Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley sent a clear message last week during an early morning press conference: Santa Cruz will not take on other cities’ unhoused populations. Accompanied by city and county officials, Keeley convened the media to unveil a new ordinance that makes the unannounced drop off of unhoused individuals within the city by other jurisdictions illegal.
Less than a week later, the ordinance was voted into law by the Santa Cruz City Council during a Sep. 10 meeting. Unhoused drop offs of that type are now a misdemeanor.
The move came in response to an incident on June 27 in which a disabled unhoused person was allegedly driven to and dropped off in Santa Cruz by police officers from the city of Hanford, located about 30 miles south of Fresno in Kings County. The individual, whom officials are only referring to as “Person Doe,” had no connection to the area and told them they were brought to Santa Cruz against their will.
Keeley said while local officials will work with other jurisdictions to help settle unhoused people with ties to the community here, Hanford officials did not reach out to the city before deciding to offload Person Doe with all their belongings at the Armory shelter.
Person Doe also alleged in a subsequent interview with city staff that the two officers who transported them suggested Santa Cruz because it’s “laid back and tolerant of people experiencing homelessness.” The officers added that “they are anti-homeless in Hanford,” according to a city staff report.
“Our expectation is that, programmatically, we communicate with each other. We don’t dump homeless people in somebody else’s community. We don’t expect that in our community,” Keeley said at the Sep. 5 press conference.
Hanford Police and the city’s mayor did not engage with Santa Cruz officials after the initial incident and went silent, according to Keeley.
Homelessness Response Manager Larry Imwalle reiterated Keeley’s sentiments at the press conference.
“The Hanford PD’s conduct was not only irresponsible, but it was also inhumane, placing undue strain on local homeless services that we provide to other people experiencing homelessness in the city, and creating challenges to the individuals that don’t have support. Simply, this is not how we do things in Santa Cruz,” Imwalle said.
The ordinance reads as follows:
“No law enforcement officer, agent, or employee of a county, of another city, or of any other governmental entity, when acting in their official capacity, shall transport and drop-off an individual on public property, or private property that is accessible to the public, within the City of Santa Cruz, when the person being transported and dropped off lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.”
A companion resolution also directs the SCPD to add a “prohibition of unsanctioned transport of homeless persons” policy to its manual. Santa Cruz Police Chief Bernie Escalante was on hand to echo Keeley and Imwalle.
“The actions that we experienced by the city of Hanford and the Hanford Police Department do not align with the values of our community here in Santa Cruz and, as it has been expressed, this is not how we do things in our community,” Escalante said.
Good Times made multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact Hanford city officials for a response to the allegations. Among those contacted were Hanford Mayor Travis Paden and Hanford Police Chief Stephanie Huddleston.
However, the city did put out a statement addressing the situation on the same day of the Santa Cruz press conference.
“On June 27, officers of the Hanford Police Department transported an individual
experiencing homelessness to the City of Santa Cruz at the individual’s sole request. At no
point in time did Hanford Police Department officers suggest, encourage or coerce the
individual to go to the City of Santa Cruz. Any claims of this nature are flat-out false,” read the Sept. 5 release, in part.
“It should be noted that Hanford Police Chief Stephanie Huddleston has previously
explained this series of events to Santa Cruz’s Police Chief. We strongly disagree with the
City of Santa Cruz’s assessment that the City of Hanford is moving its homeless problem
‘elsewhere,’” it went on to say.
Hanford Police also said the decision to transport the individual was made after they refused to seek out homeless services in the area.
Good Times reached out to Kings Community Action Organization—Kings County’s leading nonprofit providing homeless services—for comment on the situation but did not receive a response.
Brian T. Johnson, Community Relations Manager for Hanford, told Good Times in an email on Sep. 5 that the city’s actions are being mischaracterized.
“I’ll add that we take issue with the words ‘dump’ and ‘dumping.’ As stated in our response, our officers provided a service at the request of the individual. [They were] not dumped,” Johnson wrote.
In Santa Cruz County, the Homeward Bound program regularly helps unhoused individuals to connect with family members or other support and offers transportation to reach them. That means helping people leave the area or arrive here, depending on the situation. Hanford officials did not reach out to any local service providers and the city does not appear to have a similar program.
Santa Cruz County District District 3 Supervisor Justin Cummings was also present at the Sept. 5 press conference and said that he would work with his colleagues on the board of supervisors to bring an ordinance similar to the city of Santa Cruz’s proposal forward.
“I think this gives us an opportunity to really dive into how we prevent this from happening and really put forward some consequences for when other jurisdictions do that,” Cummings said.
During the Sep. 10 council meeting, Keeley had the support of the dias, including council member Sandy Brown.
“We are against forced displacement, that’s why I think this is so important,” Brown said.
