Santa Cruz County Homelessness Articles

In a weed-strewn, vacant lot on Airport Boulevard Tuesday, Bryan Hilgeman was busy around his makeshift tarp dwelling where he lives, along with about 40 people in the unsanctioned homeless camp.

A new bill would make it illegal for homeless residents to camp in certain places, such as near schools, throughout California. Its authors say such a ban has had great success in San Diego. But a closer look at that …

A special joint council meeting Saturday brought together Watsonville City Council, City Manager Rene Mendez, other city and county leaders and the public for a discussion of the swelling homeless problem.  

Andres Sandoval, 56, has worked as a plumber. He lived in his vehicle in Watsonville in early 2022 and said he wanted a more stable situation. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local file)
WATSONVILLE >> Watsonville city leaders have started …

Housing Matters Chief Impact Officer Mer Stafford speaks in front of pallet shelters for unhoused residents at the Housing Matters campus on Coral Street in Santa Cruz in January. (Jesse Kathan — Santa Cruz Local)
SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz …

Watsonville Police Chief Jorge Zamora, in a gray suit, speaks during a Watsonville City Council meeting on Tuesday. (Jesse Kathan — Santa Cruz Local)
WATSONVILLE >> The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday approved $200,000 for a new homelessness outreach program. 

A once-groundbreaking nonprofit working with chronically homeless people in California’s capital closed and filed for bankruptcy in 2023.

In San Mateo County, a new law allows police to charge homeless people with criminal offenses if they don’t accept shelter. SCOTUS will soon weigh in with a potential landmark decision in an Oregon case.

The California housing crisis is not only weakening the state politically at the national level, it could shift the political balance in Washington, D.C., as Republican-led states add population while California’s exodus continues.

San Francisco provides all tenants facing eviction access to an attorney. Across the Bay, in Contra Costa County, it’s a different story. Two tenants’ stories show the difference a lawyer can make.

California lawmakers made an effort in 2023 to remove red tape around new affordable houses, but obstacles such as high interest rates, sluggish local approval processes and a shortage of skilled construction workers remain.

The state has hundreds of millions to spend on affordable housing. Developers say they need billions.

California is modernizing how it pays health care providers through Medi-Cal. Some mental health providers say the changes endanger their services.

Local officials counted on the state’s Homekey program to convert hotel rooms. But now a major developer has defaulted on loans and the state housing department is investigating.

California’s rent cap doesn’t apply to some kinds of low-income housing, which has its own rules. But with inflation, some tenants have gotten much higher rent increases, even though affordable units were built with taxpayer subsidies.

California's homelessness numbers continue to rise despite new spending on housing, services. Here's where the fight to end the crisis stands. This story has been updated for 2022 and 2023.

Poverty in California was reduced by record levels during the COVID pandemic, but now those economic support programs have come to an end and poverty is on the rise again.

More than 70,000 households who needed and applied for state aid to pay their rent during the COVID-19 pandemic by the March 2022 deadline still have their applications listed as "pending." Now they could be evicted from their homes.