Snooze, you lose in Santa Cruz

its only by the grace of the creator,literaly, that i didnt end up homeless in santa cruz. after 4 generations of family growing up here, ( my grand mother, mother cousins and i all went to garfeild park elementery school10 my great grand mother showed up in a covered wagon from indiana at the age of 8 or 9, we got priced out of our beloved home town. delaviega park golf course sits on property stolen by the govt. and it belonged to my cousin shr-lynn and my aunt billy, where we had horse stabls and trail rides. aunt billy used to put on the synchronized swimming shows at the largest salt water swimming pool on the west coast at the board walk, now filled in and a minature golf course, my great grand mother had land stolen for eminent domain they were supposed to put a road through but moved some houses onto it 10 years or so after the fact and sold them at a discount to low income folk and lowered every bodys house values! well by the 80,s all our land was gone stolen by my moms evil step mother and her lawyer lover who manged to get rid of the real will, and i got labeled a bad kid in 3rd grade and no matter what i did i could not get treated like a human being by teachers principles cops or peers. so i rebelled hard and was one of those petty drug dealers you mentioned although later after leaving santa cruz for houston it wasnt to petty anymore1 but long story short i came from wrong family couldnt get a job, and almost end ed up homeless i moved in with a few diffrenet women just for a roof over my head. my whole family ended up moving because the rents got so outrageous and now im in oroville after being in colo. wyo. neb. and pine ridge oglalla lakota (sioux) resevation in south dakota where my dads family is from.i miss the fog and the foghorn early in the morning and the sealions barking at seal rock reverberating through the still morning air all across the west side. i miss the salt air, and the wharf all my fishing trips there and hardly ever caught anything worthwhile and as we got older the good fish got fewer and fewer untill all you could caytch was kingfish(white croakers) and bullheads(pacific sculpins) and i seen the wharf last fall and whats been done, having to pay to go out there, thats worse then the damn parking meters were!

steven hall,

You’re describing what overpopulation does very accurately.

Too bad your tale of woe falls on deaf ears. You see, editor Don wants LOTS MORE population growth, which is why his editorial policy supports open borders, no matter how much grief that causes the rest of us.

He refuses to report the horrors of the alien invasion. All we get are puff pieces about how wonderful they are, and oh by the way, they need a lot more “support.”

Hard to believe, but I’m not only one who sees through his agenda.

Don:

You might want to inquire a little more deeply about shelter availability at the Homeless Services Center [HSC].

At the Injunction trial today of Anna Richardson and Miguel de Leon in Judge Volkman’s Dept. 4, HSC”s Daniel White, Shelter Manager for the Homeless Service Center gave testimony under penalty of perjury.

He testified under oath exactly what he told us a week ago when we tried to get a bed for PeaceCamp20 homeless activist Timothy Smith, who was told there were no beds.

We were further advised, that there has been no walk-in shelter available since April 15th; none would be available until November 15th. Waiting list time: 4-6 weeks.

Strangely enough, Daniel wouldn’t that statement on paper to pass on to your friends the police when they come with flashlights and ticket books at midnight to ticket people for sleeping who have no shelter.

The Paul Lee Loft has less than 48 beds.

Paul Brindel is the Shelter Project Director at the Community Action Board, regularly involved in charting homeless population and homeless shelter–as well as trying to provide shelter.

He testified that there were at least 450 unsheltered homeless people at the last census count (my estimate is much higher). That’s after adding in all the shelter at other North County shelters than the HSC.

So it looks like HSC Executive Director Monica Martinez’s suggestion is wildly optimistic, but maybe we can all test it out by trooping down there one Monday, hopefully with you there, notebook in hand, to see things first hand.

Let me know if you’d agree to do that, and I think we can meet you down there on Monday. In the meantime, perhaps you can ask your buddies in blue to lay off the harassment so people can sleep at night until then.

Yes, Virginia, there really is no shelter in Santa Cruz for the overwhelming majority of homeless people in Santa Cruz.

For you not to know that after decades of Sentinel writing makes you either incredibly ignorant, willfully blind, or (most likely) terminally prejudiced.

It may be unwise to offend the local paper of record, but the Sentinel’s longstanding sewer gusher of misinformation feeds the bigotry of those in the community who rely on it for even vaguely accurately information.

The Sentinel’s knee-jerk police support also backs up politicians who cater to that bigotry and repeatedly issue misinformation that demeans and vilifies homeless people.

Apologies and some real investigative journalism would be in order there, Don.

Robert Norse:

How come these problems do not exist in Scotts Valley? Because the community won’t tolerate it. That is what is happening here… take your cause to San Francisco where the problem is much more severe and needs you ‘attention’. Even your “leader” Doyon has commented he is homeless by choice. Thtat is exactly the kind of people who show up here because S.C is tolerant. I say enough is enough, kick out those who are here to have a good time and ‘milk’ the system.

The Robert & Becky show wouldn’t DARE try their act in other towns.

They are here PRECISELY for the very “magnet effect” which they shameless deny exists.

We should have nothing else to do with them until they clean up the incredible filth their lying thieving vandalizing bums leave in our greenbelt. Until then we don’t even owe them a response to their fatuous demands.

Robert Norse,

Instead of wasting taxpayer money and funds all your ridiculous litigations, why don’t you open up your own homeless shelter? You have the money, share it with your homeless friends!

I’m all for helping people who are legitimately homeless, but that’s not the case with many of these folks. I was homeless once, but was able to eventually get out of it after lots of hard work.

How about drug testing everyone at Coral Street to get a count of users. Drove by last week and saw two people so high they couldn’t stand up. Santa Cruz is a stopping off place for drug users to get high, get free food and hang out with all the other users for a good time.

Robert, what is the upper limit for shelters?

I would of course, be sympathetic if we were in a national crisis that 10 of millions of people were homeless. Even with that, I would still not be sympathetic to those who play the homeless by choice card.

We live in a world of tighter resources and smaller space. It may have been 300-500 years ago that you could roam in the west and stay where you wanted. But those days are over.

I think that sheltered should reflect the area population size and have some type of historical data to show homeless trends. I think that the first people allowed to use the sheltered must be county residents for at least 1 year and have held a job and had housing.

To simply come to a place because it is beautiful and the weather is pretty nice all year, then wish to be fed and sheltered will become an unsustainable process in the coming years.

Stephen,

Well said.

And the same reality applies to people coming here from outside our country too.