Alex Darocy Photography

The Freedom Sleepers organized their 45th community sleepout at Santa Cruz City Hall on May 17. The activists, some housed and some unhoused, have been organizing the sleepouts once a week since July 4 to protest local laws that criminalize homelessness.

The Freedom Sleepers continue to directly oppose local laws that criminalize homelessness in Santa Cruz. On May 10, they held their 44th community sleepout at City Hall. The activists, some housed and some unhoused, have been organizing the sleepouts once a week since July 4. A Freedom Sleeper sleeps under the Food Not Bombs canopy in front of Santa Cruz City Hall in the early hours of May 11 Police sweeps of the sleepouts have resumed. At the most recent sleepout on May 10-11, three Santa Cruz Police Department patrol vehicles arrived shortly before 4am. Officers woke up two people who were sleeping together just inside of City Hall's boundaries, and forced them to move along. The homeless couple simply re-located across the street and slept on the sidewalk in front of the public library. The three police officers also asked activists to move some of their equipment, which was on City Hall property, and then left to patrol the rest of City Hall. Attendance at the slee...

International Workers Day was honored on May 1 in Santa Cruz with a march in support of two food justice issues of particular concern locally: the international boycott of Driscoll's, which is headquartered in Watsonville, and the fight to preserve the Beach Flats Community Garden. Marching down Pacific Avenue The march began at Santa Cruz City Hall and made its way to the downtown New Leaf Market, where a large group of demonstrators entered the popular natural foods store. Inside the market, a letter signed by community members was delivered to the business asking them to honor the Driscoll's boycott and to stop selling the brand's berries. From New Leaf, community members marched to the Beach Flats Community, and then on to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where gardeners and community members delivered a letter to the Seaside Company asking that the business work with the city to preserve the entire Beach Flats Garden for the gardeners. On April 26, the Santa C...