Quick Take
Housing Matters — Santa Cruz County’s largest homelessness nonprofit — plans to shut down its Coral Street day services, including public showers, bathrooms and a mailroom that served more than 1,700 people last year. The closure, scheduled for March 2026, comes with no clear transition plan, writes Marsa Greenspan, a former Housing Matters employee. She believes the nonprofit has funding to maintain day services long past March, and as federal support for housing and Medicaid dwindles, pulling these lifelines from Coral Street without a coordinated transition plan would push more vulnerable residents into crisis, she writes. She encourages the community to take action to help sustain public day services without interruption.
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Housing Matters recently announced it plans to close our community’s hub for public showers and bathrooms at the Coral Street campus. Along with these vital day services, the mailroom – where 1,710 people without a home address received their mail last year – is being canned.
In this political climate, while the federal government is aggressively divesting from subsidized housing and community care, the disappearance of these community lifelines would be especially devastating.
So, I think we should be amplifying community care, right now. We should be resolving to hold on tight to these essential human services in Santa Cruz.
The Housing Matters CEO and board have not yet offered an inkling of a coordinated transition plan for the March 2026 closure of day services.
Why is this about to happen, and what can we do as community members to help secure these invaluable resources?
The day services hub on Coral Street has provided a sense of dignity and humanity for people living without a home for nearly 40 years. In 2024 alone, the day services hub provided a whopping 11,007 showers. For countless people who’ve been priced out of housing, many of whom are elderly and disabled, these resources have been the underpinning for their health and wellness.
For the working poor, showers on Coral Street have helped sustain employment after losing their homes. And day services on Coral Street have certainly saved lives.
Just imagine trying to heal a wound without clean water and soap. Imagine having your mailing address – where you received renewal forms from Social Security, Medi-Cal or Housing Authority – yanked from under you.
In Santa Cruz, in the coming months and beyond, we would be wise to bolster survival services.
Social safety net programs all across the nation are unraveling. A harrowing number of good people already find themselves at the mercy of community organizations, such as churches and nonprofits, for shelter and basic protections. Things are likely to get worse soon.
Earlier this year, the National Alliance to End Homelessness warned: “Cutting funding for Medicaid will increase homelessness.”
Congress passed Donald Trump’s big beautiful stupid bill in July, and now in Santa Cruz, we’re likely to see our friends and neighbors fall through the gaping holes in our social support systems, right into homelessness.
What community resources and non-governmental support will my disabled neighbor find when she loses her health insurance and then her subsidized housing? Will she have a safe place to shower? Will the river levee become her public toilet in the evening when the library is closed?
It appears true that Housing Matters CEO Phil Kramer has – with full support of the board – decided to remove public day services from the Coral Street campus without a coordinated transition plan. Contrary to some speculative local reporting, Kramer has not deprioritized day services due to budgetary constraints; rather, he is honing the nonprofit’s mission.
The money is there, but helping folks who are unsheltered with their daily survival needs is no longer on the docket, and neither is a coordinated, humane approach to the transition.
In a recent Lookout article, Kramer is quoted: “We’ll try as best we can to support that evolution of the program in another location.” However, even with a robust collaborative effort – and there is not yet evidence of such an effort – five months is simply not enough time.
“We make the greatest impact in the community,” wrote Housing Matters in a recent newsletter, “by focusing on our core strengths: interim shelter and supportive housing.”
I would argue that day services are a core strength of Housing Matters; it’s done it exceedingly well for a long time, and these services save lives.
It’s also true that we desperately need more supportive housing in Santa Cruz, and one organization simply cannot do it all. This kind of specialized housing is the missing ingredient for getting more people off the streets, and supportive housing is a brand-new endeavor for this deeply rooted nonprofit.
Housing Matters is building Harvey West Studios, with onsite supportive services for 120 residents. This is its foray into supportive housing, permanent housing with on-site care for people who have been living rough on our streets for years with disabling conditions.
Next time you drive by the new five-story building on the corner of River Street and Highway 1, consider this nonprofit’s incredible dedication to housing equity in our community; it’s an arduous uphill battle that Housing Matters leadership has fought. I personally want to see them win, but they can’t do this work successfully on their own.
A collaborative, humane approach to this transition on Coral Street will be their key to success.
I was part of Housing Matters’ Community Engagement Team from 2016 to 2024, with many opportunities to work closely with Kramer and board directors. I watched firsthand as Housing Matters leadership built this impressively impactful organization. Last year alone, Housing Matters helped 473 unhoused adults and children get back into stable housing. These community leaders are doing very good work, but even good people miss the mark.
I would argue that we all share responsibility for sustaining these life-saving day services in Santa Cruz. If you care, how do you plan to show up? And how might we all share accountability for what happens next with our day services hub? (If you’re unsure where to start, I offer a recommendation at the end of this op-ed.)
The prevailing perspective expressed by Housing Matters’ CEO and board is that a calm and healing environment for the new residents of Harvey West Studios cannot be achieved when hundreds of day visitors are accessing the Housing Matters campus. This is largely true and a position rooted in research; however, removing day services with no pivot plan is savage.
Santa Cruz is the least affordable place to live in the nation, and we are desperately short on shelter beds (we offer fewer than 400 shelter beds countywide for about 1,500 people living unhoused). With deep cuts to Medicaid coming soon, this plan for a calm and healing environment on Coral Street is dangerously lacking scope and coordination.
Furthermore, Harvey West Studios has grown from a deep and persistent compassion, and it calls now for a bigger and brighter vision.
This project will not reach its full potential if it opens at the detriment of hundreds of unsheltered human beings. If this top-down decision plays out without substantial intervention, the people living under the worst conditions in Santa Cruz will experience even more alienation, instability, illness and premature death.
Public showers, bathrooms and mailboxes on Coral Street are set to close at the end of March 2026.
If you want to help, contact Housing Matters’ board of directors to demand a coordinated and humane transition plan for our community’s day-services hub. You, taking 10 minutes, could actually make a big difference. Send an email today to contact@housingmatterssc.org.
Subject line: ATTN: Board of directors, day services. Here is a sample letter you could send.
As a community, we need to stand up for each other by holding on to these vital day services. They are a sign of our shared humanity and they also save lives.
Marsa Greenspan is an artist with a career in social services. She’s lived and worked in Santa Cruz since 2010. Marsa is a former Housing Matters employee and was a part of the Community Engagement Team from 2016 to 2024.