City Sanctioned Homeless Camp in Santa Cruz Reduces Crime and Hepatitis Outbreak

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/social-affairs/20180127/santa-cruzs-benchlands-homeless-camp-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly

Santa Cruz’s benchlands homeless camp: the good, the bad, the ugly

By Jessica A. York, Santa Cruz Sentinel Posted: 01/27/18, 3:59 PM PST |

Public health nurses Suzanne Samson and Tia Paneet talk with homeless encampment resident James Hoffman as they visit the San Lorenzo Park Benchlands during a rainy day to distribute socks, ponchos and tarps as well as Narcan. (Shmuel Thaler -- Santa Cruz Sentinel) SANTA CRUZ >>

Whether it was intentional, related or neither, the formation of the de facto sanctioned homeless camp at the San Lorenzo Park benchlands in October has come with some upsides: a drop in nuisance crime citations and a halt in the local hepatitis A outbreak, to name a few. But city leaders are calling the camp an imperfect solution, as other worrying trends arise, such as an increase in bicycle thefts citywide and concentration of drug use in the area.Praise of the site by public safety, administrative, health providers and community advocates is hesitant, as officials cite the short-term nature of the San Lorenzo Park benchlands camp. ADVERTISING Since the site became the city’s largest de-facto homeless encampment in October, the Santa Cruz Police Department’s nuisance crime citations citywide have decreased compared to 2016, according to crime data released to the Santa Cruz Public Safety Committee for October and December. Though difficult to pinpoint the impacts directly, in a year-to-year comparison, Santa Cruz police citations for crimes such as illegal drug use, vandalism and aggressive solicitation were down 25 and nearly 27 percent, in October and December. What may have partially factored in to the decrease in criminal citations, however, are the thousands of citations the city park rangers handed out downtown during both months, which are calculated separately from police statistics. The benchlands camp swelled in October after Santa Cruz Police Chief Andy Mills announced his plan to soften enforcement of the city’s overnight camping ban, where no other crime was occurring. Accordingly, the nuisance crime category with the single largest drop in December was a nearly 74 percent reduction in illegal camping citations.Mills also bore part of the brunt of a public backlash to the park’s repurposing and increased human impacts on the nearby San Lorenzo River, though the park itself had never been fully sanctioned as a homeless encampment by officials. Asked in a recent question-and-answer Sentinel story about the camp’s impact on city homelessness, Mills answered, “Overall, it has gone really well with calls of service and crimes,” compared to before the encampment.Ask regular readers of the Facebook page Stolen Bikes of Santa Cruz and it will come as little surprise that the one nuisance crime that increased in both October and December, compared to 2016 was bicycle thefts. The Santa Cruz City Rangers Facebook page posted Jan. 23 that its rangers had recovered three stolen bicycles at the benchlands camp in the previous week, looking to listings posted on Stolen Bikes of Santa Cruz. “I don’t want to see a campground where people are just kind of allowed to just outright steal people’s things and chop them up there,” Noroyan said, citing the theft of a friend’s bike and its recovery at the benchlands.The camp is a frequent topic of conversation and concern on social media sites such as the neighborhood-specific Nextdoor and nonprofit Take Back Santa Cruz’s Facebook page. In October, the Coastal Watershed Council, lead by Executive Director Greg Pepping, took a firm stance against the camp’s location on the banks of the San Lorenzo River and along the city’s Riverwalk path, citing environmental impact and fears of lost progress in the lower river’s revitalization efforts. The organization has similar concerns about the planned camp relocation site, along the river at River Street in close proximity to a city water supply intake, according to Outreach and Development Manager Laurie Egan. As with crime, homeless-related downtown business complaints have decreased, Santa Cruz’s city manager has said on several occasions.“We’ve seen a marked improvement in the downtown, as well as in our library,” said Santa Cruz City Manager Martín Bernal on Nov. 14, providing the Santa Cruz City Council with an early update on the then-new encampment. He repeated similar praise to the council this month, noting fewer people were using the library for a shelter.Downtown Association Executive Director Chip, asked about his observance of a trend on the downtown, was hesitant to attribute what appeared to be fewer people sleeping in downtown doorways solely to the encampment. Echoing city officials’ sentiment, Chip said he did not believe the encampment is a long-term solution to Santa Cruz’s homelessness issues, though he commended the city’s efforts to creatively address the problem. He also attributed the work of the Downtown Streets Team, engaging two dozen homeless people in daily volunteer cleanup activities, to some downtown improvements. “Business owners, city leaders and most activists all benefit from having a legal place for displaced people to be,” Chip wrote in an email to the Sentinel. “The challenge is finding and managing that space.”Speaking as a private citizen, Maile McGrew-Fredé, a Santa Cruz Public Libraries librarian who runs homeless-related outreach programs, said she sees homelessness as a social issue.