Framework Development

January 2024 – January 2027 Three-Year Strategic Framework to Reduce Homelessness

The Santa Cruz County Housing for Health Partnership is proud to announce the updated Three-Year Framework (2024–2027) has been approved by the Board of Supervisors in April 2024.

At the beginning of 2024, the Housing for Health Partnership held community meetings to gather innovative ideas and new partnership recommendations to ensure all county residents have stable, safe, and healthy places to live.

Information gathered at these sessions helped inform the updated Three-Year Framework for 2024 to 2027.

Building on the goals and successes of the prior Framework, the revised Three-Year Framework includes goals to:

Lower the average length of time people experience homelessness by 10 percent each year.
Reduce the number of people returning to homelessness each year by 20 percent.
Ensure community partners capture data on our outcomes and community needs to help improve local programs.
Coordinate increased outreach and access to services countywide.

The updated Framework also calls on our community to support all jurisdictions in the county in meeting their Regional Housing Needs Allocation for very low-income housing production goals in order to help reduce homelessness in the community.

The updated Framework can be found here.

January 2021 – January 2024 Three-Year Strategic Framework to Reduce Homelessness

The County of Santa Cruz is pleased to present the Housing for a Healthy Santa Cruz: A Strategic Framework for Addressing Homelessness in Santa Cruz County (“Framework”).

The Framework reflects the culmination of the 18-month long system review and community planning process with Focus Strategies, and has included substantial community work with all jurisdictions, key stakeholders, and those with lived experience of homelessness. It sets forth an actionable plan with measurable goals, supporting strategies and clear objectives to achieve them.

Implementation is being administratively led and supported by the new Housing for Health (H4H) Division in the County’s Human Services Department, with significant ongoing direct involvement and action by jurisdictions and key stakeholders being essential to the success of the plan.

Six-Month Work Plan Updates

January – June 2021
Six Month Update Agenda Packet
July – December 2021
Six Month Update
January – June 2022
Six Month Update Agenda Packet
July – December 2022
Six Month Update Agenda Packet
January – June 2023
Six Month Update Agenda Packet

Systems Planning Background

Over the past 18 months, the Santa Cruz County Homeless Services Coordination Office (HSCO), has been providing leadership for the development of a Three-Year Strategic Framework to Address Homelessness in Santa Cruz County. The HSCO engaged with a national consulting firm, Focus Strategies, to conduct an analysis of the existing efforts and guide a community planning process to design a more systematic and data-informed approach that aligns the efforts of all the entities and organizations in the community working to end homelessness.

The HSCO and the HAP have jointly set up this web page as a place where we can keep the community updated on the progress of the Plan development and opportunities for input. We are also using this page as a place to assemble the many materials that have been developed throughout the planning process. These reference materials provide important contextual information that stakeholders may wish to consult as we enter into our last round of community input to inform the draft three-year strategic framework to address homelessness.

For a streamlined summary of the background and work to date, please review the Background and Context PowerPoint.