Updated Santa Cruz Free Guide Downloadable in Hard Copy

THE UPDATED SANTA CRUZ FREE GUIDE
Following a mixture of encouragement and disparagement, Evan Morrison, SCFG manager, released a September 2023 edition, significantly updated from the earlier on line-version of January 19th.

Perhaps in response to public demand, perhaps in response to Street Shit Sheet criticism, perhaps out of concern to be current, SCFG manager Evan Morrison and his crew did this update, not yet available on-line (as of 9-27). So I'm posting it in case anyone wants to download it.

I haven't checked the accuracy or effectiveness of the latest services and their contact info. I continue to encourage folks to let the Street Shit Sheet (and Evan at his SCFG website) know of experiences, since they may help in future updates--when and if they happen.

Evan assures me that his team regularly communicates with the services listed and that the full updated version will be available soon on their website at https://santacruzfreeguide.org/calendar/

In collegial fashion, he wrote that he plans to attend the October 7th HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) meeting at the Sub Rosa next to the Bike Church. We go from 11 AM to 1 PM usually. If that happens, ,he may be available to answer questions.

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) had been making rather feeble attempts to gather information regarding the accessibility of the SCFG's listings.

We encouraged Evan to clarify the footwork he'd done and suggested we'd forward whatever info (positive or negative) that came to us back to him..

THE TIER 3 VEHICULAR STORAGE/SHELTER PROGRAM
Morrison also manages the Tier 3 vehicular storage/shelter area up near the Armory Shelter
Morrison's Tier 3 program is a key program for a small but important minority of Santa Cruz homeless who survive with the help of vehicular shelter.

However a key function the program is to keep the Oversized Vehicle Ordinance active and legal. It provides the semblance of a storage component for Oversized Vehicles vehicles. This was an important element missing when the Coastal Commission turned down the City's request for permits in 2016 and again in 2022.

However City authorities can now use the existence of this program to claim it has adequate shelter/storage for vehicles. This allows City Manager Matt Huffaker to get permits to carry out the a nighttime city-wide ban previously denied him by the Coastal Commission. It empowers police to harass, cite, and two homes-on-wheels. It allows police to steal homes, drive people out of time, and further immiserate them.

We hope to discuss this issue with Morrison at the October 7th meeting.

THE BROADER SITUATION
Free services are really important for folks on the street. The Poverty-Industrial Complex has also become big business for profiteering non-profits gobbling up big grants from the city, the county, the state, the feds, and private foundations. Tax-payers also see the huge sums being spent "ending homelessness", which simply grows, and grows more visibly. Hence it's natural that groups advertising homeless services seek to entice as many clients into their programs as they can

Additionally, people outside are being forced to brand themselves as either disabled, "mentally ill", "substance abusive", "alcoholic: etc. in order to get even minimal food & shelter services at various agencies. This sets the stage for coercive "treatment" under Governor Newsom's force- them-into-treatment" solution to visible homelessness. Big City Mayors are colluding to trash the Martin v. Boise protections laid down requiring real indoor shelter with claims that human rights do not belong to "service-resistant" or "voluntary" homeless folks.

As far as it is accurate and accessible, the SCFG is a good, perhaps a vital, resource. What is clear is that millions upon millions of "homeless funds" are disappearing in to the pockets of folks who aren't and never were homeless.

Meanwhile visible folks living outside are facing increasing police harassment as they struggle with the clearly inadequate shelter available by providing their own. Massive police overreaction becomes the go-to solution to scare the poor out of town. It is happening now—on the levee, in front of the “Housing Matters” complex, on the streets nearby. If you see it, please document and post on this website.