Looking for the next best ideas: What should be in Housing for Health’s updated homelessness response plan?

Around 40 community members, activists and homelessness advocates met Tuesday, the idea session flowed. What if Santa Cruz formed county-to-county partnerships to build housing across a larger region?

“We have a lot of neighboring rural communities, and it’s more cost-effective to house and develop there,” said Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino, explaining that collaborating with other jurisdictions can help all work toward a shared goal. “If we expand housing developments out there, we can house more people.”

Or maybe landlord incentives to house the unhoused.

Housing Matters Guest Experience Program Manager Andres Melgoza raised the idea of a program for landlords that is similar to SmartHIRE for employers, which connects subsidized workers to employers, covering some of the cost of their employment. That same idea, Melgoza said, could provide some much-needed assistance for people trying to get into housing. Many attendees agreed they would like to see that type of program.

“For example, if a landlord supports housing for a family for, say, six months, you’ll get an incentive from the county,” he said, adding that the concept has been in Housing Matters’ discussions for some time. “It could help with clear communication, too, because I feel that many landlords don’t know what programs and resources are available to them.”

Those were among the ideas generated at the Santa Cruz County Housing for Health Partnership on Tuesday afternoon at the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office Community Room. Those gathered aimed to provide ideas to update the county’s Housing for a Healthy Santa Cruz strategic framework. That framework is an outline of Housing for Health’s plan to reduce the number of unhoused people across the county. 

The big questions: how to improve access to services, reduce the number of people leaving institutions like jail or foster care just to become homeless, increase incomes and, of course, prevent falling into homelessness in the first place.

Santa Cruz County established the Housing For Health Division in November 2020 in large part to build the first iteration of the strategic framework, which was completed in January 2021 and included steps the county could take over three years to reduce homelessness through 2024. Now, the process has started again to update that document for the next three years.

“The state requires us to do this regionally coordinated homelessness action plan,” said Housing for Health Director Robert Ratner, adding that the county is applying for a roughly $5 million block grant for homelessness response. “One of the things we need to do is get input from people in our community on what we can do to better meet the needs of folks struggling with housing stability.”

Attendees broke off into six groups to discuss the various ways Santa Cruz County can improve, as well as the programs the county can introduce. They shared ideas such as Cancino’s and Melgoza’s. 

Getting people housed and keeping them housed is much cheaper than trying to pull people out of homelessness, and Santa Cruz Black co-founder Cheryl Williams knows that well. When discussing the topic of preventing youth from falling into homelessness, she emphasized the need to break down barriers to learning, whether that means in academia or in an alternative setting.

“I’m thinking of a program or internship where they can go through an 18-month program to learn a specific skill,” she said, adding that a reliable income is vital for anyone wanting housing stability. “These kinds of career ladders lead to someone having a career, and that gives you a sense of security.”

When discussing tangible ways to keep people from losing their housing, Housing Matters Service Navigation Coordinator Brian Lands recalled a brief conversation he had with someone living in one of the organization’s facilities. She told him that Housing Matters should consider pre-housing classes to educate renters about what they need to do and how to take care of their place, especially if the person had been in and out of housing for an extended period of time.

“It could give an idea of what kinds of things [have gotten] our clients kicked out of housing for, so we can identify them before it happens,” he said, adding that this kind of education can help people maintain their personal health more effectively as well.

Those in the room know how tough their challenge is, and how difficult it is moving from good ideas to successful programs. 

“There are lots of people here with strong ideas, but the biggest barrier is getting those ideas into something workable,” Lands told Lookout.

Initially, the agency planned three meetings, but canceled the first one set for Jan. 31 due to weather. Housing for Health is holding its second and final public input meeting Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the Watsonville City Hall community room.

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