What about the homeless living in Santa Cruz CA enviorns?  Locally elected Santa Cruz CA ‘leaders’ — mayor, chief of police, city council, county board of supervisors — don’t know what to do about the homeless living in Santa Cruz. Or at least they aren’t saying.
Will Santa Cruz soon look like San Francisco which has a legally sanctioned encampment in front of city hall?
And the Santa Cruz CA elected ‘leaders’ are not doing anything about  the growing illegal homeless encampments.
It might be said that our local ‘leaders’ are not answering phone calls and questions about what’s being done or not done.
Much in the news a year ago, how and where to put transitional homeless camps are no longer in the news.   That’s what Grossman & his wife Dehlen report in a guest commentary published 10/1/2020 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Of all persons and organizations contacted, only one of the ‘leaders’, board supervisor Ryan Coonerty, responded and ‘ got back to Kevin Grossman & Amy Dahlen about transitional camps for homeless folk. [Grossman & Dahlen live in the community; no other information available.]
The word ‘leaders’ is placed in  ‘  ‘   because what stands out in the TV nightly news is the lack of leadership that so local officials in so many Democrat run cities show routinely. Politicians  especially in Democrat run cities, fold at the first sign of violent confrontation. The highest violence occurs in Democrat run cities. Â
Remember — CA and Santa Cruz are run by the Democrats and Santa Cruz is a Sanctuary City. And remember — the Santa Cruz council voted unanimously to permit a huge Black Lives Matter mural in front of City Hall.
Other than that they are ‘community members’ there’s no information provided by the Sentinel about who K. Grossman and A. Dahlen are and what their involvement has been locally. [There’s one listing in Facebook for a Grossman of Santa Cruz but that concerns a single man.]
The article notes that about 120 families are homeless in Sana Cruz. Intact families with kids to care for probably jerk the heart strings of more people than do drug addicted single men with little family or job history.
So maybe that’s the place to start — what to do about 120+ homeless families residing in the Santa Cruz enviorns.
How help 120 families that are homeless. Move ‘leaders’ aside and figure out how to ask individuals, groups and organizations how they can assist.
-  We have ZOOM now, an easy way to connect for free for 45 minutes. Keep meetings short and do them standing up and that ‘s one way to move decisions along.
2. Type Santa Cruz into Facebook and up pops several organizations worth exploring.  United Way of Santa Cruz County runs a 211 advertisement worth knowing about.  211 will connect individuals with health and human services so it says.
3. Use tools such as Survey Monkey to find out how people can and will help.  It’s easy to put up a simple survey and ask people what they are willing to do.  Here’s one question that people can be asked:
Can you help one (1) homeless family?  Telephone contact and listening. Referral to resources and finding out about other resources.  Referral or assistance of little cash a week, bus pass, money to clean clothes. Listen, listen and listen.
What are you willing to do?
written by Cameron Jackson, psychologist  JAJ48@aol.com
