The state has given the city $14.6 million in one-year funding to better address the homelessness crisis. On Tuesday, city officials started to lay out how that money will be used.
Grace Stetson
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Lookout Update: Santa Cruz overnight RV parking ban moves slowly forward
The city of Santa Cruz’s aim to remove RVs and trailers from city streets still hasn’t become reality. The planning commission’s vote to keep it moving is another step in the complex process.
Posted inCoast Life
Here’s what putting a number on homelessness looked like, from Santa Cruz to Watsonville & beyond
As Santa Cruz County attempted to put a number to its homeless population for the first time since 2019 early Monday morning with the biennial “point-in-time” count, Lookout’s team of journalists embarked on ride-alongs with some of those involved with the enumeration. The number of people visible to count was surprising to many involved.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Unhoused Santa Cruz: On the ground, Santa Cruz counts its homeless
On Monday, about 100 people will comb the county and Lookout’s correspondent team will be with them, filing reports on what could be an important tool in countering homelessness.
Posted inCOVID 2022
Vaccine clinic in San Lorenzo Valley aims to boost rates
Residents across the Santa Cruz Mountains — from Boulder Creek to Ben Lomond and beyond — have had lower rates of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters since the shots became widely available. A clinic Saturday aims to change that.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Harm Reduction Coalition awarded $100K grant to expand testing of hepatitis C, HIV for unhoused population
The $100,000 grant from AIDS United and others will allow the Santa Cruz group to expand its testing of viral diseases among the county’s unhoused population. Dani Drysdale, who runs the Safe Syringe program, said many people are not aware they even have hepatitis C. Knowing is the first step toward treatment.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
‘New voices, new perspectives’: What will a board of supervisors shake-up in the June election bring?
With now two open seats, diversity and change overall are in the air. How much change, led by whom and to what kinds of new spending and policy priorities, will be key questions to follow as both races heat up. It was just last week the second open seat appeared, as South County District 4 Supervisor Greg Caput surprised many by saying he wouldn’t run for reelection after 12 years in the job.
Posted inCity Life
‘A shift in what will be tolerated’: It’s a Clock Tower standoff between city, Food Not Bombs over permits
Organization leader Keith McHenry says ‘We don’t need to seek permission from a city that refuses to make sure its residents are fed’ while a city spokesperson says the group must ‘operate under the rules and regulations and guidelines that any other organization within the city would be required to do.’
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz County’s new CZU dashboard shows fewer than 10% have been issued rebuilding permits
Last week, the county launched a CZU recovery dashboard, providing basic data about the rebuilding process. While county spokesperson Jason Hoppin said Santa Cruz’s progress is in line with other communities’ post-fire rebuilds, some survivors said the process remains overly burdensome.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
Ballot measures on hotel, single-use cup taxes headed to June ballot
The What: On Tuesday, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to place two measures — a hotel tax increase and a single-use cup and bag tax — on the June 7 ballot. The So What: The two measures would bring in an additional $2.4 million annually to be used in unincorporated county […]