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Houseless activist protests sleeping ban, public space restrictions in Santa Cruz
Houseless activist Lucero Luna shares her experience in Santa Cruz city jail and protests against laws criminalizing poor and houseless people within the city.
Friday, July 22, 2016 – 7:30pm
As she walked the sidewalks of downtown Santa Cruz, houseless activist Lucero Luna explained her clothing.
“I'm dressed in a garbage bag to make a point. They [the tourists] can't tell the difference between the metal trash can and me,” said Lucero. She insisted that people walk by her and other houseless people as though they were otherwise normal pieces of sidewalk infrastructure, like a trash can or bench.
Lucero has been involved in activism in Santa Cruz for some time now. She is a veteran of the weekly event at city hall put on by a group called the Freedom Sleepers, a group of housed and unhoused people who sleep Tuesday nights at the seat of government to protest the city's camping ban law. The law – Municipal Code 6.36.010 – makes it a crime to sleep outdoors between 11pm and 8:30am or to appear to set up a camp at any time of the day. The Freedom Sleepers protest has happened weekly since July 4 of 2015.
Lucero was arrested on Pacific Avenue last Tuesday afternoon, specifically because she violated the downtown's laws against sitting down or lying on the sidewalk. Some houseless activists and advocates accuse the city of discriminatory enforcement around these laws, saying that police and security guards target people who appear to live on the street, but ignore those who appear to be tourists or housed residents of Santa Cruz.
When SCPD arrived in front of the Forever 21 store on Pacific Avenue to cite her, Lucero outright refused to sign her ticket and demanded that she see a judge. The police promptly arrested her and carted her off to the local jail on Water Street. She described her experiences in the jail.
“I was placed in a solitary cell. There were dried blood and other stains on the walls, and nowhere to sit except the damn toilet or the floor,” she laughed, “so I stayed on the toilet and flushed it every time the guard walked by, make them see I'm using my seating! I don't care.”
“The jail was full,” Lucero said, “people were sleeping on mats on the floor. When they decided to let me go in the evening, I told them I'd be back. They said no. I said yes because I need SOMEWHERE legal to sleep!”
Lucero wore perfume to her protest on Friday night, for her “sisters back in jail.” She explained that, “when I went in Tuesday, I met the women who are there for a long time. Some of them have been there two or even four years. I felt bad because there's no privacy. When I had to use the toilet in a public area, the other people were there eating their dinner. I had held it for so long but I had to go! I said to them I'm sorry, I'm sorry. They said they didn't mind, they were used to it.”
She smiled, “One of the women came to me and smelled me and she said, 'Ohhh, you smell so good!' because they don't get to have any of the things like perfume in there. So I wore perfume for them so if I went back in they'd get to smell it!” She laughed again.
Lucero's protest took place Friday in front of the O'Neill store on Cooper Street. Dressed in a garbage bag and with plastic shopping bags tied around her feet, she began by lying on the metal sculpture across from the store. After a short while there, Lucero moved to the sidewalk in front of the shop and kneeled as if in prayer. She steadily moved closer to the doors, eventually lying down before them and napping with her hat over her eyes.
People who passed by showed a range of reactions. Some appeared confused, some disgusted, and some simply concerned. One person walked gingerly over and placed a rolled up dollar bill by Lucero's head, though she was the only among dozens to do so. An employee from O'Neill eventually came out to speak to this reporter, who informed them that the person lying on the ground in front of the store was doing so as a political protest.The O'Neill employee expressed some relief and said that there wasn't a problem so long as she didn't harrass people who walked by.
Lucero next moved to lean against the wall by the door to the shop. She sat up straight and called out to people in the O'Neill store, “I'm reclaiming public space for the right to sleep!” She also asked people who passed on the sidewalk for empty alcohol bottles, saying, “Let's raise the bar, I want to break some more codes! Let's get the police here!”
One person stopped and offered her a melon soda and asked if she was alright. Lucero calmly explained her purpose to them, “I'm out here because I'm houseless, you know? It's illegal for me to sleep anywhere so I have to be out here protesting.” The person expressed ongoing concern, but left soon after Lucero continued shouting to passers by. The same O'Neill employee who had come out earlier again emerged from the store to ask this reporter if she could stop yelling and that they had called the police.
