Most of the people he and his team were identifying were men, he said. Another surprise in the downtown Watsonville area was that most people were alone, and not in groups.

“Where we saw [groups] more was on the Monterey County side of the levee,” said Ratner. He wondered if his observation of fewer people camping together in his tract reflected a possible trend in the county.

Point-in-time counts can help the county appropriately address the needs of the unhoused community and measure progress in decreasing homelessness or identify an area where it’s increased. A decrease, even if it’s caused by people moving across jurisdictional lines, can have financial implications. When numbers decrease, funding for services that help the unhoused often get cut, Ratner said.

Ratner said he expects to release preliminary findings from the count in late spring, with a complete report due by summer’s end.

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