Homeless advocates involved in establishing Santa Cruz Sanctuary Camp embarked on a tour of Oregon and Washington State’s “sanctuary type” homeless camps and villages as a research investigation. After touring the northwest interviewing the creators, inhabitants, and neighbors of these camps, a video documentary was produced that chronicles their trip and showcases the new paradigm of citizen organized, community sanctioned homeless communities.

These camps and villages, such as Quixote Village in Olympia and Opportunity Village in Eugene, have been created and shepherded by non-profits that were organized by local citizens and churches to offer a safe space for people to live and begin addressing the situations that were responsible for their homelessness.

Homeless advocates are proposing a Sanctuary Camp for the Santa Cruz area that will be designed in a similar fashion as those found in the northwest. They believe that a citizen organized, community supported, city/county sanctioned camp/village for homeless people would be very helpful in the local community. The video produced by filmmaker Jeremy Leonard and Santa Cruz Sanctuary Camp’s Brent Adams showcases how and where this model has been successful in several other areas.

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