City of Santa Cruz makes homeless drop off a crime

    SANTA CRUZ, California (KSBW) -- The city of Santa Cruz says they want to continue ensuring that they have the necessary resources available for people experiencing homelessness in the city.

They say they can't do this when other jurisdictions drop off homeless individuals without prior communication with Santa Cruz authorities.

Past Coverage: Santa Cruz accuse Hanford police of abandoning disabled homeless person in city

Santa Cruz City Council met today to discuss this issue and is taking steps to prevent other jurisdictions from dropping off homeless people in Santa Cruz.

On Tuesday, the city council passed a motion that makes it illegal for other jurisdictions to move homeless people to Santa Cruz without making prior arrangements.

"We want to make sure we bring a stop to what the city of Hanford did in this case, and that we treat people with compassion and decency, but that we first and foremost, we each take care of our own rather than shifting that to some other city or county," explained Santa Cruz Mayor, Fred Keeley."

This is what the city says happened back in June when non-uniformed officers from the City of Hanford left a disabled homeless person in a wheelchair at the armory without contacting the city first.

They're also making sure that Santa Cruz Police aren't dumping homeless people in other jurisdictions either.

It's now a misdemeanor to do so.

"I think there's going to be none of that," Keeley said. "I don't think any police department in the city, excuse me, in the state of California, would risk an officer being accused of a crime by bringing a homeless person here and dumping them in our city. I think it will have a preventative effect."

Brent Adams runs a warming center program in Santa Cruz. He says he feels conflicted.

"We need to send a message. Don't bring your people here, but all these West Coast cities from San Diego to Seattle have the same problem," Adams said. "The city may need resources to help the people who are already here. But are they really? What are they actually doing?"

The latest point-in-time survey shows a 36% decrease in the amount of people living on the streets in Santa Cruz and the city wants this number to continue decreasing.

In the meeting, council members emphasized that they are against dropping homeless people off in other areas against their will.

"We are opposed to forced displacement," Council member Sandy Brown said. "That's why I think this is so important.