Santa Cruz County Local News: Veterans

Opponents cite environmental concerns

Two years ago the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) established Project Roomkey in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea behind the program was simple but important: protect people experiencing homelessness from coronavirus. The success of that program led to the development of Homekey in 2021, which strived to place homeless individuals [...]

At an afternoon gathering in Ben Lomond Saturday, local service providers united to mark the opening of a housing project meant to help veterans get and stay off the streets.  The Veterans’ Village, formerly Jaye’s Timberlane Resort, features a series of 10 rustic cabins swathed by dense redwood forest, right along Highway 9. And officials [...]

State Senator John Laird on Jan. 18 introduced Senate Bill 850 (SB 850), a bill to ensure families of fallen officers receive survival benefits regardless of family structure.  The impetus for the bill was founded in the deaths of law enforcement officers in the county the 17th District representative calls home. The first occurred in [...].

Gabriel Barhell, 56, is a former Air Force medic from Tennessee who served in the first Gulf War. He came to Santa Cruz with his girlfriend, a traveling nurse. And when they broke up, he ended up living in the forest. “There was a glitch in the system, to where I had no place to [...].