Quick Take
With the closure of Housing Matters’ day services less than a week away, the city and county of Santa Cruz have worked to get some interim replacements ready to go come next Wednesday. However, long-term solutions are still unclear. Community organizations have expressed interest in providing services, but nothing is solidified. The city is also exploring ways to implement more permanent public hygiene facilities.
As the elimination of drop-in day services looms, people who frequent the Coral Street center serving the unhoused in Santa Cruz are struggling with what to do.
Juan Macedo, who spoke to Lookout this week, said that if he has to traverse the city and county to find similar services in the future, he’ll be concerned about his safety: “I’m afraid I’ll get stopped by the police because of the way I look.”
Toni Rodriguez, an unhoused independent activist, told Lookout in the fall that he did not know what he was going to do once the services at homelessness nonprofit Housing Matters were shut down.
On Wednesday, Rodriguez told Lookout that he has since moved to the National Guard Armory shelter in DeLaveaga Park, and although that means he has access to basic amenities, he feels as though he’s had to trade personal freedom for it. For instance, he said, he can come to and leave the shelter only by shuttle, which comes just once an hour and stops at 9 p.m., and he is subject to searches when arriving at the shelter. Even so, he’s likely going to be there for the foreseeable future, he said.
In October, Housing Matters announced its plans to shut down its public day services program at the end of March. The closure will end the only public, drop-in day services facility in the county, halting access to showers, restrooms, mail service and basic amenities for an estimated 50 to 80 unhoused people who use them daily.
The services have been open during daytime hours and are also available to people not staying at a Housing Matters shelter. They are slated to shut down at midnight on Wednesday, April 1. Housing Matters said the day services facility has to close to prepare for the 120-unit permanent supportive housing development, Harvey West Studios, which is under construction next to the existing facility. It’s expected to open this summer.
Crystal Olsson said she was relieved that she secured a spot in The Loft shelter at Housing Matters on Coral Street at the end of October.
“I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to use the resources anymore,” she said. “I just didn’t know what I was going to do.”
The city and county have been trying to figure out both short- and long-term replacements. The loss of the mail room was one of the most pressing concerns, as about 1,700 people use Housing Matters’ mail room on the Coral Street campus in Santa Cruz as their permanent address to receive government benefits. People who receive benefits such as CalFresh, Medi-Cal and cash aid can still receive official mail at the Human Services Department’s Employment and Benefits Services Division offices in Santa Cruz and Watsonville. However, these offices will not accept personal letters, packages or mail from friends, family or private businesses.
Santa Cruz Homelessness Response Manager Larry Imwalle said the city will install more portable toilets and handwashing stations at three or four different locations throughout the city as an interim plan, but he added that exact locations were not yet finalized. He did say, however, that those facilities would be ready for use by Tuesday, the final day for the Housing Matters services.
“We’re looking at a couple of restrooms at each of these sites,” Imwalle said. “We’ll be able to respond based on the need and demand, and we can add and subtract as needed.”
Longer-term solutions for both personal mail and more permanent hygiene facilities are still unclear, Imwalle said. He said that the city and county have stayed in touch with community partners and other service providers who have expressed interest in forming some version of day services, including personal mail service. In the meantime, Imwalle said the best choice for people would be to have their mail directed to a friend or family, or to establish a P.O. box.
Olsson said she’s glad that she has a place to get official mail regarding her benefits, particularly notifications from the Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County. However, she added that she sells clothes online and is unable to ship to and receive from the county buildings. She said a friend in Ben Lomond allows her to use her address.
As for hygiene services, Imwalle said the City of Santa Cruz is in conversations with various vendors of more durable, modular kinds of facilities that could provide a more permanent solution. He also said that some community-based organizations are interested in establishing hygiene services, too, but how that plays out will depend on city and county resources and how private funding and philanthropy might be able to contribute. Although he thinks that process will take time, he said he sees it as an opportunity for the future.
“We can think about the potential to have these kinds of services distributed throughout the community. Not just the city of Santa Cruz, but countywide,” he said. “We’re trying to connect these kinds of access to basic needs with the kind of support that people need, whether it’s health care or housing navigation.”
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