The City of Santa Cruz recently fenced off sidewalks along Coral Street near homeless services provider Housing Matters, blocking access to the area. Signs on the fences initially cited the wrong code — a city spokesperson said they should have referenced a state penal code. Homeless advocates question the legal grounds for this move, calling it a tool to discriminate against unhoused people who were already subjected to frequent sweeps in the area.
homelessness
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
On Coral Street, police sweeps don’t solve homelessness; they make it invisible
On Coral Street in Santa Cruz, the tents are disappearing — but the people who lived in them have not. As Housing Matters prepares to open 120 units of supportive housing, weekly street sweeps are escalating into daily displacement, writes Kevin Gallagher, who works with the unhoused on Coral Street. A community, he says, cannot call itself compassionate while pushing its most vulnerable people out of sight. Homelessness is not erased when we clear a sidewalk; it is simply moved somewhere we don’t have to see it. He urges city leaders – and all of us – to do better.
Posted inLatest News
Santa Cruz County homelessness rises 12% in 2026; still below 2022 peak
Santa Cruz County released its 2026 point-in-time count results on Wednesday, which show an increase in homelessness over 2025, but a level still well beneath the 2022 peak.
Posted inHousing & Development
Running on empty: In the nation’s most expensive gas market, Santa Cruz’s vehicular homeless face a new crisis
Amid high gas and food prices, many Californians have been struggling to make ends meet. However, one of the nation’s most vulnerable populations has been hit particularly hard: people living in their vehicles, who rely on gas to have a roof over their heads.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
What the Homeless Garden Project taught me about belonging in Santa Cruz
After spending two years unhoused, Damien Christopher Camany found more than job training at the Homeless Garden Project — he found a place to belong. Here, he reflects on how working the soil helped him rebuild his sense of purpose, dignity and community, and why the organization’s mission extends far beyond farming. The Homeless Garden Project recently secured the rights to acquire the 4-acre farm it has stewarded for decades — an important step toward permanently preserving both its organic farming program and transitional employment services. Camany offers a firsthand perspective on why protecting this place means protecting opportunities for people rebuilding their lives.
Posted inFood & Drink
Santa Cruz’s Homeless Garden Project takes major step toward buying longtime farm
Homeless Garden Project is one step closer to owning its longtime Natural Bridges Farm after years of regulatory hurdles, with a key zoning decision this week that, if approved, would clear the way for the nonprofit to purchase the 4-acre property and begin construction on a permanent home as early as 2027.
Posted inHousing & Development
Live Oak Landing opens months after slated, set to offer interim housing and pathways to permanent housing
Housing Matters announced that its $5 million Live Oak Landing interim housing program was officially open and would be welcoming participants immediately, stating that construction finished months ago but there had been final permitting and occupancy approval delays. Advocates are hopeful that the project can help take people off the streets, but also expressed frustrations over the lack of transparency with its delayed opening.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
‘Where are we supposed to go?’: Watsonville’s new camping ban deepens anxiety for unhoused residents
For eight years, 58-year-old farmworker Alejandro Garcia has struggled to find a safe place to sleep in Watsonville. His anxiety is now compounding as the city implements new rules that ban camping along rivers and sloughs, allowing crews to clear encampments without warning.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Watsonville approves ‘no encampment zones’ along sloughs, levee and downtown plaza
Watsonville City Council will decide whether to make changes to its camping ordinance, establishing “no encampment zones” in areas such the Struve Slough, the Pajaro River levee and other public spaces around the city.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Judge shoots down Trump’s homeless funding shift: ‘The hallmark of unreasoned decision making’
In a legal victory for California, a federal judge rejected President Donald Trump’s efforts to funnel money away from permanent homeless housing.
