8-22-22: Who’s Helping the Unhoused?

County governments take a leading role in coping with unhoused citizens throughout California, and that’s true in Santa Cruz County as well. But the city of Santa Cruz is also deeply affected by the homelessness crisis. Though it has only 24 percent of the county’s population, more than half of the unhoused live within city limits. Reporter Grace Stetson talks to different government officials and learns that tackling homelessness is a joint effort between the county and its cities that is made more difficult without updated data.

But government isn’t enough when it comes to solving a problem with complex roots. Some of the services that are most effective at changing the lives of those on the street actually come from nonprofit and community groups. As Stetson note, “These organizations are visible countywide, from serving food daily in downtown Santa Cruz’s Clock Tower to connecting with the unhoused for mental health services in one-on-one and group settings.”

California’s dry season used to be a big plus—languid days filled with sunshine for months on end. Now, caught in a megadrought that scientists now say is a decade old with no clear end in sight, every week brings more headlines about water shortages. Here are two of Jonathan Vankin’s most recent stories on the subject—including the facts behind an eddy of stories suggesting that now Californians have to start worrying about a megaflood.