Three SCPD officers arrived soon – one in a bulletproof vest - and gathered around Lucero at the door to the O'Neill shop. A crowd gathered as well. One worried person said to their companion, “Uh oh. Get your phone out.” Lucero again explained her purpose as a protestor against the ban on sleep and the police explained that they were here because she was disturbing the peace. One person in the crowd walked up and tried to speak with Lucero under the assumption that she was having some kind of mental break. They asked, “Are you on your medications?” to which the protestor again responded with her reasons for being against the wall of the O'Neill store. The police thanked the person for their effort to help. After a short conversation with Lucero, they left without a citation issued or an arrest made. The crowd dispersed soon after the police.
“Oh shit,” Lucero said, “What time is it?” When this reporter answered 8:45pm, she responded, “Uh oh, ok, I gotta go use the public toilet before they close them at nine, otherwise I won't have a legal place to piss either!” Laughing, she joined the flow of the crowd and walked away down Pacific Avenue. The public restrooms in downtown Santa Cruz close at 10pm, which means people who live on the street downtown have nowhere to use a toilet.
Lucero's protest is not the only struggle over public space on Pacific Avenue. The past several months have also seen citations and arrests of artists displaying their work outside of designated 2 by 4 foot areas on the sidewalk called “blue boxes” because of the blue paint used to mark their corners. Additionally, Santa Cruz city council passed a new ordinance in May restricting artists from selling a variety of creative wares and services including jewelry, clothing, beadwork, massage sessions, or face painting.
As she walked the sidewalks of downtown Santa Cruz, houseless activist Lucero Luna explained her clothing.
“I'm dressed in a garbage bag to make a point. They [the tourists] can't tell the difference between the metal trash can and me,” said Lucero. She insisted that people walk by her and other houseless people as though they were otherwise normal pieces of sidewalk infrastructure, like a trash can or bench.
Lucero has been involved in activism in Santa Cruz for some time now. She is a veteran of the weekly event at city hall put on by a group called the Freedom Sleepers, a group of housed and unhoused people who sleep Tuesday nights at the seat of government to protest the city's camping ban law. The law – Municipal Code 6.36.010 – makes it a crime to sleep outdoors between 11pm and 8:30am or to appear to set up a camp at any time of the day. The Freedom Sleepers protest has happened weekly since July 4 of 2015.
Lucero was arrested on Pacific Avenue last Tuesday afternoon, specifically because she violated the downtown's laws against sitting down or lying on the sidewalk. Some houseless activists and advocates accuse the city of discriminatory enforcement around these laws, saying that police and security guards target people who appear to live on the street, but ignore those who appear to be tourists or housed residents of Santa Cruz.
When SCPD arrived in front of the Forever 21 store on Pacific Avenue to cite her, Lucero outright refused to sign her ticket and demanded that she see a judge. The police promptly arrested her and carted her off to the local jail on Water Street. She described her experiences in the jail.
“I was placed in a solitary cell. There were dried blood and other stains on the walls, and nowhere to sit except the damn toilet or the floor,” she laughed, “so I stayed on the toilet and flushed it every time the guard walked by, make them see I'm using my seating! I don't care.”
“The jail was full,” Lucero said, “people were sleeping on mats on the floor. When they decided to let me go in the evening, I told them I'd be back. They said no. I said yes because I need SOMEWHERE legal to sleep!”
Lucero wore perfume to her protest on Friday night, for her “sisters back in jail.” She explained that, “when I went in Tuesday, I met the women who are there for a long time. Some of them have been there two or even four years. I felt bad because there's no privacy. When I had to use the toilet in a public area, the other people were there eating their dinner. I had held it for so long but I had to go! I said to them I'm sorry, I'm sorry. They said they didn't mind, they were used to it.”
She smiled, “One of the women came to me and smelled me and she said, 'Ohhh, you smell so good!' because they don't get to have any of the things like perfume in there. So I wore perfume for them so if I went back in they'd get to smell it!” She laughed again.
Lucero's protest took place Friday in front of the O'Neill store on Cooper Street. Dressed in a garbage bag and with plastic shopping bags tied around her feet, she began by lying on the metal sculpture across from the store. After a short while there, Lucero moved to the sidewalk in front of the shop and kneeled as if in prayer. She steadily moved closer to the doors, eventually lying down before them and napping with her hat over her eyes.
People who passed by showed a range of reactions. Some appeared confused, some disgusted, and some simply concerned. One person walked gingerly over and placed a rolled up dollar bill by Lucero's head, though she was the only among dozens to do so. An employee from O'Neill eventually came out to speak to this reporter, who informed them that the person lying on the ground in front of the store was doing so as a political protest.The O'Neill employee expressed some relief and said that there wasn't a problem so long as she didn't harrass people who walked by.
