Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom -- 309 Cedar St. PMB 14B --
Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060  (831)423-HUFF
Oct. 14, 2004

Dear Ryan Coonerty,

As a candidate for City Council, HUFF is seeking your positions on
homeless issues. Please answer the following questions and send your
reply.  I will post your response to our HUFF contact list (about 72
people) and publish your responses on our website.

 Thank-you,

Becky Johnson, HUFF facilitator

QUESTIONS:

1.  At the housing candidate forum, you said "people have to have shelter
and a place to sleep."  Since, even with the new Family Homeless Shelter
coming on line this winter, the majority of homeless people (1500 - 3000)
will not have legal shelter either this winter, or next spring when the
armory closes. Are you satisfied with "more of the same" where homeless
people who are sheltered in a car or a tent or are simply sleeping out
in the open will be cited, arrested, and criminalized for attempting to
shelter themselves?  Or what will you differently?

2. The National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C. recently
released as study in which they claimed the average cost of prosecuting
a camping or sleeping ticket with our police, courts, and jails costs
the taxpayers $1000 per citation. Yet, at the Housing Candidate Forum,
you expressed your support for the Sleeping Ban when you said " As for
the Sleeping Ban and the Blanket Ban...the programs which we support
which provide services for homeless people require community support.
The fastest way to dry up city support for these programs is when people
see campers on their own streets! If we lift those bans, you will see
serious erosion of support for those social services that homeless people
rely on.  It will cause long-term damage to the very people its supposed
to help in the short term."  Do you really believe that the presence of
visible homeless people will turn charity into anger and cause community
members to withhold life-saving services such as food and shelter for
homeless people? On what case studies are you basing this opinion? Since
you are an attorney, could you also pass on case law which supports
legally banning sleeping, covering up with blankets, or the behavior of a
person sheltering themselves out of doors when they couldn't find housing?

3. Do you support the ordinances which affect primarily affect homeless
people downtown? Do you support the ban on sitting on the sidewalk 14
ft. from a building,  asking for food after dark with a sign, and the
"move-along"llaw which forces political tables on Pacific Ave. to move
after only 1 hours time, or be subject to a $162 fine? Do you support
criminalize blowing bubbles, tossing a frisbee, playing hackey-sack,
bouncing a ball, or drawing a hopscotch board downtown?  Do you think
tossing your carkeys to your wife should be illegal and a $162 crime?

4. Do you support the current restrictions on parking of vehicles all
over town by limiting parking to homeowners with permits, prohibiting
parking from between Midnight to 5AM in downtown residential areas?
Do you think it should be illegal to park overnight in non-residential
areas, especially if it means that a significant number of homeless people
will be displaced as a result?  Do you support ticketing, arresting,
and towing the vehicles of people who have no other place to go and are
forced, by economic necessity, to sleep in their car?

5. What will you do to curtail homeless deaths (43 last year) in our
community?

6.  Below is the HUFF election platform of issues for which we are seeking
support. Can you indicate the items you will support, and provide comments
on items you will not support?





HUFF election platform

  1.. immediate ending of the sleeping ban and blanket ban
  2.. opening up a carpark and a homeless campground as a temporary
  immediate solution
  3.. Opposing widening hwy one as it will take funds away from social
  services for homeless people
  4.. Support city-wide rent control and a just cause eviction ordinance
  5.. Supporting infill housing to create low cost units for housing
  6.. Eliminate the policy of using the "Broken Windows Theory" as a
  police model for enforcement
  7.. Modifying the camping ordinance to allow one vehicle per driveway
  such as Eugene, Or has done with great success
  8.. Rescind any laws which prohibit giving away free food in public
  spaces
  9.. Take proactive steps to see that police enforce all laws equally
  10.. Return the Citizens Police Review Board ---even if we need to
  get private funding to do so