Quick Take
The planned closure of Housing Matters’ day services – including public showers, bathrooms and mail access — is being framed as affecting only people experiencing homelessness, but it will also hit Santa Cruz’s working poor who rely on these essentials to stay employed and stable, writes housing scholar Erin Gaede. Many low-income residents who live in cars, overcrowded rooms or temporary arrangements depend on these services to maintain hygiene, receive mail and avoid slipping deeper into poverty. Without showers and restrooms at Housing Matters, local libraries, transit centers and businesses will become unofficial and ill-equipped service hubs. Before shutting down the county’s only consistent hygiene and mail services, city and nonprofit leaders owe the community a clear, workable plan for where vulnerable residents are supposed to go, she writes.
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Day services offered by Santa Cruz nonprofit Housing Matters are often framed as services for people experiencing homelessness. While these services are undeniably vital for those without shelter, this narrow framing overlooks a growing population that also depends on them: the working poor.
That’s why closing the facilities – set to happen at the end of March – without sharing a clear, collaborative path forward is the wrong approach.
The people who use the showers, bathrooms and mailboxes are individuals and families who might have a roof over their heads, but still live on the edge of housing insecurity, often in overcrowded, unstable or informal living arrangements. The problem with framing the closure of day services as impacting only people experiencing homelessness in Santa Cruz County is that it ignores these services’ broader role in preventing the working poor from sinking deeper into poverty.
The working poor are often invisible in public discourse on homeless services.
They may be employed full time, sometimes in multiple jobs, yet still unable to afford stable housing in Santa Cruz’s ever-rising housing market. I became acquainted with this population while working at Housing Matters as a program manager in 2018 and 2021 for a transitional housing program called Page Smith Community House.
Not everyone who exited this program secured housing. Many moved into cars, couch-surfed with friends or camped in and around the Pogonip. Their new sleeping arrangements often lacked access to private bathrooms, reliable mail delivery or even a place to shower.
For them, day services became an essential resource for maintaining dignity, health and in many cases employment.
The hygiene gap
Housing insecurity is often invisible in the workplace. A University of Chicago study found that more than half of people living in homeless shelters and about 40% of unsheltered individuals were employed during the same year they experienced homelessness. Employers rarely know their workers’ housing status – but they might notice if someone can’t maintain basic hygiene.
Public showers aren’t a luxury; they’re a lifeline that allow people to keep their jobs and avoid the downward spiral into deeper poverty.
Similarly, access to clean and safe public toilets is a matter of basic human dignity. There are few public restrooms available in Santa Cruz County. If Housing Matters closes its day services, where will people access restrooms? How will this affect the local businesses and retailers on Pacific Avenue?
When showers and bathrooms are unavailable at Housing Matters, libraries, transit stations and businesses may become de facto day services, forcing vulnerable people to risk being penalized for acts driven by necessity, not choice. This will only heighten tensions around homelessness in Santa Cruz County.
The mailbox as a lifeline
For the working poor, who may move frequently between temporary housing arrangements, community mail services offer stability. A mailing address is a gateway to employment, health care, education and civic participation. Job applications, government benefits, medical appointments and legal documents all require a stable address.
Without one, people can be locked out of essential services and prevented from achieving upward mobility.
What is the plan?
The shower, toilet and mail services offered by day services are not just emergency services for the homeless. They are survival services for the working poor — those who live in the margins, often unseen, but deeply affected by the growing gaps in our social safety net.
If there is a plan in place, the community deserves to know it. So far, Housing Matters and the City of Santa Cruz have not communicated where our vulnerable neighbors will go for these essential services once day services close. Our community deserves transparency and the opportunity to help shape solutions that affect us all.
Erin Gaede is a housing scholar and Ph.D candidate in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on poverty and inequality with a focus on housing. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, she has worked on issues related to housing and homelessness for over a decade. Erin previously worked as a programs manager at Housing Matters, where she oversaw the transitional housing program and respite care center.