Juliette North, left, and her son Bradley describe the impacts they expect the end of Housing Matters’ Day Services will have on homeless residents. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

SANTA CRUZ >> Jenny Bepristis, 40, has been homeless on and off in Santa Cruz for about 13 years. Every time she found herself back on the streets, she knew she could count on one place to have bathrooms, showers, water and more — Housing Matters’ Day Services, at the local nonprofit’s Coral Street campus.

“It was something we could always lean on,” Bepristis said. Now, “I don’t know what to do, I’m at a loss.” 

Starting April 1, Housing Matters ended the Day Services program to redirect the nonprofit’s efforts toward temporary shelters and permanent supportive housing. 

The closure of Day Services has made it harder for hundreds of the city’s most vulnerable residents to access bathrooms, showers, mail, outlets to charge phones and water.

Since news of the closure broke in October, Santa Cruz city and county officials have been scrambling to find an alternative, but no long term solution has been announced. Santa Cruz County had an estimated 1,473 homeless residents in 2025, according to that year’s point-in-time count.

To bridge some of the service gap, the City of Santa Cruz installed three portable restrooms and hand washing stations in downtown and Seabright. County staff are also offering mail services for homeless residents applying for benefits like Medi-Cal or food stamps, but won’t service personal mail. 

‘It seems like any time the rug can be pulled out’

Bradley North, 37, stays in a vehicle a few blocks from Coral Street with his 60-year-old mother, Juliette. He said they regularly used the showers, bathroom and mail service at Housing Matters. The two have been homeless together since 2017.

He said he suspects the end of Day Services means people camping near Coral Street won’t be tolerated anymore. Maybe, he said, “it’ll be like when we were first homeless together — every day you’d be woken up with a ranger writing you a ticket.”

He suggested people may spread out, looking for safe places to pitch their tents, and without services nearby, “they’re going to be doing a lot more walking.”

Bepristis has lived in a tent on Coral Street for about two years — for the services and because she said she wasn’t bothered by the police as much while there. Now, she doesn’t know where to go. 

“They just think we’re going to go away, but that’s not how it works,” she said.

From left, Anthony Horne and Jenny Bepristis pose for a portrait on Coral Street in Santa Cruz, Calif. on Apr. 1, 2026. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

For Jade, any support would be a game changer. Jade, who declined to share her last name, is 20 years old and has been homeless in Santa Cruz for five years since moving from Oregon. She and her boyfriend, Alex, live on Coral Street, but now that the Day Services have been cut off, they’re hoping to get a spot at the Armory/Overlook Emergency Shelter. 

“You feel like you’re nothing, because they treat you like that,” Jade said. “I have a baby so I’m trying to progress and not be like dealing with any of this.”

Jade said she hopes moving into the shelter will help her find permanent housing and reconnect with her child, who lives with another family member. 

Housing Matters’s CEO Phil Kramer previously said the decision to close Day Services was in part to focus on fostering a safer environment for residents once the organization’s under-construction, 120-unit permanent supportive housing on Coral Street opens.

Housing Matters operates a separate, seven-unit permanent supportive housing project named Casa Azul, where a toddler died of a fentanyl overdose in 2024. 

“Casa Azul has been a really eye opening experience and has informed this decision in that we recognize that we need to do a better job at providing a safe, welcoming, conducive-to-healing environment,” Kramer previously told Santa Cruz Local.

Housing Matters’ Day Services is one of a handful of support services that have shuttered within the past year, including the Mental Health Client Action Network, the Downtown Streets Team and some hygiene and mail services at Community Bridges’ Mountain Community Resources.

Ruben Vueti, 62, originally from Santa Rosa, has been homeless for close to three years. He’s now living in the pallet shelters at Housing Matters. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

When Housing Matters’s Day Services closure was announced in 2025, city and county officials began discussing how best to close the service gap among the dwindling resources. 

Larry Imwalle, the city’s Director of Homeless Resources and Community Programs, wrote in an email on March 30 that the group of officials have been talking about expanding hygiene access by bolstering existing programs and helping organizations launch new ones. During the interim, the city is also talking with vendors about more permanent public restrooms.

“We are also working in concert with the county on developing a more comprehensive list of available restrooms, handwashing stations, shower facilities and mail locations in the county,” Imwalle said.

Mutual aid organizer and Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom member Athena Flannery said the closures weigh heavily on homeless residents as their search for basic needs only becomes harder. She said losing the Downtown Streets Team is especially difficult, as they directly provided work experience and other opportunities.

“There’s this feeling of it proves right all the people who always felt like services were only surface level,” Flannery said. “It seems like any time the rug can be pulled out.”

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