Lucero next moved to lean against the wall by the door to the shop. She sat up straight and called out to people in the O'Neill store, “I'm reclaiming public space for the right to sleep!” She also asked people who passed on the sidewalk for empty alcohol bottles, saying, “Let's raise the bar, I want to break some more codes! Let's get the police here!”
One person stopped and offered her a melon soda and asked if she was alright. Lucero calmly explained her purpose to them, “I'm out here because I'm houseless, you know? It's illegal for me to sleep anywhere so I have to be out here protesting.” The person expressed ongoing concern, but left soon after Lucero continued shouting to passers by. The same O'Neill employee who had come out earlier again emerged from the store to ask this reporter if she could stop yelling and that they had called the police.
Three SCPD officers arrived soon – one in a bulletproof vest - and gathered around Lucero at the door to the O'Neill shop. A crowd gathered as well. One worried person said to their companion, “Uh oh. Get your phone out.” Lucero again explained her purpose as a protestor against the ban on sleep and the police explained that they were here because she was disturbing the peace. One person in the crowd walked up and tried to speak with Lucero under the assumption that she was having some kind of mental break. They asked, “Are you on your medications?” to which the protestor again responded with her reasons for being against the wall of the O'Neill store. The police thanked the person for their effort to help. After a short conversation with Lucero, they left without a citation issued or an arrest made. The crowd dispersed soon after the police.
“Oh shit,” Lucero said, “What time is it?” When this reporter answered 8:45pm, she responded, “Uh oh, ok, I gotta go use the public toilet before they close them at nine, otherwise I won't have a legal place to piss either!” Laughing, she joined the flow of the crowd and walked away down Pacific Avenue. The public restrooms in downtown Santa Cruz close at 10pm, which means people who live on the street downtown have nowhere to use a toilet.
Lucero's protest is not the only struggle over public space on Pacific Avenue. The past several months have also seen citations and arrests of artists displaying their work outside of designated 2 by 4 foot areas on the sidewalk called “blue boxes” because of the blue paint used to mark their corners. Additionally, Santa Cruz city council passed a new ordinance in May restricting artists from selling a variety of creative wares and services including jewelry, clothing, beadwork, massage sessions, or face painting.
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Thank you, Lucero!
Lucero is one of the more rationally minded as well as creative and effective activists working here in Santa Cruz to really shine a light on the reality of being without housing in Santa Cruz.
What courage and creativity Lucero has!
Lucero and all other Freedom Sleepers, all interested and compassionate people! We need to rally, and reorganize, and to come together again, Freedom Sleepers and activists and all persons who are interested and/or already working for housing justice, including students. We need to demand change in the housing stock that is currently not-available here and to address the complete lack of housing for most of us here in Santa Cruz.
We need more shelters of all kinds, as well as rent-control to be passed immediately in Santa Cruz.
We need to re-organize and re-frame our movement to be more about the dearth, that is the complete lack of housing for the current types of need that actual people have, people who live here, people who are from here, and were born here, and have lived here for years need.
We must meet the actual demand for housing that we actually have here in Santa Cruz in 2016.
We need more shelters, more emergency beds, more affordable housing units and developments for individuals and the more conventional kinds of people and family groups that actually exist in our city, and county, as in "for our times"-types of housing that can be built for smaller-families, and single-mothers, and others who have jobs and work in the City of Santa Cruz, as well as those who do not have jobs, currently, but still live here, in Santa Cruz.
Also, we need at least (some-couple hundred to several hundred beds, more...) of transitional-housing beds in transitional housing homes and shelters that make a- pathway-to-housing-and- shelter program(s), that is, we need no-cost and no-charge, and or very, very low-cost for those who are employed style to get people really into housing programs.
Much of this would therefore, be free-housing in Santa Cruz, for the extremely indigent.
It is time for us to freshen our approach to this now persistent and rather tiresome and long-standing problem.
We need a new fresh out of the box approach to the housing situation, (instead of denial of the problem and arresting and criminalizing people).
This would also equate with actually building new housing stock in Santa Cruz for the new types of demand that we have now had for quite awhile, and other policies that must happen if we are going to solve the housing crisis in Santa Cruz. New kinds of housing needs to be built.
