CityofGoletaSource: City of Goleta
The City of Goleta’s first comprehensive Homelessness Strategic Plan (HSP) is now available for a 30-day public comment period prior to final adoption by City Council. The goal of a Homelessness Strategic Plan (HSP) 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. The HSP will help guide and coordinate efforts to prevent and address homelessness within the City of Goleta and help the City prioritize its efforts related to homelessness on a regional level. The Draft HSP is available to view here.
“We are pleased to be able to share the Draft Homelessness Strategic Plan with the public,” said City of Goleta Neighborhood Services and Public Safety Director Vyto Adomaitis. He added, “City staff has been working diligently on this Plan, they have collaborated with multiple local agencies and sought out public input through workshops and a community survey.”
The strategic planning process began in 2019 with stakeholder meetings and data gathering. In addition to public meetings, the City released a survey in December of 2019 to directly hear from those with input on homelessness in our region. Staff received input from over 475 residents, businesses, service providers, and those who are or who have experienced homelessness. In addition, staff have held stakeholder meetings, best practices discussions with communities nationwide, and held a Community Open House and information session. Community involvement has been essential since the beginning, most of which occurred prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On September 15, 2020, the Goleta City Council reviewed the Draft Homelessness Strategic Plan and provided direction to staff to incorporate some additional information prior to releasing the Draft for further public review. Before that, staff had shared a draft of the HSP with the newly-formed Homelessness Issues Standing Committee in July. The Committee reviewed the Draft HSP, particularly providing input on the goals, objectives, and timeline for Goleta’s homelessness efforts.
The City team thanks the community for its input and interest in this important effort. Please review the Draft Homelessness Strategic Plan found at https://tinyurl.com/GoletaHomelessnessPlan and provide comment by December 14, 2020. Comments can be emailed to Claudia Dato, Senior Project Manager for the City of Goleta, at cdato@cityofgoleta.org, or mailed to: City of Goleta, Attention: Claudia Dato, 130 Cremona Drive, Suite B, Goleta, CA 93117.
This document looks mostly like a collection of statistics. Ok, fine. But I think the thinking needs a different tack.
Homeless people need to feel as if they are in control of their own destiny – we all need that. I do not believe this basic need can really be addressed by legislation – it needs to be discovered by the individuals them selves. That observation is backed up by the many instances we see in which the homeless are offered help – that costs time – that costs taxpayer money – only to have it thrown back in our face. Don’t spend throw good money after bad —
Given that – WE, the TAXPAYERS, must not be constantly subject to “catastrophies that nearly happened”. I can only say this – any neighborhood that is damaged by ANYONE’s negligence, homeless or not, should be subject to the dictates of the law. ANYONE, homeless or not, who puts the public at risk due to a chosen behavior, should pay the penalty. The law is the law for EVERYONE homeless or not !
IMHO, “bleeding heart” types are simply feeding their own ego. It hurts to watch other people hurt. But it is humbling to watch pain turn into strength.
These are my thoughts. It will guide my future voting choices.
Perhaps the most destructive portion of this document has to do with ‘Housing First’. This means that the community is offering free housing to people who are practicing drug and alcohol addicts. This doesn’t require the person to get sober nor does it require anything else from the individual. Rather than limit the assistance to people who grew up here locally, there is nothing in this that would prohibit people from coming from all over the country to get free housing by the coast.
Any politician who supports this Homelessness Strategic Plan (HSP) will never again get my vote.
#1 should be to remove all the homeless encampments on our public highways. The 101, between Montecito and western Goleta, is probably the worst freeway area in the state. Shame on Caltrans for allowing this and subjecting our neighborhoods to weekly fire threat. Union Pacific is also negligent for allowing encampments all along the tracks.
I feel that Goleta should care enough about it physical appearance to have a contractor clean the exit at Kellogg and Hollister. It’s current appearance that greets people visiting that part of Goleta speaks as though no one on the Council does care. One could infer that Goleta almost embraces homelessness. I’m surprised there isn’t an encampment right there with all the trash, fallen palm branches and not so handsome car tire.
Goleta has shirked contributing to humane responses to homelessness since its creation. In fact one of the reasons for its creation was to set boundaries that excluded “undesirables” inside the city. This is why Isla Vista was excluded, for example. They also wanted the tax revenue for the local burghers. For a couple of decades they have been successful in this self-serving way. Now they are actually threatening to sue the county to undo the contract they made to share the tax revenue they took from the county. So they want the county to handle the problems, such as homelessness, and let them keep the money. While this effort is at least acknowledgement of some duty in the field, it is just window dressing until the city commits some real money to the problem.