City on a Hill Press » homeless

A Broad Brush Stroke: Homelessness in SC

City on a Hill Press — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:48:55 +0000

A Project Homeless Connect (PHC) volunteer prepares a plate of spaghetti during the PHC event on April 9. Photo by Daniel Green.

About 500 volunteers assembled at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium last Tuesday, united for a common cause: to provide a variety of essential services to the county’s homeless population.

Ken Shaw, one of Santa Cruz’s Project Homeless Connect’s (PHC) 11 steering committee members, said the event brought students, church members and other members of the Santa Cruz community together to help those in need.

“The goal is to bring together for one day, 40–50 services under one roof. So our clients can get the help they need in one day, which normally would take months and months to achieve,” Shaw said.

PHC has organized the event for four years. Founded in San Francisco in 2004, the one-day community-wide event has since branched out to over 260 cities across the United States, as well as in Canada and Australia. The Santa Cruz chapter of PHC, which was founded in 2010, is sponsored by United Way of Santa Cruz and Applied Survey Research and partnered with Santa Cruz Shelter as well as Homeless Persons Health Project.

Services provided range from dental, medical and mental health services to haircuts and services for pets. Organizations like Dominican Hospital volunteered a medical RV that provided free health screenings, while the Salvation Army gave out clothing vouchers.

“We get all of our funding from donations, churches, private donations and in-kind donations [ranging from toiletries or reading glasses],” Shaw said.

This year’s event was held when support for the homeless population was questioned by some city residents and officials amid an ongoing public safety debate sparked by a spike in violent crime in the last few months.

Clothing vouchers were provided to the homeless at one of the tables during the Project Homeless Connect event. Photo by Daniel Green.

Vice Mayor Lynn Robinson recently proposed cutting $42,000 — roughly 25 percent — of the city’s funding for the Homeless Services Center, which provides meals, health services and a place to sleep, among other amenities. In a letter to the center’s executive director, Robinson expressed concern that Santa Cruz’s homeless population contributes disproportionately to crime and drug problems in the city.

“I’m convinced the services are not working,” Robinson said in an interview with the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “That is not the kind of agency that is giving our community a good outcome.”

Craig Reinarman, a professor of sociology at UC Santa Cruz and member of PHC’s board of advisors who attended this year’s event, said those issues are linked only peripherally.

“They’re being painted by a very broad brush that lends itself to bad public policy,” he said. “I’m deeply troubled by what I see unfolding in Santa Cruz.”

Reinarman said those involved in criminal activity represent “only a small slice of the homeless population.” He said cutting financial support for the homeless is a counterproductive strategy in the long run.

“Study after study has shown that every dollar you invest in treatment will save you five to seven dollars in criminal justice fees,” Reinarman said.

Kymberly Lacrosse, a member of PHC’s steering committee who helped start the Santa Cruz chapter, said homelessness in Santa Cruz must be given deeper consideration before action is taken.

“People often want a quick fix, they’re freaking out thinking ‘this isn’t working, let’s cut funding’… that’s not going to get the results that we want,” Lacrosse said. “We need to have everybody on all views and angles of the problem participate in the process and make that decision together.”

People sign up for benefits at the Project Homeless Connect event. This was one of the many services available to the homeless at this event. Photo by Daniel Green.

The most recent statistics on homelessness compiled by Applied Survey Research (ASR) show that of Santa Cruz’s 60,342 residents, 2,771 are homeless — 4.6 percent. Samantha Green, senior research analyst for ASR said the homeless population is expected to grow, especially among young people.

“We have a generation of youth who are under the age of 25 who are struggling economically, they are accumulating large amounts of debt,” Green said. “The cost of living is just too high.”

Reinarman also stressed the impact the recent recession has had on the homeless population.

“We’re in the midst of coming slowly out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” Reinarman said. “You have very high levels of unemployment, longer terms of unemployment, less public services available because they’ve been under attack and cut back, and you have hundreds of thousands of foreclosures in California alone … So you have people who sleep wherever they can.”

Marcus Kelly-Cobos was at the most recent PHC event. He was a homeless addict when he attended it a year ago. While he had initially only intended to “grab at some free stuff and services,” last year’s event had an unexpected impact after he found himself at a booth operated by Janus, a Santa Cruz rehabilitation center.

“For some reason I ended up at the Janus table, they gave me an assessment and a week later I was in the program. I got out and started getting really involved in the community,” Kelly-Cobos said. “I wouldn’t be standing here if I hadn’t come last year … I was in bad shape I used to use needle … you know the whole bit … it kind of got me back on track”.

Kelly-Cobos has been sober since then and is now taking classes at Cabrillo community college, hoping to become a registered addiction specialist. He also interns at Janus and was recently asked to join PHC’s steering committee.

Lacrosse said examples like Kelly-Cobos’ demonstrate why it’s essential to keep services available to those in need.

“Every single person coming in has a story … it’s not ‘oh they’re a this person or that person’ that mentality is what has to change,” Lacrosse said. “We have to deal with the problem, not blame the people … it’s important we change the context of the conversation from the persons behavior, not judge them and look at what we need to do to help.”

