Santa Cruz organization hands outs mattresses to veterans

Getting veterans off the street in Santa Cruz is an ongoing struggle, but now one group is finding a temporary solution.

Volunteers at the Veterans Memorial building in downtown Santa Cruz help provide with various things that vets may need.

Now one group is adding to that list by giving them something comfortable to sleep on.

The Santa Cruz chapter of the Veterans Resource Center of America started a fundraiser to buy new mattresses for down-and-out vets. Ingrid Trejo works for the VRC and said right now the center has pledges for about $15,00 in donations. They hope to reach $25,000. Trejo said they’d like to purchase about 150 mattresses for vets this year. David Baynard came back from overseas in 2012. He said he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and got introduced to the resource center.

“When I got my place I had nothing, absolutely nothing. I was sleeping on the floor. My children who have been engaged in my life and helping me were sleeping on the floor with me. The VRC came through and, I mean, in volumes came through when I needed it most,” said Baynard.

The resource center said at last count there are about 395 homeless vets in the county. Santa Cruz Mayor- Don Lane said that the federal government gives a lot of funding to vets, which in turn helps the city figure out what works best for the civilian homeless population.

Veterans can get a variety of services every Wednesday at the Veterans Memorial building.