Anonymous
By the County of Santa Barbara
The Governor’s Senior Advisor on Homelessness, Hafsa Kaka, visited South Santa Barbara County on August 2, 2023, to understand the many ways the local community is addressing homelessness. During Kaka’s time in Santa Barbara County, she was able to meet with County leaders working to address homelessness and visit four interim and permanent supportive housing sites along the South Coast region of Santa Barbara County.
The County of Santa Barbara is one of ten communities in the State awarded two Encampment Resolution Fund grants, focused on resolving encampments near the dangerous transit corridor ($2.52 million) and waterways ($6 million). This funding will resolve encampments through expanded outreach teams, including mental health/substance use disorder and medical professionals; interim housing; and permanent housing.
“I want to thank Ms. Kaka for touring four of our sites to transition people out of homelessness,” said Board Chair and Supervisor Das Williams. “It was encouraging to see her enthusiasm on the progress we have made housing people and changing lives for the better.”
The visit included tours of Hedges House of Hope interim housing in Isla Vista, Buena Tierra permanent supportive housing under development in Goleta, the future site of La Posada interim housing in unincorporated Santa Barbara County, and Dignity Moves Santa Barbara Street Village in Santa Barbara. The State of California funding has supported the development/operations of each site.
“It was such a pleasure to be in Santa Barbara County to learn more about their continuing efforts to address housing and homelessness,” said Hafsa Kaka, The Governor’s Senior Advisor on Homelessness. “It was a pleasure to see State-funded programs making a difference for the unhoused. The properties I visited were truly home-like and beautifully managed. I was able to speak to several residents who shared how the safe shelter environment allowed them to take steps forward, including their plans to move to permanent housing.”
Courtesy of the County of Santa Barbara County
Hedges House of Hope in Isla Vista is interim housing for persons moving from unsheltered homelessness in the Isla Vista and Goleta areas. Isla Vista serves as a case study in resolving encampments, in 2020, rapidly growing encampments in the community parks resulted in an immediate need to address the issue. The Isla Vista community was committed to solutions for persons without housing, and County staff worked with Isla Vista’s Community Services District and Recreation and Parks District for a temporary emergency shelter through dwelling units called pallet shelters. Twenty pallet shelters operated by Good Samaritan provided temporary shelter to persons moving from encampments in parks. The pallet structures provided shelter for 41 people over a six-month period, ultimately resulting in 27 persons transitioning to permanent housing or other longer-term transitional housing. There was an ongoing need for interim housing and supportive services in the area, and in 2021 the County acquired a former sorority house and converted it to interim housing through California’s Homekey funding. Since June 2021, 149 individuals have been served, including 33 who have transitioned to permanent housing, with many more currently on a path to permanent housing.
Buena Tierra is a permanent supportive housing development in Goleta scheduled to open in late Fall 2023. Buena Tierra will be run by the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara, which received almost $19 million in California Homekey funding for the project. This state funding includes rental subsidies and operating costs. Generous additional funding and services has been reserved for this development by the County of Santa Barbara, the City of Goleta, Cottage Hospital and by Yardi Systems. The project will serve people experiencing chronic homelessness, Veterans and homeless youth or youth at risk of homelessness. Chronic homelessness is defined as an individual with a permanent disability who has been homeless for at least 12 months. Fifteen units are reserved for youth (persons ages 18-24) that are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
La Posada will be a temporary interim supportive housing community. The project is an innovative public-private collaboration between DignityMoves, community philanthropy, the County of Santa Barbara, and Good Samaritan Shelter as the selected operator. La Posada will provide up to 80 dignified modular housing unit cabins for people experiencing homelessness moving from encampments, many of whom will have been homeless for extended periods and have a permanent disability. Each cabin will have a bed, a desk and chair, heating and air conditioning, a window, and, a door that locks.
