Moving solutions to homelessness forward

Resolving homelessness is essential to the health and wellbeing of our entire community. Housing Matters is on the frontline of this issue — providing emergency shelter, supportive services, permanent housing, and advocacy.

Last year, the community doubled shelter capacity to house our most vulnerable neighbors as the pandemic continued to spread. The key to making this happen? Working collaboratively with local agencies and partner organizations. Housing Matters was honored to bring 35-plus years of experience in addressing homelessness to these important efforts.

Housing Matters’ emergency shelters provide a safe place to sleep at night and a home base during the day from which program participants can access the other important services they need to move beyond homelessness and into stable, long-term housing.

Housing Matters’ programs impacted thousands of locals experiencing homelessness. Here is a snapshot of people served from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021:

• 262 adults and children permanently were housed
• 2,478 total people were connected with services
• 52,106 bed nights (one person for one night in one bed)
• 10,174 showers provided
• 10,293 restroom visits
• 1,345 mailroom users

Sometimes, A Natural Disaster Triggers an Experience of Homelessness

The CZU Lightning Complex fires were a critical moment for the community that put Housing Matters to the test. The fires destroyed over 900 homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains and hundreds of families were displaced. When the fires began in August 2020, the phones at Housing Matters front desk began to ring with questions from locals wanting to know how to help newly unhoused friends, family, and neighbors.

With community members looking for ways to help fire victims, the Housing Matters team was inspired to organize a workshop along with creating a toolkit to support volunteer efforts. The Pathways Home Toolkit provides ongoing support for volunteers inspired to continue helping those who find themselves in the crisis of homelessness, for any reason, now or in the future. This free resource remains on the Housing Matters website for anyone wanting to learn how to lend a hand.

Partnerships are Key, Especially to Address Impacts of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic was well underway when the CZU fires happened, and it’s clearly going to be with us for some time to come. Partnering with local government is essential to provide critical support and resources for those experiencing homelessness during the pandemic.

Housing Matters also continues to partner with the County-run Homeless Persons’ Health Project, which operates an on-site vaccination clinic on the Housing Matters campus to help protect the community against the spread of COVID-19 variants.