Storms Over Santa Cruz: Freedom SleepOut #28 at City Hall

Private Warming Center activists, using the shelter of churches, try to do the job that City authorities refuse to do--ensure basic survival shelter for unhoused folks. Meanwhile, the Freedom Sleepers begin their 28th Tuesday of Sleeping Out, outside City Hall.

Long-time local activist Steve Schnaar hit the hammer on the head when he wrote " the [City] Council unanimously voted for the City to collaborate with the Warming Center program.... [T]his decision by the Council is really a very small offer: the use of a City building only if no church spaces are available, and only for a maximum of five nights this winter...."

"[T]he same Council also voted to increase punishments for sleeping in parks, as well as making it illegal to sleep in large vehicles."

"...[T]he City kicks them while they're down, sending police to raid their camps, increasing penalties for the “crime” of sleeping outside, and outlawing large vehicles that many people use for shelter."

"Even with respect to daytime, waking life, the City continually restricts the use of public space by homeless people downtown, and has even condoned brazen police violence against the homeless (i.e. the inaction by the City after a SCPD officer was caught on film slamming a hand-cuffed Richard Hardy face-first into the curb)."

See "MLK Day Challenge to City Council to End Homeless Repression" at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/01/18/18781957.php for the rest of Schaar's letter.

There will also reportedly be a Warming Center offered Tuesday night with pick-up's at the Pearl Alley area behind Joe's Pizza from 7 - 10 PM, spearheaded by Brent Adams and Steve Pleich.

Organizers "Tussle with Terror" Toby Nixon and "Push Back" Pat Colby haven't advised me what kind of midnight refreshments will survive the storm at the Sleep-Out. But Jumbogumbo Joe Schultz is likely to come through with something hot and life-giving.

Pleich also passes on word from Eureka of an Emergency Shelter Declaration (http://eureka.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=567&meta_id=31263 ) and wonders why Santa Cruz continues to ignore the crisis.

For more photos and homeless info go to: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Freedom%20Sleepers

For background and some initial links see "Freedom SleepOut #27 To Follow First 2016 Council Meeting"https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/01/11/18781690.php