Syringe Exchange Sparks New Debate

City on a Hill Press — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:25:26 +0000

Illustration by Christine Hipp.

What do a recent spike in violent crime, used syringes and the homeless have in common? These three issues have spurred the Santa Cruz City Council to pass new public safety legislation, in the process igniting a debate over the way in which Santa Cruz ought to approach the topic. Street Outreach Supporters (SOS), a local syringe exchange, has become the focal point of conflicting viewpoints in the debate, as SOS comes under fire from the city council.

During a meeting on Feb. 12, the council voted unanimously in favor of measures intended to address crime, drugs and homelessness in Santa Cruz. Along with a decision to increase the budget of the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD), allowing them to hire more police, the legislation also establishes a six-month-long citizen’s task force on public safety and will give $50,000 to the Parks and Recreation Department to be used in cleaning up parks and beaches marred by trash and criminal activity.

Opponents of the new measures argue the city is headed down the wrong path, turning to greater police presence instead of preventative care and treatment programs, while supporters claim that getting tough makes sense in the wake of the recent Santa Cruz crime spike.

However, the proposition that’s drawn the most criticism is the city council’s ongoing discussion on how to regulate SOS.

A Sharp Issue

Meeting in a closed session on Jan. 22, the city council decided to direct city attorney John Barisone to shut down an SOS location in the lower Ocean area where the exchange had operated out of a van in a laundromat parking lot for 24 years.

This left the county health facility on Emeline Avenue, where the exchange operates three days out of the week, as the sole location in Santa Cruz where used syringes can be exchanged for clean ones.

A steep increase in used syringes found on beaches, parks and around local schools this month have brought the exchange’s services to heightened levels of scrutiny. Still, there is disagreement over how to handle the situation, with supporters of SOS arguing that shutting down the exchange will lead to more used needles, not less, and opponents saying the exchange needs tighter regulation and shouldn’t be allowed to hand out as many needles as it currently does.

“We acknowledge the clear public health benefits of a needle exchange,” said five-term city councilwoman Cynthia Mathews, “but we want to continue discussions that are also responsive to the legitimate concerns of the community.”

According to the mission statement on the SOS website, the exchange aims to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases by providing clean needles to those who need them. The organization’s policy, in accordance with California state law, can give out up to 30 free needles.

Deputy Chief Rick Martinez, who represented many concerned citizens at Tuesday’s meeting, insisted that a “devil may care” attitude was being encouraged by the excessive needle distribution. Stating the stance of the SCPD, Martinez insisted that stricter regulations, such as a one-for-one exchange policy and a possible shift of the exchange’s location to a non-residential neighborhood, are necessary for the exchange to continue to operate.

“These hardcore addicts have to support their habit, and they are not doing it by panhandling,” Martinez said. “They are doing it by committing crime.”

Local journalist and homeless advocate Robert Norse said restrictive policies could do more civic harm than good in the long run.

“Restricting the exchange would pose a greater public health hazard,” Norse said. “If city council wanted to alleviate the issue, they would have given that money [used to increase the number of police officers] to the needle exchange instead.”

Hilary McQuie, California director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, an organization focused on issues of drug usage and public health, cited a recent study comparing the needle exchange programs of Chicago and Hartford. The study found that Chicago’s program, which operated with a 50-to-1 conversion rate, collected nearly 90 percent of the city’s used needles. Hartford’s conservative 1-to-1 model, by contrast, fell below 50 percent.

In an opinion piece on the Santa Cruz Sentinel — a forum where the debate between supporters and opponents of SOS have repeatedly aired their respective views — McQuie said SOS should be allowed to adopt more liberal needle policies, not less.

Proposals have also been made to increase the amount of drop-boxes around Santa Cruz where used needles can be safely disposed of, as well as increased oversight of SOS by Santa Cruz’s Health Services Agency.

Through the Eye of a Needle

Local volunteers calling themselves “The Clean Team” have reported finding used syringes by the hundreds, both on public beaches and the area surrounding Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory School, over the past two weekends. The team gathered all of the needles into a large woven basket and uploaded a photo onto Facebook.

The recreational area of Pogonip also has historically been host to a number of campsites and is often littered with used syringes, a situation brought to light during the course of a string of raids on homeless camps in the area by SCPD last summer.

Citing the number of used needles found around Santa Cruz, critics of the local needle exchange point to Santa Clara County’s program as an alternative, which provides half as many needles on a monthly basis to a population that is six times the size of Santa Cruz’s.

For some though, the availability of clean syringes is literally a life or death situation, leading many to seek reforms that do not limit the amount that SOS can hand out.

“The needle exchange saved my life,” said Robert Fryling, a Santa Cruz resident born and raised in the area. He lost both his mother and brother to HIV, which doctors presumed to be contracted via the sharing of used needles.

More Than Skin Deep

Needle exchanges have been the most effective way to facilitate proper used needle disposal, according to a recent study conducted in Miami, Fla. Though SOS denied an interview, according to its website their collection rate is nearly 20,000 used syringes a month, enough to fill an oil drum every week. The Sharp Solutions program, Santa Cruz County’s needle collection agency, reports an average of 200 a month by contrast.

