Greetings, dear readers. It’s Tuesday, Nov. 18, and after some patchy morning fog, the forecast is for sunshine around Santa Cruz County, with temperatures in the 50s and 60s.
Members, don’t forget to RSVP for Lookout’s fifth anniversary party at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m., enjoying local food and beverages and connecting with community members. We’ll have a special program reflecting on Lookout’s first five years and our vision for what’s next. We will end the event with some dessert and a toast to the next five!
And we’ll have some anniversary merch available (hint: think Killer Acid). Not yet a member? Become one today and come join us.
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Amid rising food costs and the recent disruption in federal assistance, many Santa Cruz County families are turning to food pantries for the first time, Lily Belli and Ashley Palma-Jimenez report. “I work full time, and I get paid decently for what I do, and I have a great boss, but it’s not enough for the cost of food alone, even without rent,” said one visitor to Santa Cruz Bible Church’s biweekly distribution. “It feels impossible right now.”
In Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, housing scholar Erin Gaede writes that the coming closure of day services at Santa Cruz nonprofit Housing Matters won’t affect only homeless residents – our area’s often-invisible working poor depend on the campus’ hygiene and mail offerings, too, and those services are often the only thing keeping them from slipping deeper into poverty.
With the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors taking up the county’s draft ordinance on battery energy storage later Tuesday, you’ll find an overview of what’s at stake in the latest edition of Lookout’s politics & policy newsletter, In the Public Interest – that and more lies ahead in the Tuesday headlines.
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‘It feels impossible right now’: Ahead of Thanksgiving, families turn to food pantries in record numbers
Grocery prices and recent disruptions to federal food aid are pushing more Santa Cruz County residents to local food banks for the first time. Demand at some sites has doubled since early November. With staples like meat, eggs and even turkey seeing steep price hikes, families say they’re scaling back Thanksgiving plans and struggling to stay afloat despite working full time. Read more from Lily Belli and Ashley Palma-Jimenez.
OPINION: Closing Housing Matters’ day services won’t hurt just the unhoused — it will push the working poor closer to crisis
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. Read her Community Voices op-ed here.
DAILY DIGEST
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Enjoy the Tuesday sunshine, and thanks as ever for reading.
Will McCahill