Council Studies Homelessness Tuesday: Two Minutes Isn't Enough

The talk on homelessness Tuesday at the Santa Cruz City Council study session was passionate and at times incendiary.

One of the biggest problems in a long meeting that stretched from 7 p.m. until after 11 p.m. was that the long line of speakers only had two minutes to express themselves. In the interest of public service, Patch wants to give speakers a chance here to express themselves. No trees will be killed in the process.

Tracey Heggum was one of the first ones cut off. Here's her complete statement. If you want yours added, email brad.kava@patch.com

Or start a blog yourself, right on this page.

"My name is Tracey Heggum; I am the Program Manager of River Street Shelter, a program of Santa Cruz Community Counseling Center.  I have been a resident of Santa Cruz since 1995.  I would like to tell you about the collaborative efforts of the three different agencies providing services at 115 Coral Street—the Homeless Services Center, Homeless Person’s Health Project and River Street Shelter. 

"First I’d like to say that we stand together!  We stand together in the successes, the challenges and in our commitment to find solutions.  We TOO want a healthier community, where everyone can thrive and get their needs met in a way that doesn’t infringe on others’ safety, health and peace of mind.

"We provide an array of services on our campus, including : emergency shelters that serve men, women and families, HUD subsidized transitional housing, health care, mental health care, job preparedness and job search tools, housing search assistance and support, Homeward Bound funds to assist people in getting a bus ticket back their place of origin, basic needs such as meals, mailing services, hygiene facilities, clothing, linkage to critical support services such as affordable housing programs, substance abuse treatment, domestic violence services, the V.A, county mental health services, SSI, Medi-Cal and other benefits and any other resources that will help our participants in gaining independence and moving towards permanent housing.

"Collaboration is key in assisting people with their individual and complex needs.  This collaboration includes daily exchanges of information between the programs on our campus and monthly security and case management meetings, wherein representatives of our programs meet to discuss individual cases and security issues.  This collaboration includes the participation of Lieutenant Dan Flippo of the Santa Cruz Police Department.   We have found Lieutenant. Flippo’s involvement to be helpful in minimizing security and safety issues in the Harvey West neighborhood and amongst the homeless community.  This collaboration has served to improve communication between homeless services and law enforcement.  While we are aware this study indicates an increase in calls to the police to 115 Coral Street, we believe that increase is in large part due to this collaborative effort.  We have been encouraged to call the police when we are aware of safety issues on or around our campus.

"Unfortunately, the community doesn’t always get to hear about the effectiveness of these collaborative efforts—those don’t come to the attention of police, paramedics, fire fighters, community members or business owners.  I think it’s important that you know, we ARE having success in our work at the 115 Coral St. campus.

 "Dave Walters is a perfect example of that…I’d like to introduce him now…"