As the temperature dropped, he and everything he had left got soaked.

“It’s so hard,” recalls Mason. “I can’t even put it into words. “

This weekend, as another winter storm hits California, homeless people across the state are scrambling to prepare for an already difficult time. Many of the people living outside near the encampments that swelled during the pandemic go to extremes to stay warm – cutting deep into limited funds to buy tarps, building DIY heating systems, or turning to heaters. community groups desperate for help – as local governments struggle to balance an upcoming wave of new long-term funding for the homeless with immediate survival needs.

Normal winter necessities like waterproof tents and propane don’t come cheap and have, in some cases, become out of reach due to soaring consumer prices. In places like Santa Cruz, which has long been home to a large and diverse homeless population, the storms are the latest in a series of challenges, from skyrocketing housing costs and health concerns during the pandemic to bitter court battles over when officials should be allowed to force people away from the settlements.

“We’re trying to get tents and we’re worried about sweeps,” said Laura Chatham, volunteer coordinator for the Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs free meal service. “We’re just trying as much as possible to keep people from freezing.”

As the sun fell over downtown Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon, Mason served hot bowls of spicy potatoes and onions that he had spent the morning cooking in a nearby church for neighbors without. -shelter. It was the least he could do, he said, because this time around he is hoping for shelter from the impending storm. Mason said a local nonprofit social worker helped him find a place at a homeless shelter four days ago as he prepared to launch an inpatient treatment program on Monday for alcoholism.

He had hit rock bottom months earlier, he said, but hadn’t been able to arrange treatment when his health insurance changed. When Mason first became homeless, he was sleeping in his car, but said he ended up outside after driving while intoxicated.

The ordeal has been trying for Mason, who hopes to return from treatment to housing with a voucher. That’s no guarantee with growing competition for local housing and landlords sometimes reluctant to take on vouchers, but he knows it’s better than the options many others have.

“I’m not a politics guy,” Mason said. “But more needs to be done.”

In recent months, cities and counties such as Santa Cruz, Monterey, Sausalito and Chico have been embroiled in disputes over the dismantling of homeless settlements without offering adequate alternatives – a dynamic which activists say is becoming particularly problematic when people are more vulnerable during the cold winter months. Santa Cruz is one of many cities, along with San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland, to respond by trying sanctioned settlements, which are expensive to operate and often have uncertain timelines or access rules that can limit their appeal. .

On the northern edge of Monterey County along the Pajaro River, authorities this week relied on short-term hotel vouchers to keep people away from a dike. Residents expressed skepticism about where they would go after the vouchers expired, illustrating a much bigger challenge with where to house California’s more than 161,000 homeless residents as the state embarked on long-term efforts to convert hotels into housing and build new affordable units.

Derrick Soo was delighted to see a few close friends move into scarce supportive housing in recent months. More often than not, he sees what appears to be a game of high-stakes musical chairs as his neighbors on an industrial stretch of 77th Avenue walk in and out of hotels, shelters and other housing programs.

Soo, who first found himself homeless when he lost his childhood home following the death of his father in 2012, grew up on the street of the camp where he now lives in a log cabin of 300 square feet and tarpaulin with a front window and a solar micro-grid.

He hopes to move to a small family village planned for next year to continue his work advocating for other homeless residents and mounting a popular campaign for the mayor of Oakland. But first, Soo has to get through the winter.

Over the past few weeks, he’s spent nearly $ 200 from his monthly $ 1,041 disability check on a new heavy-duty tarp at Home Depot. Soo is also testing out a new DIY heat source he saw on YouTube, where a box of Crisco is placed inside a terracotta flowerpot with tapered candles to create a radiant heat source. 360 degrees – a necessary experience, he said, since the cost of propane he was relying on nearly doubled.

“It’s the cheapest fuel you can buy,” Soo said, pointing to Crisco’s tank.

As the cerulean skies darkened in Santa Cruz on Saturday, Michelle Parker had no new gadgets – or even a tent – to fall back on as the storm approached.

Parker, 51, said she was born in Watsonville and first became homeless in 2007 after her adoptive parents left the area. She was studying sports nutrition at a community college when she ended up in jail and has since struggled to hear voices and try to find any semblance of stability.

“It was very cold last night and I was looking for a place to sleep,” Parker said. “Someone opened their tent for me.”

She said she would try to find shelter somewhere when the rain came.

Lauren Hepler is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @LAHepler