Quick Take
Housing Matters board chair Ray Bramson’s recent Lookout op-ed twists the narrative on homeless day services at the Santa Cruz nonprofit, writes advocate David Davis. Davis has worked at the Homeless Persons Health Project for 10 years and at the Coral Street campus for 15 years, and believes Housing Matters’ claims about reach and housing placements significantly overstate the facts. Bramson wrote his piece in response to Davis’ critical Lookout letters to the editor. Davis writes that Housing Matters’ decision to stop offering day services, including showers and mail access, at its Coral Street campus in March is short-sighted and more about optics on Coral Street than residents’ well-being.
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I feel I need to correct some of the assertions by Ray Bramson, as he responded to my letters to Lookout about Housing Matters ending day services programs.
First, I have worked on the campus on Coral Street in Santa Cruz for the past 15 years; I worked at the River Street shelter, then at the Homeless Services Center (now Housing Matters), and then at the Homeless Persons Health Project (HPHP) for the past 10 years.
I think we need to separate the services provided by Housing Matters from what was offered by the Homeless Services Center, as created by Paul Lee, Page Smith and Rowland Rebele in the late 1980s. It was built to provide day services programs and shelter for the homeless population.
Sadly, all three of them have passed.
Homeless Services Center offered meals to the public (anyone, not just the homeless), did not have gates on the campus, and offered showers, mail and bathrooms, along with various shelter programs.
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Mr. Bramson wrote to correct me, saying that the only day service fully funded by the county was the mail service, which offered mail to more than 1,700 unhoused or housing-insecure people annually.
However, on Dec. 16, the board of supervisors, after learning of HM’s decision to end day services programs (as found in the meeting minutes), voted to reduce the county funding to Housing Matters by $45,000 for “day services.” That seems like a lot of money for people just to use the bathroom and showers. A separate item terminated the $75,000 just for mail services.
In terms of the Recuperative Care Center (RCC), until this past year, HPHP provided all the medical care for the patients, as well as the transportation costs for patients to their various doctor appointments, at no charge, while Housing Matters collected all the related payments for bed space and case-management services.
Bramson also writes that the Housing Matters services reaches more than 4,000 people experiencing homelessness every year, whereas the annual point-in-time count has never reached that number, and in recent years is under 2,000.
“In 2025, more than 400 people moved into stable housing with the support of Housing Matters staff,” Bramson writes. That, too, is overplaying the facts, as many of them had vouchers or were referred to housing programs by the county’s Housing for Health division. Many of them resided in a HM shelter until they found a place to live.
Does Housing Matters support them? Yes. Did it help them get housing? Some, but not 400.
Let’s also be frank about the decision to end day services. It’s not, as Housing Matters CEO Phil Kramer says, about the well-being of the people housed at Harvey West Studios. It’s about people camping on Coral Street and Kramer’s and the city’s desire to move them.
This, despite the city’s history of breaking up other encampments and pushing them there, by default.
Kramer has publicly stated that his donors and employees were concerned about coming to the campus because there was no room on the sidewalks. To resolve this, Housing Matters put up fences, which also prevented people from using the sidewalks. For Kramer, it is all about optics, such as having extra sweeps on the street when the media will be on hand for an event.
I wish nothing but the best for the people who will live at Harvey West Studios. I am sure I will know many of them. I enjoy working with the staff at Housing Matters and do not have a bad word to say about any of them. I do not think that, realistically, removing these programs will change anything in terms of atmosphere on the street near the campus. In fact, the residents there will likely do what the residents in HM shelters, and at Casa Azul (the nine-unit house on Coral Street), do, and that is hang out on Coral Street. They have nowhere else to go.
It will, however, bring more human waste, disease and chaos as these services are removed. People will have no access to toilets at night or on weekends. Wounds that don’t get cleaned will fester.
Housing Matters decided almost a year ago to remove these, and no viable solutions have been implemented.
As HM ends these services, it will be left to HPHP to help fill the gap. We are where the homeless population goes when they need help. It would have been nice to be involved in the decision and solutions over a year ago, to have avoided all this back-and-forth.
To be clear, the concerns I raise in letters to Lookout come straight from a place of advocacy for our patients. I am tired of seeing the names of people dying on the streets every year as all those names cross my desk in my role of producing the statistics for people experiencing homelessness for the county each year.
I would hate to see that number increase because of an outbreak of shigella, abscesses that went unattended or any other reason that can happen as services are removed from the population.
My colleagues and I have provided a number of alternatives to keeping the day services at Housing Matters, or elsewhere on Coral Street, but we have received no response. The alternatives include using the city-owned Sea Berg Metal Fabricators building on Coral Street to house temporary bathrooms, showers, and even the mail services, until a permanent home is found for them. Or, Housing Matters could place the services at the city-run shelter at 1220 River St.
Lastly, it is possible to do good and harm in the same breath. Giving with one hand and taking with the other.
Housing Matters provides shelter to many people experiencing homelessness in Santa Cruz, and has helped thousands of people over the years. Housing Matters will also be hurting the 1,700 people who receive mail on its campus, and many of the people who continue to experience homelessness in our county, by ending day services programs.
Can you name another organization that will be hurting more people than that?
David Davis is a departmental administrative analyst at the Homeless Persons Health Project.