SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — Each year, volunteers spread throughout Santa Cruz County to take the Point-In-Time Count: An annual snapshot of the county’s homeless population. The count helps keep track of the county’s efforts to house people and to keep them housed. This year’s count showed that the county’s homeless population was 20% lower than last year’s, continuing a trend that began in 2022. Though progress has been steady, it may not continue. Looming budget cuts threaten the county’s services and could cause future point-in-time counts to stagnate — or even to increase.
“It’ll be hard to be optimistic, or to expect that we can continue to have the same results, without any preservation of the resources that we’ve had in place,” said Tom Stagg, chief initiatives officer of Housing Matters, a local nonprofit that helps people find housing.
Encouraging progress
This year’s Point-In-Time Count showed 1,473 homeless people in the county, a nearly 36% decrease from the 2,299 counted in 2022. Paired with survey data to understand more detailed information about those in the count, including how long they’ve been without housing and what government assistance they receive, these statistics help the county understand how the system is working. Still, the data is far from perfect. Volunteers are sure to miss some people, and the data is a summary of where homeless people were located on a single day. The numbers are bound to fluctuate from year to year, or even from day to day, as individuals’ circumstances change or as they move from place to place.
For example, this year, Watsonville’s homeless population dropped 50% from last year. But that doesn’t necessarily mean all of those people secured housing. Some of the change could be explained by people simply moving to the other side of the Pajaro River. That would cause them to be counted in Monterey County, rather than Santa Cruz County, noted Roxanne Wilson, Monterey County’s Homeless Services director. Because of these kinds of complications, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties often work closely when addressing homelessness.
“This particular population is considered members of both our respective communities,” Wilson wrote in an email. “To see a true reduction of homelessness in the Pajaro Valley, we must move forward together.”
Still, experts say the data is encouraging, even expected based on the work being done. Some attributed the reduced count to increased funding toward homeless services during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the following years.
“It’s not surprising, because we saw an uptick in investments at the state level and the local level,” said Robert Ratner, the director of the county’s Housing for Health Partnership, which publishes the Point-In-Time Count.
One such investment is the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s Homekey Program, which began in 2020. The program provides funding for affordable housing projects and has financed multiple projects in Santa Cruz County, including Housing Matters’ supportive housing on River Street and transitional housing for young adults outside Watsonville.
State and federal funding, which comes through the Housing for Health Partnership, has also increased, according to Larry Imwalle, homeless response manager for the city of Santa Cruz. That money has helped fund housing vouchers and other rental assistance, as well as expanded shelter and safe sleeping programs in the city of Santa Cruz.
In addition to an influx of funding, the past few years have seen increased coordination between the system’s partners, including the Housing for Health Partnership, Housing Matters and incorporated cities within Santa Cruz County. Housing for Health has emphasized outreach and trained staff in a strategy called coordinated entry. This approach aims to connect people seeking assistance with the right services while managing a limited pool of resources. Through that strategy, many people are able to find affordable, non-subsidized housing and there’s been an increase in the number of people who quickly find permanent housing, Ratner said.
Room for improvement
Though this year’s Point-In-Time Count shows the county’s successes, it also identifies some areas for growth. While there are fewer veterans and families with children experiencing homelessness, there are many older adults and people with disabilities that aren’t being reached. In this year’s count, 75% of homeless people in the county were identified as having some kind of disabling condition as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Ratner said that the approach toward homelessness among veterans is particularly effective and well-resourced. “If we could do that with all the other populations, we would see the same kind of progress we’ve been seeing in veterans,” he said. That would require more housing subsidies and increased coordination to bring together resources for seniors, mental health treatment, substance abuse and employment to create a more holistic service.
Scaling up the services that are working now would also help, experts agreed. More shelter space, more housing subsidies and rental assistance, and more affordable housing would all lead to fewer people experiencing homelessness. There are several affordable housing projects in the works throughout the county, including Housing Matters’ Harvey West Studios project and apartments at 41st and Soquel, but resources could be hard to come by in the years ahead.
“Homeless services, housing in general, in my observation, my opinion in doing this work, has never sufficiently met the need,” Stagg said. That situation could get worse with upcoming cuts at the federal and state levels.
Budget cuts ahead
Most of the housing services offered by the county rely on state or federal funding. The Housing for Health Partnership receives over $4 million each year from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The department also funds housing voucher programs and affordable housing projects. On the state side, the California Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Grant Program has also provided a significant amount of funding to the county.
Now, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is proposing major cuts that would affect its housing voucher and affordable housing programs, and the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program is set to be cut in half during the next fiscal year. More of the county’s services may now rely on general city or county funds, which are also likely to be stretched thin due to other cuts.
“There simply isn’t going to be enough to keep homelessness response systems fully funded,” Wilson wrote in an email, “and we are already seeing impacts with program and agency closures.”
The budget cuts are coming at a time when many are feeling the effects of economic instability. Inflation and rising housing costs could push more people into homelessness, Imwalle said, while the system doesn’t have the capacity to help. All of those factors mean that future point-in-time counts could see a stagnation or even an increase in the county’s homeless population.
“We’re faced with an environment where people don’t want to continue to support the things that we built,” Ratner said. “We can’t overcome the kinds of resource and policy shifts that are getting approved.”
Facing an uncertain financial future, the county and its partners will have to put their heads together to figure out how to mitigate the upcoming budget cuts, Stagg said. Ratner agreed, adding that Housing for Health would need to think creatively about how to bring together funding from different sources to continue their essential services.
“The hope is that in Santa Cruz County, there are a lot of people who are compassionate and want to make a difference,” Ratner said. “If we can work together in ways that we haven’t before and be creative and braid funding together … I think we can weather this policy storm to some degree.”
Hence then, the article about state of homelessness santa cruz county budget cuts pose threat to continued progress was published today ( ) and is available on Ukiah Daily Journal ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( State of Homelessness, Santa Cruz County .. Budget cuts pose threat to continued progress )
Also on site :
- 'We've lost our way': Clifton's operator gives up on downtown Los Angeles
- Disney Is Bringing Pixie Dust to the Carolinas and We Finally Have a First Look at the New Asteria Neighborhood
- J. D. Vance’s Bumpy Ride