Many of the very poor people who were born here (70% of the homeless were born here or grew up here according to a recent survey touted by Smart solutions to Homelessness)...have been and are being pushed out by the lack of living-wage-paying jobs, and by the complete lack of housing that exists now that succeeds to meet and addresses the actual demands and needs of the locals (not just the recently affluent type of rich, such as some workers from Silicon Valley, who have recently become local, and not just those from various places in the world who have lots of money to waste on exorbitant rents and housing), students, and other people. Finally, we need more emergency shelter beds for those who are lacking housing, and shelter, so that they are safe at night until we are able to stabilize the problem locally and in the larger region and state, by building more housing stock of all kinds.
We need to model this so that other places in the state and country do the same and so that the problem of the lack of housing stock that meets the actual demands and needs of the people all of us people ceases to be a problem, until one day in the future when there are almost zero people who exist while living without shelter or housing.
We need at least one park in the City of Santa Cruz, where sleeping overnight would not be a crime.
We also need to stop criminalizing people who fall asleep in parks during the day.
This type of park which would operate under a different type of legal auspices than what we have now in parks in Santa Cruz, would save the already poor from being ticketed and criminalized (at least) until some of this new-style housing for singles and single moms and the new smaller families, workers and/or unemployed and/or elderly and also disabled people would be created and built for everyone to live in.
All of the above mentioned people are typical all over Santa Cruz and our county and country these days with the current exclusionary economy being the norm, and all of us still needing a place to live in, and then of course, there are the UCSC students who also need housing here. All of us/these poor or low-income earning people who do not make enough money to afford the outrageously expensive and outdated, outmoded ranch-style and old apartment style-housing stock that is in current existence here in Santa Cruz and anywhere all over California, especially along the coast- still need housing and are not able to get any or can not afford what we/they do live in except for the rich who are able to afford this old-style stock. That is the reason that we have a "homelessness" problem.
(I am not going to get into the employment realities here in Santa Cruz in this commentary.)
We have a "homeless problem" because we have an outmoded-outdated economy, which is really an old-style economy and what we really have is a housing-displacement problem. Many people are being displaced from housing because of a violent, horribly stressful, and inadequate elitist culture/economy the rulers of which are in denial about our actual lack of housing that really works-problem. They are refusing to really stop the evasive denial, and address the actual problem of which housing is just one piece in a larger whole.
The economy we have does not work for most of us here in Santa Cruz, nor most of us on the planet.
We need the bad law that criminalizes sleep to be ended, voted away by a new and more compassionate and practical City Council to do the voting. We have the opportunity to vote into office more practical and realistic people in the elections coming up this November, 2016.
We need a new and fresh, more realistic, rational, creative, paradigm shifting-future-forward, progressive and sustainably minded City Council, so let's join Lucero and protest, think up creative acts for actions and tactics and let's campaign for a new City Council and replace to no-democrat-here-type of pretend "republicrats" -type of democrats whose seats are up for election this coming November.
Re-conceiving of how we use space is paramount and practical in these new millennium times.
There was a study done by a UCSC professor last year in 2015, that begins to build accurate data based on the real situation of low-wage workers and housing here in Santa Cruz. He is a professor of Sociology, I believe, and his name is Steve McKay, if my memory serves me correctly. His study was done with the help of many students and is available online.
Rock on, Lucero!
Dogwood
Lucero is one of the more rationally minded as well as creative and effective activists working here in Santa Cruz to really shine a light on the reality of being without housing in Santa Cruz.
What courage and creativity Lucero has!
Lucero and all other Freedom Sleepers, all interested and compassionate people! We need to rally, and reorganize, and to come together again, Freedom Sleepers and activists and all persons who are interested and/or already working for housing justice, including students. We need to demand change in the housing stock that is currently not-available here and to address the complete lack of housing for most of us here in Santa Cruz.
We need more shelters of all kinds, as well as rent-control to be passed immediately in Santa Cruz.
We need to re-organize and re-frame our movement to be more about the dearth, that is the complete lack of housing for the current types of need that actual people have, people who live here, people who are from here, and were born here, and have lived here for years need.
We must meet the actual demand for housing that we actually have here in Santa Cruz in 2016.
We need more shelters, more emergency beds, more affordable housing units and developments for individuals and the more conventional kinds of people and family groups that actually exist in our city, and county, as in "for our times"-types of housing that can be built for smaller-families, and single-mothers, and others who have jobs and work in the City of Santa Cruz, as well as those who do not have jobs, currently, but still live here, in Santa Cruz.
