HGP objectives for 2000

• Fund positions for twenty homeless people (ten full time equivalent); 20,000 hours.
• Establish a landscaping enterprise and training program.
• Prepare a Management and Operations Plan for Pogonip Garden.
• Initiate fundraising campaign for capital needs of Pogonip Garden.
• Document hiring criteria, success evaluation and work adjustment training program.
• Develop a WOFE business plan.

HGP achievements for 1999

• Provided 12,250 hours of employment to homeless people.
• Employed 43 homeless people in 13 positions.
• CSA: Produced shares of produce from June 1 Through November for 55 members for a total income of $27,000.
• WOFE: Operated a successful holiday store in downtown Santa Cruz with sales totaling $35,000; and total sales revenue for 1999 of $63,332

• Purchase a share of the harvest for a low-income Family
  
  
• Contribute to job training wages
  
  
• Help to create positive opportunities for workers
  
  
• Will make someone smile!

In order to provide our service, the Homeless Garden Project has had to rely on the certainty of land. Working the land, building the soil and growing food are the foundation of the Homeless Garden Project's work therapy program. For our workers, the certainty and responsiveness of the land is what nurtures their own ability to grow, create and be productive.

The certainty of the land means the ability to plan for sustainable and long-term self-sufficiency. Over the past 7 years, we were fortunate to enjoy a degree of stability in our year-to-year leases with the City on the Pelton property. Each year we developed an increasingly productive and self-sufficient urban garden. We established a 100-member Community Supported Agriculture program, designed a vocational and pre-employment training program and provided up to 24 re-entry jobs each year for homeless workers.

We have learned that with temporary land our investments are lost and our ability as a Project to meet our potential is severely hindered. Ironically, temporary use is the very opposite of sustainable stewardship. Sustainable practices which are best for the land become pointless, and the long term reward of increased self-sufficiency is never reached.

I hope that the Council and the community at large can see that our desire for a permanent site at the Pogonip is based on our commitment to serve homeless people in the best way we know how, by providing homeless individuals with productive and meaningful labor that contributes to our community and through sustainable practices that teach respect for a sense of place.

-Lynne Baseshore Cooper
Addressing the City Council, July 20, 1998