.Opinion

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Winter Shelter Program Ends
Re: “Cold Shoulders” (GT, 2/10): Nearly 400 people are about to lose a place to sleep, eat and shower. That’s the number of people who used the Winter Shelter Program between Nov. 15 and Mar. 21. This program provides temporary shelter for people experiencing homelessness in Santa Cruz County during the coldest and wettest months of the year. The program ends April 1.
While the staff has operated the program for many years and has previously experienced the hard reality of ending the program, knowing that participants have no other place to sleep this year is especially poignant for me because I’m in charge of winding down operations. As the new executive director of Homeless Services Center, I have the agonizing task of closing the program, knowing full well that most of these men, women and families will be sleeping rough when the program ends. They’ll need to find a safe place to sleep, a place where they won’t be given a ticket for sleeping, a place where their belongings are safeguarded, a place to eat, a place to shower and use a bathroom, and a place to stay warm and dry so their already fragile health won’t worsen.
During February, 76 people used the Winter Shelter each night on average, and we had a few nights when the population was in the high 90s. The Winter Shelter has a maximum capacity of 100. As of March 21, a total of 8,465 bed nights were occupied. For the 137 nights that the program was open, people were able to sleep in a safe place, take a hot shower, and enjoy a nutritious dinner and breakfast. Now that the program is ending, I can’t help but think “What about the other 228 nights of the year?”
The people served by the Winter Shelter are merely a fraction of the total number of people who are homeless in Santa Cruz County. According to the 2015 homeless census, there are nearly 2,000 people experiencing homelessness in Santa Cruz County and 84 percent of them are unsheltered.
What can be done between now and November, when, hopefully, but not with certainty, we will start another season of providing shelter during the coldest and wettest months of the year? It’s hard to answer this question, because Emergency Shelter funding is changing. The federal government has prioritized funding for housing, which is great, but it’s at the expense of funding “day services,” which include shelter, showers and meals. To be clear, I’m all for housing. I led the “180” Permanent Supportive Housing initiative for three years, and so far we’ve housed nearly 500 people who were chronically homeless, and more than 90 percent of those people are still housed. Housing is the foundation for people to start on their pathway to improved health, well-being, community integration, and independent living. But what happens in the meantime, while people are finding their pathway to housing? Shelter programs play an important part in this process.
At the Homeless Services Center, we provide residential shelter, transitional housing, supportive services, and medical respite care for more than 200 people. Every day we meet people where they are in their experience of homelessness, with compassion, dignity and respect. It’s heartbreaking to close the Winter Shelter Program knowing that people will have no safe place to sleep for the next 228 nights.
Phil Kramer | Executive Director, Homeless Services Center

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