Also, we need at least (some-couple hundred to several hundred beds, more...) of transitional-housing beds in transitional housing homes and shelters that make a- pathway-to-housing-and- shelter program(s), that is, we need no-cost and no-charge, and or very, very low-cost for those who are employed style to get people really into housing programs.
Much of this would therefore, be free-housing in Santa Cruz, for the extremely indigent.
It is time for us to freshen our approach to this now persistent and rather tiresome and long-standing problem.
We need a new fresh out of the box approach to the housing situation, (instead of denial of the problem and arresting and criminalizing people).
This would also equate with actually building new housing stock in Santa Cruz for the new types of demand that we have now had for quite awhile, and other policies that must happen if we are going to solve the housing crisis in Santa Cruz. New kinds of housing needs to be built.
Many of the very poor people who were born here (70% of the homeless were born here or grew up here according to a recent survey touted by Smart solutions to Homelessness)...have been and are being pushed out by the lack of living-wage-paying jobs, and by the complete lack of housing that exists now that succeeds to meet and addresses the actual demands and needs of the locals (not just the recently affluent type of rich, such as some workers from Silicon Valley, who have recently become local, and not just those from various places in the world who have lots of money to waste on exorbitant rents and housing), students, and other people. Finally, we need more emergency shelter beds for those who are lacking housing, and shelter, so that they are safe at night until we are able to stabilize the problem locally and in the larger region and state, by building more housing stock of all kinds.
We need to model this so that other places in the state and country do the same and so that the problem of the lack of housing stock that meets the actual demands and needs of the people all of us people ceases to be a problem, until one day in the future when there are almost zero people who exist while living without shelter or housing.
We need at least one park in the City of Santa Cruz, where sleeping overnight would not be a crime.
We also need to stop criminalizing people who fall asleep in parks during the day.
This type of park which would operate under a different type of legal auspices than what we have now in parks in Santa Cruz, would save the already poor from being ticketed and criminalized (at least) until some of this new-style housing for singles and single moms and the new smaller families, workers and/or unemployed and/or elderly and also disabled people would be created and built for everyone to live in.
All of the above mentioned people are typical all over Santa Cruz and our county and country these days with the current exclusionary economy being the norm, and all of us still needing a place to live in, and then of course, there are the UCSC students who also need housing here. All of us/these poor or low-income earning people who do not make enough money to afford the outrageously expensive and outdated, outmoded ranch-style and old apartment style-housing stock that is in current existence here in Santa Cruz and anywhere all over California, especially along the coast- still need housing and are not able to get any or can not afford what we/they do live in except for the rich who are able to afford this old-style stock. That is the reason that we have a "homelessness" problem.
(I am not going to get into the employment realities here in Santa Cruz in this commentary.)
We have a "homeless problem" because we have an outmoded-outdated economy, which is really an old-style economy and what we really have is a housing-displacement problem. Many people are being displaced from housing because of a violent, horribly stressful, and inadequate elitist culture/economy the rulers of which are in denial about our actual lack of housing that really works-problem. They are refusing to really stop the evasive denial, and address the actual problem of which housing is just one piece in a larger whole.
The economy we have does not work for most of us here in Santa Cruz, nor most of us on the planet.
We need the bad law that criminalizes sleep to be ended, voted away by a new and more compassionate and practical City Council to do the voting. We have the opportunity to vote into office more practical and realistic people in the elections coming up this November, 2016.
We need a new and fresh, more realistic, rational, creative, paradigm shifting-future-forward, progressive and sustainably minded City Council, so let's join Lucero and protest, think up creative acts for actions and tactics and let's campaign for a new City Council and replace to no-democrat-here-type of pretend "republicrats" -type of democrats whose seats are up for election this coming November.
Re-conceiving of how we use space is paramount and practical in these new millennium times.
There was a study done by a UCSC professor last year in 2015, that begins to build accurate data based on the real situation of low-wage workers and housing here in Santa Cruz. He is a professor of Sociology, I believe, and his name is Steve McKay, if my memory serves me correctly. His study was done with the help of many students and is available online.
Rock on, Lucero!
Dogwood
I feel you made a great impact wearing the garbage bag and your perseverance for the cause.
Hopefully people will wake up and get out of their comfortable bubbles and help.
Hopefully people will wake up and get out of their comfortable bubbles and help.
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