CityofGoletaSource: City of Goleta
The City of Goleta has its first ever Homelessness Strategic Plan (Plan). Last night at the April 20th Goleta City Council meeting, the Council approved the Plan which was more than two years in the making. The goal of the Homelessness Strategic Plan is to provide important direction and clarity around needs, service gaps, and priorities in order to make effective and strategic funding decisions that serve both the existing homeless population, as well as those at risk of becoming homeless.
City of Goleta Mayor Paula Perotte said, “We are proud to be one of the few cities on the Central Coast with a strategic plan to address homelessness. Unfortunately, the number of people experiencing homelessness has continued to grow and many of our residents are at-risk of becoming homeless due to the pandemic. The City of Goleta wants to play a role in trying to address this regional problem.”
Jaime Valdez, City of Goleta Neighborhood Services Interim Director, said “We’ve seen a significant increase in homeless encampments and the number of people in the community needing assistance with basic needs. The Strategic Plan will provide important policy guidance to staff and identifies specific objectives to be implemented over time to fulfill unmet needs.”
The Plan will help guide and coordinate efforts to prevent and address homelessness within the City of Goleta, and particularly, funding decisions related to homelessness initiatives and grants for non-profit service providers that focus on the homeless. Public input has been an essential part of developing the Plan, and we are grateful for the public’s input and interest in this important effort.
The City’s upcoming budget process will include consideration of funding for homelessness initiatives using this new Plan for guidance. Staff will be exploring various options for implementing some of the objectives of the Plan for the coming fiscal year and will be taking additional items to the City Council related to implementation in the near future.
The Plan is available to view at https://tinyurl.com/GoletaHomelessnessPlan. Watch last night’s City Council meeting here.
Looks good. Hopefully it doesn’t create incentives for outsiders to move here with the free storage unit for belongings, day center (place to rest during the day, do laundry, a take shower), and more.
Agree with Fernaldo. Promote our economy and enforce our laws.
It is impossible for social services drive homeless people to services if/when we let them illegally live anywhere they want and do whatever nonsense they want. Enforcing laws should be the community’s #1 priority.
San Luis Obispo NEVER had a vagrant problem…. Until the Catholic Charities built a HUGE “homeless center” with bedding and food… If you build it, they will come. If you feed them, they will come.
It is good that Goleta is acknowledging that they have a role to play in this ongoing tragedy of homelessness. For too long the burden has been only on Santa Barbara City. Each community in the county should do more as most have done almost nothing. But this tentative step is very disappointing. I think the amount of money they are spending is about $1K a month. This is tokenism of the highest order. (Once Carpinteria disclosed its homeless plan as buying something like six bed nights a year in Motel 6–for those who applied ahead of time.) So we can hope that Goleta will move on from this tentative toe in the water to do something significant.
@ RHS… Why don’t you help out our local “Homeless Inc.” and rent and drive U-Hauls every week to prevent the “ongoing tragedy” of “homelessness”… The trip to cheaper and more available housing is about 2 hours away in Bakersfield, 3 hours for even cheaper housing in Fresno… The meth is cheaper too as State Highway 99 is the direct supply chain from the border to Central California. It’s a win-win-win .
Sadly, I see nothing in the plan that would enforce or enhance existing drug laws. People cannot ever escape homelessness with a drug problem. Enforcing our laws would allow the ones who want help to get it and would encourage the rest to move on.