New homeless camp by Depot Park

Santa Cruz City Council creates a new 50-bed homeless camp in a Washington Street parking lot by Depot Park. The new camp will be managed, and will have rules, such as no drugs or criminal activity. We hear from the owner of Perrigo’s Auto Body Shop, who says the camp will destroy his business. Also, what you need to know about the council’s homeless shelter crisis declaration.

TRANSCRIPT

KARA MEYBERG GUZMAN: Welcome to Santa Cruz Local, where we watch our public institutions and hold power to account. I’m Kara Meyberg Guzman.
In this episode: Santa Cruz City Council selects a site for a new managed 50-bed homeless camp.

The new camp will be at a parking lot on Washington Street, next to the railroad tracks and Depot Park. The city calls it a “safe sleeping and storage site,” where people will be able to sleep at night and store their belongings during the day.
The camp will be managed, possibly by the city. The camp would have rules such as no drugs and no criminal activity. People who sleep there will have to vacate each morning. City staff said instead of having single-person tents, the site could potentially have a large group pop-up tent.

On Tuesday night, before a standing-room-only audience, the council approved the program, four votes to three. Councilmembers Chris Krohn, Sandy Brown, Cynthia Mathews and Drew Glover approved the program. Mayor Martine Watkins, Vice Mayor Justin Cummings and Councilmember Donna Meyers voted against it.

The program is part of the council’s plan to close the Ross Camp, an unstructured collection of makeshift tents, bicycles and garbage on a muddy plot at Highway 1 and River Street. It’s unclear how many people are living at the Ross Camp. Previous estimates show at least 100 people live there, but the number fluctuates.

The Ross Camp has become a public health hazard. Dozens of the campers use illicit drugs and use hundreds of syringes each day. Three people have died there.

The council has set an April 17 deadline to close the camp, but that’s contingent on the city creating 100 new shelter beds by the same day.
Fifty of the new shelter beds will be in Harvey West at 1220 River Street, where the city ran a homeless camp last year. This year, the 1220 River Street camp will be operated by the Salvation Army, and it’s on schedule to open April 17.

The new Washington Street camp is scheduled to open April 17 as well. It’s intended to be temporary, open on a month-by-month basis.

It will be directly behind Perrigo’s Auto Body Shop. The body shop’s owner was one of dozens of concerned residents to address the council Tuesday night. He urged the council toward its other option, the benchlands by the San Lorenzo Park duck pond stage. Another homeless camp was at the benchlands nearby about a year ago, before the city relocated it to 1220 River Street.
Here’s Dan Foy, the body shop owner.

DAN FOY
I’m just appalled. Its saddening. The parking lot is full every weekend from beachgoers. It’s a very high use area. There’s tons and tons of apartments, and city neighborhoods all around right behind me. It’s unbelievable that you’ve chosen this spot. Please reconsider.

KMG: Councilmember Drew Glover called to place the camp at the Washington Street lot, with the caveat that the city undertake a community process to address Mr. Foy’s concerns about his business.

Councilmember Chris Krohn said he supported the Washington Street option because it’s not in a park, unlike the benchlands site.
However, the Washington Street site is only 200 feet away from the Depot Park soccer field.

Councilmember Cynthia Mathews also supported the Washington Street option, despite its proximity to the soccer field, she said. It’s just that, if the council chose the San Lorenzo River benchlands, there would be fallout during daytime hours, she said.

CYNTHIA MATHEWS
San Lorenzo Park has been so impacted by, let’s just say, negative uses: chop shops, drug dealing, and all sorts of stuff that has made it unusable for long periods of time. It’s clearly, there’s no good site.

KMG: Glover proposed two other sites that were brought up by audience members: the Locust Street Garage, and the Scott Kennedy soccer fields at Depot Park. Those ideas did not gain any traction. 

Also on Tuesday night, the council revised its declaration of a homeless shelter crisis. The previous city council had already declared a homeless shelter crisis in January of 2018. 

On Tuesday night, the council changed the resolution, to streamline the permitting process for shelters. Now, permitting for shelters can skip the planning commission, parks and recreation commission, zoning administrator and the like, and go straight to the city council for consideration.   

A previous draft of the resolution discussed at last week’s council meeting included clauses about circumventing the CEQA environmental law and the California Coastal Act to expedite the creation of shelters. Those clauses were struck from what the council approved Tuesday night, due to the large number of people who wrote to complain.

[MUSIC FADE IN]

That’s it for this episode. See you at the next Santa Cruz City Council meeting on Tuesday March 26. For a transcript of this episode, and to see a map of the Washington Street site, visit our website at santacruzlocal.org. 

Before we go, some quick announcements: We’re now available on the Amazon Echo. Try it. The command is “Alexa, play the Santa Cruz Local podcast.” Our council briefings will be available the same night as the meetings, so you can listen to us with your breakfast Wednesday morning. Also, you can follow us on Twitter @theSClocal for live coverage of council meetings.

If you haven’t already, you can sign up for our email newsletter on our website, santacruzlocal dot org.

Thanks for listening to Santa Cruz Local. And thanks to Podington Bear, at soundofpicture.com, for the music. See you next time.

Editor’s note: This transcript has been updated to correct the last name of the body shop owner. His name is Dan Foy, not Dan Perrigo. 

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