Stop the Sweeps in Santa Cruz and Watsonville

HUFF will be tabling on Saturday noon in support of Community Solidarity and Solutions Supporting the Survival Camps in Watsonville and around Santa Cruz.

The most well-publicized of those has been the San Lorenzo camp, the subject of police harassment, community resistance, and a Temporary Restraining Order. A zoomed hearing resumes next Wednesday in federal court. https://www.cityonahillpress.com/2021/01/07/following-protests-judge-extends-restraining-order-against-houseless-encampment-evictions/

Campers along the Pajaro River in south County--both on the Watsonville side of the river and the Monterey County side have been successful resisting destructive bulldozing of their camps in the last week. See https://pajaronian.com/city-postpones-levee-cleanup-after-homeless-advocates-raise-concerns/

Salinas activists under Santa Cruz Homeless Union President Wes White have mounted pressure with other activist groups there urging the new City Council to abandon the discredited sweep-them-here, sweep-them-there strategies of the past.

Raelyn Butcher and Brian Brown of the Marysville Homeless Union have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in a recent lawsuit, with further hearings scheduled in response to abusive destruction of survival encampments there. See https://kairoscenter.org/california-homeless-union-marysville-victory/

Last year Sacramento activists secured a TRO against homeless sweeps they are still struggling to have enforced. See https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/sacramento-new-stay-at-home-orders-prohibit-sweeping-homeless-encampments-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/103-909add39-bdec-45d0-b6fa-c721222d4c97

Joe Doherty, Santa Barbara attorney, is working on a lawsuit to stop the unconstitutional uprooting of vehicular residents there.
See https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/RVHomelessStaBarbara-COMPLAINT.pdf

HUFF also expresses solidarity with the Bookshop Santa Cruz union movement (https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/01/06/18839228.php & https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/12/10/18838895.php), t

with the Harm Reduction Coalition's attempt to expand and strengthen Needle Exchange (hear Denise Elrich on Free Radio at https://www1.huffsantacruz.org/lost/2%20FRSC%201-3-21.mp3 53 minutes into the audio file),

and the City's vehicularly-housed to resist harassment by Andy Mills squad of volunteers sperarheaded by Deborah Elston, particularly focusing against Santa Cruz Homeless Union President Alicia Kuhl and her family--most recently her partner Erik, arrested and beaten during an epileptic seizure.(93 minutes into the audio file at https://www1.huffsantacruz.org/lost/FRSC%201-7-21.mp3 )..