SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KGO) — Leaders in the City of Santa Cruz want to support the homeless community in their city, but do not want to be a dumping ground for other cities to send their unhoused. So, they are making it illegal to do so.
The City of Santa Cruz is working to clean up the town’s image, by cleaning up the streets and addressing their homelessness problem.
Mayor Fred Keeley says efforts have led to a more than 50% decrease in street homelessness in the past two years.
But he’s concerned that a city in the central valley is threatening to impede their progress.
“We don’t need, under the cover of darkness and stealthy and tricky maneuvers, for some city to move their problem to us,” Keeley said. “That’s not the right way to do it.”
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In June, Mayor Keeley says Hanford Police drove a homeless woman with an undisclosed disability nearly 200 miles to the city of Santa Cruz where she was left outside of a local shelter.
Keeley says the woman is from Las Vegas and had no ties to his city, but Hanford officers in plain clothes in a police car took her anyways without previous arrangement.
Now, the city council has made the unsanctioned government agency transport of homeless people into the city illegal.
“We would have cited those police officers,” Keeley said. “It would have been a crime, a misdemeanor. And let me tell you what I think is going to actually happen. I think this is going to have the deterrent effect we’re looking for.”
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We reached out to the City of Hanford, a spokesperson told us the woman, who previously rejected local homeless resources, requested transport somewhere else.
After suggesting cities which police deemed unfeasible for transport, she landed on Santa Cruz, a place they say she researched on her own and found shelter options.
A statement from city officials says: “At no point in time did Hanford Police Department officers suggest, encourage or coerce the individual to go to the City of Santa Cruz. Any claims of this nature are flat-out false.”
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Mayor Keeley says he has been unable to get in contact with anyone from the City of Hanford.
“We wouldn’t do that to another community, we don’t want another community doing that to us,” Keeley said.
Keeley hopes his council’s actions will allow the city to focus on Santa Cruz residents experiencing homelessness.
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