According to the 2015 US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Santa Cruz County has the 10th largest homeless population for a small sized region/county with nearly 2,000 people without housing. Santa Cruz County also has the 5th largest youth population that is homeless. Being without a home is hard in every aspect, from lack of food, shelter, clothing, medical coverage, comfort, hope, security, and the list goes on. The added stress from being without also works against people trying to break out of this hold with mental and physical breakdowns keeping people from functioning at the potential they were created for. Unfortunately, these breakdowns manifest in various ways from chronic sickness, spiritual instability, unhealthy and addictive behaviors, to just the loss of drive to thrive. Santa Cruz County has the 8th largest chronically homeless population for its size region. That means nothing is changing for many of those without homes. The need is great and the opportunity to show compassion and help is all around.