In our Special Election Issue, we mistakenly misattributed Drew Glover and J.M. Brown’s answers regarding Santa Cruz’s sleeping ordinance ban. The correct responses are below.
Are you in favor of the town’s current sleeping ordinance ban? Why or why not?
J.M. Brown
“The end to houselessness is housing. I think the sleeping ban gets a lot of attention in this conversation, but it doesn’t actually lead to any long-term solutions. And when I say housing is the end to homelessness, I’m talking about a wide range of housing. We need to start with permanent supportive housing, as a transition from homelessness that leads hopefully to independent housing that is affordable for people. And we need ongoing case management for people who used to be homeless that not only deals with potentially co-occurring substance abuse and mental health that’s not being addressed properly, but also providing job training and other services that are designed to be stabilizing in their lives.”
Drew Glover
“I think it’s irresponsible. It’s been found to be unconstitutional by the Department of Justice, looking into refusing people the right to sleep. Beyond the fact that it is noncompassionate and unconstitutional, it’s a really great symbol of the way the city currently operates with regards to houseless and homeless individuals, led under the leadership of individuals that are currently sitting on council and have been there for a while now. It shows that instead of looking at ways to increase services, increase resources and increase upward mobility for marginalized people in our community, we would rather criminalize them.”
