After being flooded out from their camp in December, several homeless people have pitched their tents once again along the San Lorenzo River in the City of Santa Cruz.
When the San Lorenzo River flooded the homeless encampment last month it sent people scrambling to salvage their few belongings. Despite that, there are just as many if not more people at the camp now than there were a couple of months ago.
The flooding caused residents to move to higher land but many returned to the creek bed because they had nowhere else to go.
"They opened up the River street camp that one only has 30 people," Caesar said.
The new River Street temporary encampment is functioning completely with porta-potties and a shower trailer but it has a limited capacity.
"A couple of friends of mine stay over there at the River street shelter and it's nice there," he said.
Caesar said the city is supposed to be opening up a space by the golf lands as a designated encampment.
"I used to stay at the golf lands up by the armory, but then they shut it down – the golf lands – because they ran out of money," he added.
According to Mercury News, Santa Cruz officials hoping to create a program for encampment residents that would reward them with a "housing scholarship" to help them find their own housing. The money would come from Governor Gavin Newsom's housing and homelessness package.
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