“Although not everything about the benchlands encampment has been working, I view this experiment as a positive shift away from viewing homelessness as a crime, a law enforcement issue, and toward understanding it as a pernicious systems issue, one that causes tremendous suffering for everyone, and one that we must come together as a community to address,” McGrew-Fredé said. The camp has served at times as temporary landing site for those fresh out of jail or escape from intolerable situations elsewhere. For regulars, the two long rows of tents on often rain-soaked and muddy park grounds has provided stabilization atypical for Santa Cruz homeless encampments; for others, the camps has offered a toxic environment encouraging bad behavior from its users.On the other hand, the benchlands, housing an undetermined amount of people estimated as high as 100, also has offered a concentrated area for direct social service outreach and philanthropy. Part of the camp’s formalization with portable toilets, handwashing stations and Dumpsters was in response to an ongoing hepatitis A outbreak that had begun disproportionately affecting the city’s homeless population in April.In the Santa Cruz County Winter 2018 public newsletter, the Santa Cruz County Public Health Division stated that there had been no new local cases of hepatitis A since October, after the 76 confirmed cases beginning in April.Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency’s Homeless Persons Health Project has recently revived its commitment to public outreach, sending public nurses and drug counselors to the city’s various homeless encampments. In two recent visits to the benchlands, those staying there quietly flocked to the health workers as they handed out socks, tarps and ponchos on a rainy Thursday to accompany hepatitis A vaccines, two-packs of opioid overdose antidote Naloxone, hygiene kits and “the works.”The last is among the more controversial of the agency’s supplies. Earlier this month, the outreach group, each carrying as many supplies as can fit in two cloth grocery bags, was accosted as it entered the benchlands. A woman wearing a Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation uniform asked them what they were doing there, and if they were providing Narcan, the name brand version of Naloxone and arm tie-offs for drug users. She said she planned to talk to her boss about them before walking away. The Naloxone injections are relatively new to additions for the public health nurses, each hand-out coming with a lesson on proper use, timing and medical treatment follow-up needed. Supplies go as quickly as the tent tarps and granola bars.Emerging from inside a large tent last week with a hug for Homeless Persons Health Project public health nurse Suzanne Samson, benchlands denizen Michael Burkhardt seemed happy to catch up with a familiar face.Burkhardt, 35, said he was born and raised on the Westside and became homeless about four years ago, his life spiraling out of control after his fiancee was killed by a drunk driver. There is a light at the end of the tunnel for him, he said, with a promise of a place to live if he gets into drug addiction treatment and stays sober.Samson pounced on the opportunity, asking him if he was getting treatment, and if he was aware of the new Drug Medi-Cal option, which can pay for substance use disorder treatment programs. Burkhardt said he was very interested and shared ways for Samson to get in touch with him, because, he said, she has “always been a straight-up person” with him. As he asked for a Naloxone doses, Burkhardt related an experience under a bridge several weeks earlier. Burkhardt said he had seen a 18-year-old man suddenly bend forward toward his own lap, apparently overdosing.“I threw my stuff to the ground. I immediately go, ‘Wake up’ instead of diddle dallying, while everyone else sits there way too long trying to get a response,” Burkhardt said. “People are scared to make the call because they’re scared of the cops. The truth is, they don’t know about the Good Samaritan act.” California’s 911 Good Samaritan Law provides limited protection from arrest, charge and prosecution for people who seek emergency medical assistance at the scene of a suspected drug overdose, according to Los Angeles-based Drug Police Alliance.Burkhardt said he urged onlookers to call 911 while his friend gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and Burkhardt administered two doses of Narcan. The friend survived, Burkhardt said, concluding his story to Samson as he tucked away a Naloxone refill that she provided.