CountyofSantaBarbara
On Saturday, March 16, 2024, the County of Santa Barbara hosted the grand opening of Hope Village, an interim, supportive housing project located at 2131 Southside Parkway, Santa Maria, CA.
This project provides safe housing for unhoused individuals, bridging the gap between living on the streets and qualifying for permanent housing. Hope Village will serve North County community members experiencing homelessness.
It has 94 rooms, 10 of which are for transitional-age youth (“TAY”) and operated by Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley, 30 of which are reserved for people experiencing homelessness who require recuperative care after being discharged from area hospitals and medical providers, 10 rooms are for encampment resolution near the Santa Maria riverbed, five rooms are reserved for veterans and the remainder of the rooms are for unsheltered persons.
This is an interim project, here for five years on County land. The County has provided $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the $7.2 million in capital costs of this project as well as $8.5 million throughout the five-year life of the project to fund a large part of the services and operations needed to transform lives.
With the adoption of the Community Action Plan to Address Homelessness in 2021, the Board of Supervisors set clear goals for what needed to be accomplished and worked with staff and dedicated partners to achieve those goals. It was identified that 563 total interim supportive beds were needed countywide and of that 130 were needed in North County. Hope Village will deliver 94 of those 130 beds needed.
This innovative public-private collaboration includes Good Samaritan Shelter, Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley, Dignity Health’s Marian Regional Medical Center, community philanthropy alongside the County of Santa Barbara
The official groundbreaking ceremony of Hope Village took place in May 2023 after the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved two agreements with DignityMoves to develop the interim supportive housing, which addresses the existing need for the homeless population in the area.
To learn more about Hope Village, visit https://dignitymoves.org/
Really significant and positive act by the County of Santa Barbara. Kudos to them and the partners in actually doing something positive.