Events

Beyond the Bridge Film - A Solution to Homelessness

Presented by Community Action Board and Housing for Health Partnership

Wednesday, May 7 at 6 p.m.
Doors at 5:30 p.m., film begins at 6 p.m.

Green Valley Cinema
1125 S Green Valley Rd, Watsonville, CA 95076

Join us for a FREE screening of Beyond the Bridge in Watsonville as part of a community-wide conversation to address housing and homelessness in Santa Cruz County. Learn how we can solve homelessness through comprehensive solutions—housing, supportive services, and tackling the root causes.

Beyond the Bridge is a powerful documentary exploring solutions to homelessness across the U.S. A Bigger Vision Films traveled over 40,000 miles to uncover how two major cities successfully tackled homelessness, proving that solutions are within reach for any community.

Download the flyer to promote this event.

Please RSVP if you plan to attend.

Affordable Housing Month: Keynote Event

Saturday, May 10, 2025
4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Hotel Paradox, 611 Ocean Street, Santa Cruz, CA

Housing Santa Cruz County is the founding organization of Affordable Housing Month, and each year we present an event featuring experts in the area of housing solutions.

For 2025, HSCC’s keynote speakers are Secretary Tomiquia Moss and Dr. Sam Tsemberis, PhD, who, in a panel discussion, will advance ideas on opportunities Santa Cruz has to meet its housing needs. HSCC invites the public and press to attend this event and learn from these two experts in the world of affordable housing.

Reserve seats for this event here: tinyurl.com/23wkvz8r

Secretary Tomiquia Moss is secretary of California’s Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. Secretary Moss leads and oversees 12 entities, including 40 boards and bureaus, collectively responsible for the preservation and expansion of safe, affordable housing, efforts to prevent and end homelessness, protect consumers, and safeguard Californians’ civil rights.

Dr. Sam Tsemberis, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist who developed the Pathways Housing First program, which operates on the belief that housing is a basic human right. Pathways Housing First programs operate across the U.S., Canada, many EU countries, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Dr. Tsemberis was listed as one of #TIME100 world’s most influential people of 2024.

"We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Sam Tsemberis and Secretary Tomiquia Moss to kick off Affordable Housing Month 2025. Their expertise and leadership in housing solutions are exactly what Santa Cruz County needs to hear right now," said Elaine Johnson, Executive Director of Housing Santa Cruz County. “Attendees will gain invaluable insights into proven strategies that create lasting change. It is crucial for our community to come together, learn, and take action toward a more affordable and inclusive future."

Building Community, Together
Annual Landlord Appreciation Event

The Housing for Health Partnership, the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Cruz, and Abode Services are coming together to recognize and celebrate the incredible contributions of local landlords, property owners and managers who are helping build a healthier, more stable community for our county.

Wednesday, May 14
5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Seacliff Inn
7500 Old Dominion Court
Aptos, CA 95003

Whether it's welcoming tenants with housing vouchers, master leasing to community-based organizations, or opening doors to youth experiencing homelessness— your efforts are making a real difference.

This event will honor your impact and share opportunities for others to get involved.

Are you a property owner or manager already working with nonprofit or public housing programs? Thinking about getting involved? RSVP for the event! Join us to connect, be celebrated, and discover how you can help ensure everyone in our community has a safe place to call home.

You're automatically entered to win! All event attendees will be included in a prize drawing for a chance to win exciting rewards.

Bring a guest to increase your chances! We’re looking for opportunities to connect with new property owners! You will receive an additional entry for each non-participating landlord or property manager you bring.

Click the link to register for the event.

Appetizers and refreshments will be served.

Together We Build
Creating Affordable Homes & Stronger Communities

Wednesday, May 21
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Calvary Church and 525 Cedar
525 Cedar Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060

Discover how your organization can make a lasting impact.
Faith leaders and real estate professionals are invited to explore the powerful opportunities created by Senate Bill 4 (SB 4). This groundbreaking legislation allows churches, mosques, synagogues, nonprofit colleges, and other faith-based institutions to build affordable housing on their land—advancing your mission while addressing our county’s housing needs.

Learn from local success stories.
Hear how Pacific Union Housing Group, in partnership with Milestone Housing and Pacific Housing, collaborated with Calvary Church to create 100% affordable housing directly on church property. Learn how The John Stewart Company is managing the site and take a guided look at the 525 Cedar property to see the vision brought to life.

Gain practical insights and inspiration.
This event offers a unique opportunity to learn about the development process, see the community impact firsthand, and connect with others interested in faith-based housing solutions.

Register for the event today!

JOIN OUR CONVERSATION
Housing for Health Partnership (Continuum of Care) Community Meeting

Wednesday, May 28, 2025
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Sheriff's Office Community Room

Let’s Work Together to Tackle Homelessness and Housing Challenges in Santa Cruz County

The Housing for Health Partnership is hosting a community meeting, and we want you to be part of it. We’ll share what we’ve been working on, where we’re seeing progress, and what’s coming next in our efforts to address homelessness and housing affordability. We want your input and involvement in developing our next six-month action plan and updates to our state-required Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Regionally Coordinated Action Plan.