Ideally needle exchanges also function as a method of recovery for drug users seeking a way to get clean, according to SOS’s website. Studies held in Seattle last year suggest that needle exchange participants are five times more likely to enter drug treatment than non-participant injection drug users.

The used syringes in Santa Cruz pose health concerns, but according to SOS’s supporters a lack of clean needles may unleash a brand new batch of health issues, such as the spread of AIDS and other terminal illnesses.

“It’s only because I was clean [from disease] that I could salvage my life from the ashes,” Fryling said.

The city council will continue working with the Santa Cruz City Health Department and the county to establish rules governing the last remaining needle exchange in the weeks ahead.

Broadband By The People, For The People

City on a Hill Press — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:17:57 +0000

A 65-foot flatbed truck filled with computers offering free Internet access to migrant laborers is one project among many aimed at promoting universal broadband access along the Central Coast.

Illustration by Leigh Douglas

The group behind it is the Central Coast Broadband Consortium (CCBC), which aims to bridge the “digital divide” in Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties.

“The digital divide means those who are not connected,” said Gladys Palpallatoc, associate vice president of the California Emerging Technologies Fund (CETF), “those who aren’t seeing the benefits of technology as it advances, much less being online.”

The percentage of Californians with an Internet connection in their home increased from 55 percent in 2008 to 72 percent in 2011, according to a survey taken by the CETF. The 2011 survey also found that this number is significantly lower among underrepresented groups and those who are disabled, with only 55 percent of Latinos and 49 percent of disabled people in California having Internet access in their homes.

“Although we know that the pace of technology is quick and most folks will adapt,” said Gladys Palpallatoc, associate vice president of the CETF, “there are some folks who are already at a disadvantage, and those communities will only become more deeply disadvantaged without help.”

The CETF was born in 2005 from the dual mergers of AT&T with SBC and Verizon with MCI. As a condition of those mergers, the California Public Utilities Commission required that Verizon and AT&T pay $60 million toward creating the CETF, a California nonprofit that works to ensure that rural, poor and otherwise disadvantaged communities are not left behind by the progress of broadband technologies.

A central component of its strategy is to organize and formalize regional groups throughout California already involved in broadband development, so that they might take note of the digital divide and attempt to address it.

“[The CCBC] was fairly loose-knit until the CETF provided some organizational structure in 2006, and then the stimulus of 2009 came along and that provided a real impetus to actually do something,” said Steve Blum, president of Tellus Venture, a private consulting firm specializing in community broadband development and a member group of the CCBC. “So that’s when the CCBC became an operating organization, as opposed to just a talking organization.”

The CCBC includes representatives from the cities of Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Monterey; CSU Monterey Bay; UCSC; local internet provider Cruzio and many other private companies, as well as nonprofits. Together they have recently unveiled two new projects designed to further “the mission of the CCBC, [which] is to plan for, build and connect the region’s disparate telecommunications networks and fill critical gaps,” according to the website of CSUMB’s Center for Wireless Education and Technology (WeTEC), a member of the CCBC.

The first of these was made possible by a $4.9 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will go toward establishing a series of Public Computing Centers (PCCs) throughout the Central Coast.

Spearheaded by Arlene Krebs, professor of communications at CSUMB and the founding director of WeTEC, the project has established over 30 PCCs throughout Monterey County so far and has plans to extend the program to Santa Cruz County.

The CCBC brings in computing equipment and broadband access to provide those who might not have access to the Internet with a place they can go to plug in and connect. The centers are housed in areas that already serve the community, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, libraries, the National Steinbeck Center, and Krebs’ personal project, the upgrading of a pre-existing CSUMB satellite campus into a PCC.

“The federal government says that we are the most diverse partnership in the U.S. that came together to do this sort of thing,” Krebs said.

The six-month-old PCC at the CSUMB satellite campus is in Salinas’ Chinatown, an area with a large proportion of the city’s homeless population who are the main beneficiaries of this center.

“The homeless people in that area have now connected with family,” Krebs said. “When you ask what the impact is, they now have email accounts, they now are on Facebook, they’re finding their friends, they’re finding their family, they’re learning new skills, they’re also enjoying entertainment once in a while — things that most of us just take for granted.”

This project’s second component is a 65-foot flatbed truck outfitted with 21 computing stations, which will serve Monterey’s agricultural workers by pulling up next to the fields and allowing them to use the Internet.

Other groups within the CCBC are in the midst of implementing a three-year-long planning and organizational strategy, aimed at creating a database of the Central Coast’s current broadband access and identifying key areas that can benefit from improvement. The project is funded by a $450,000 grant from the California Advanced Services Fund. Work began on it in January.

As the CCBC’s initiatives take their course, Krebs and the other members are hopeful that they will achieve a lasting impact on the Central Coast’s residents and businesses. Still, money is tight, and the funding that created the PCCs is set to run out in six months.

Krebs is in the process of finding private donors who will keep the project going. She said as long as the CCBC continues to work hard, the Central Coast will see its digital divide become smaller year by year.

“You have to keep your eye on the prize. You have to be vigilant,” Krebs said. “Because I’ve been working on this pup since 2002, and I’m not stopping now.”