Santa Cruz County homeless count shows uneven progress as budget cuts loom

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Santa Cruz County dropped to the lowest level ever recorded this year, according to an annual count released Thursday. But the progress masks concerning increases in some parts of the county and among older adults and people with disabilities.

Overall, the annual point-in-time (PIT) report found that the county’s homeless population fell 20%, from 1,850 last year to 1,473 this year. The PIT count is an annual federally designated effort meant to provide a picture of the state of homelessness in the county.

South County — which saw a drastic increase in homelessness last year — saw the most dramatic improvement this year, with a nearly 50% decrease in homelessness. However, the cities of Capitola and Santa Cruz moved in the opposite direction, with increases of 42% and 31%, respectively.

Robert Ratner, director of Santa Cruz County’s Housing for Health Division, told Lookout that this year’s results are a “pleasant affirmation” that local efforts to get people into housing are making progress. But he cautioned that some of the changes in the numbers could reflect people moving between jurisdictions rather than finding permanent homes.

The drop in Watsonville could be caused by a combination of things, said Ratner. People living along the levee on the Santa Cruz County side could just be moving to the Monterey County side of the river because of all the enforcement happening in Watsonville, he said. Ratner, along with two community members, participated in January’s PIT count, covering parts of downtown Watsonville and a stretch of the Pajaro River levee. 

Many of those levee residents might soon be forced out of the area as a large encampment sweep could happen before a 34-unit “tiny village” shelter opens in December. The Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency board will most likely make a decision on a date this month. 

However, Ratner said he believes the drop in South County does reflect some of the recent efforts to address homelessness in the region: “I do think some of the reduction is we’re actually helping more people.”

In Santa Cruz and Capitola, where the numbers increased, Ratner also said that people could be shifting between the cities and unincorporated areas of the county. “You can move from one side of a street to another, and then you’re now counted in that other jurisdiction,” he said. 

The rising number of homeless older adults and disabled residents particularly concerns Ratner. “That number actually went up,” he said. “It feels like we’re going in the wrong direction with the senior and disabled population.”

The county currently has a few projects in the works, said Ratner, including the 34-unit “tiny village” in Watsonville and a behavioral health bridge housing project in Santa Cruz that will help address this issue. 

But looming federal and state budget cuts to rental assistance programs can create challenges to helping these populations get access to housing, Ratner said. Older adults and people with disabilities need to have some kind of housing subsidy because they often don’t have the income to pay rent, he said. 

“We’re going to do what we can with the projects we have in the pipeline,” Ratner said. “But we have to do more advocacy around the importance of creating more housing for those with the lowest incomes.” 

Ratner told Lookout that his department is doing its best to stretch out the money it currently has, and is more cautious about starting new projects as officials continue to learn of potential federal cuts. The emergency housing vouchers program used to get unhoused people into housing since the pandemic is currently running out of federal funding, said Ratner, and there’s currently no plan to close those funding gaps. 

“That just means there’s going to be less opportunity for helping new families and individuals,” said Ratner. He added that the nearly 10,000 county residents receiving rental assistance from Section 8 funding will not lose their housing unless the Trump administration makes another budget cut. “But it does mean we’re just not going to have new people entering the program,” he said. 

Ratner told Lookout that he would love to see the number of people experiencing homelessness go down across the board, but he doesn’t expect a major shift next year. There will be more people in shelters as projects like the Watsonville “tiny village” and behavioral health bridge housing begin to operate, he said. 

He added that he’s hesitant to be hopeful that the county will continue to see a drop in homelessness given pending state and federal cuts. The most important thing for his team is to make progress in securing funding for long-term housing subsidies and affordable housing that seniors and people with disabilities can afford. 

“I generally do think we are doing good things, and we are making progress, and the count is imperfect and it’s not 100% accurate, but I think it’s showing this positive trend,” Ratner said.

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