We’re bringing together folks with lived experience, service providers, county and city staff, housing developers, health plans, and outreach teams—anyone who cares about making a difference.

After the updates, we’ll break into small groups to talk, listen, and learn from each other. Your voice matters, and this is a great chance to help shape and participate in what happens next.

Please register for our event!

Housing for Health Partnership (Continuum of Care) Community Meeting

HOUSING FIRST: From Principles to Practice

Thursday October 17, 2024
9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Civic Plaza Community Room
275 Main Street, 6th Floor, Watsonville, CA 95076

Thank you for attending our event, "Housing First: From Principles to Practice." We hope you found our community meeting both informative and inspiring. We hope you left with at least one new valuable insight that can remotivate you and lead to a lasting change in your thinking, feeling, and behavior.

Please take a moment to complete our evaluation survey. Your feedback is crucial in shaping our future events, goals, and initiatives: Housing First Post-Event Survey.

A special shout out to our two keynote speakers, Juha Kahila from Y-Säätiö and Cheryl Winter, MPH, LICSW from CSH. Both of your presentations on the collaborative efforts and resources necessary to transform Housing First principles into effective programs were invaluable. We appreciate your engagement and contributions to our community conversation.

We appreciate you for showing up and being a part of this important discussion. Here are all the event presentations, handouts, and videos:

Housing First Videos

• Finland Solved Homelessness: Here's How
• Pathways to Housing PA: The Success of Housing First
• 100,000 Home Campaign Profiled on 60 minutes

• Housing First Presentation
• How To End Homelessness
• Moving Toward Success

• Housing First Programs
• Pathways: Housing First - Fidelity Scale ACT 2013
• Pathways: Housing First - ICM Fidelity Scale 2013

• Housing First - How to End Homelessness

• Housing First - Part 1
• Housing First - Part 2

GUEST SPEAKERS

Juha Kahila
Head Of International Affairs, Y-Säätiö

Meet Juha Kahila, the Head of International Affairs at Y-Foundation, the largest Finnish NGO dedicated to providing housing for homeless individuals and social housing, boasting a housing stock of over 19,000 apartments. Juha plays a pivotal role in coordinating the Nordic Homelessness Alliance and facilitating a workgroup within the Housing First Europe Hub.

With a rich background in housing and homelessness initiatives, Juha previously spearheaded the National Housing First development network in Finland, engaging with all key stakeholders in the field. His experience extends to roles as a front-line support worker, service manager, and CEO of a Housing First service provider, providing him with a comprehensive perspective on housing and homelessness issues.

Juha holds a master's degree in social services, further enhancing his expertise in the realm of social welfare and housing solutions.

Cheryl Winter, MPH, LICSW Associate Director, CSH - Corporation for Supportive Housing

Cheryl Winter brings to her work a deep knowledge of supportive housing and healthcare integration with significant experience in cross sector partnerships, Medicaid benefit design and implementation and provider capacity building. As the Associate Director of CSH’s California Policy Team, Cheryl’s work focuses on the integration of supportive housing services with healthcare systems, promoting the inclusion of people with lived expertise in state policy and program design efforts, and Medi-Cal policy analysis and implementation. Over the past twelve years, Cheryl has worked with hundreds of housing and homeless service providers as they navigate Medicaid/Medi-Cal contracts, billing, and service delivery.

Prior to focusing on California policy, Cheryl served as a CSH consultant for five years providing technical assistance to communities working to expand access and ensure fidelity to quality supportive housing. Her work focused on healthcare partnerships, systems analyses and innovative service funding opportunities that grow the pipeline of supportive and affordable housing projects, developing cross-system efficiencies, and enabling providers to gain the tools they need to deliver quality supportive housing services.

As the Associate Director of Consulting at CSH, Cheryl oversaw the CSH Quality Certification Program that evaluates and certifies high performing quality supportive housing projects across the United States. Cheryl also served as lead designer and instructor for CSH Medicaid Academies for supportive housing and homeless service providers becoming Medicaid providers. She also worked with states completing Supportive Housing Services Medicaid Crosswalks and data analyses targeting high utilizers of crisis health systems.

Prior to joining CSH, Cheryl worked as the Director of Integrated Health for Pathways to Housing DC, where she managed programming that integrated supportive housing, primary care, and behavioral health services. Cheryl also served as the Director of Quality Improvement, overseeing Medicaid quality assurance, claims submissions, staff training, and quality improvement initiatives.

As a Health Policy Fellow at the Missouri Foundation for Health, Cheryl focused her research on health equity and the social determinants of health. Cheryl is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and holds Master’s degrees in Public Health and Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis.

Virtual Event: Public Defender and Housing for Health Partnership

Wednesday, September 11, 2024
4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Watch the Zoom Video
View the event's presentation

Public Defender Heather Rogers joined us to discuss the intersection between housing insecurity, homelessness and the criminal legal system in Santa Cruz County. Learn about laws and local practices that impact individuals who are unhoused, and what the Office of the Public Defender is doing to approach this issue in the spirit of courage, compassion and community.