DignityMoves in downtown Santa Barbara is a first-of-its-kind, interim supportive housing community. The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic increased the urgency of building non-congregate housing for those experiencing unsheltered homelessness. The success of this downtown Santa Barbara community has inspired the County Board of Supervisors to partner with DignityMoves on several future projects across the county. Together with the County and other partners, DignityMoves is now embarking on the ambitious endeavor of building enough interim supportive housing to close the County’s shelter gap.
Did our city tell the state how many felons they put in housing here and how many they’ve had to go over arrest and pull them out of the little houses that they provided for them?
She did not. Basic photo ops. Newsom should’ve come along so we could toss some eggs at him for looking to ruin SB and Goleta, not to mention the rest of the state with his asinine plan. And 11:09 I agree with all that. The concept of building out coastal California with affordable housing for everyone who wants to live here isn’t feasible. If things keep going the way they are SB will be LA.
Gotta love those Democrats. Always actively trying to help, even if sometimes they’re misguided or misinformed, at least they try. It’s refreshing to see our state trying to be a better place and advance with the rest of the world. Keep it up, Dems!
Thanks DEMs bahahhahaha really sac? This city has been in a death spiral for a decade and you say thanks !! That’s rich. You all have big hearts but are really bad at math. This is only going to get worse way way worse. 11million on an underpass that doesn’t even need work. Shops restaurants closed all over town ,While the middle class get squeezed for more tax, more regulation so you and your elk as GT like to call them can clam progress to continue your twisted experiment. Look at La Jolla they don’t waste time or $ on consultations that cost millions that provides absolutely no results. They don’t have homeless defecating on the streets. I as a member of this community prey that we can turn this ship around, but it’s not looking good not looking good at all, and it’s not looking to get any better any time soon!! But yea thank you SENIOR ADVISOR for coming here and saving us all!!! Thank you thank you. I feel so much better now !!
The City of SB is just fine, if you’re not a selfish and miserable con.
What’s a miserbale? Someone who basically complains?
Sorry dude, it was supposed to be “miserables”, like the play, add in the “les”, and you’ll get it. I like to play with words, my bad if you didn’t get it.
The “City is just fine”. … stay calm…stay calm! That’s so classic. Straight from Animal House at the end of the movie when Kevin Bacon is standing there and all hells breaking loose in the parade.
Good one. Let’s make all the miserbales leave! That’s funny.
“Play with words.” yeah….. sure thing dude
Hey Doc, SB is pretty great. No need to stay here if you don’t like it.
Exactly. The homeless problem also requires an overall shift in our thinking. Half the country is “me, mine, bootstraps, etc” and is preventing the mindset of helping our community from truly being effective.
Sac–
I disagree on this one. The City of SB, like many places in the US and California has a significant problem with mental health, drug addiction and homelessness. We need the carrot and the stick to come in to play here–a combination of flooding the population with massive spending directed to providing services and also we need to make changes to the law that gets people off the street and into services by doing everything possible to curtail their rights to do things like camp, be intoxicated in public, panhandle etc. Yeah, I know, people will freak out about individual rights on this but there are a lot of people out there who need to be forced to help themselves so that they are no longer a burden on society.
ALEX – of course we have issues, but the Calamity Jane Doomsday stuff about a death spiral is over the top. I’m way happier living here than anywhere else. We got things to fix, but we’re not that bad.
Oh for sure, it could definitely be worse. But, it could be so much better and, personally, I think we are in a crisis at this moment on this particular issue which is not specific to SB but requires a Federal and State response.
Did Kaka visit all the homeless Kaka along the sidewalks?
ConservativeSB – poop jokes. Nice.
Coastal California housing is unaffordable for high paid professionals that want to move to the Santa Barbara area. Doctors cannot afford to buy a house here. Why do so many homeless people and illegal immigrants come to live in the 4th most expensive housing city in the entire USA? More keep coming and they will only make matters worse. It’s not their fault, but it is a fact of life here. There is no future for affordable housing in our area. It will not happen in meaningful numbers. It will only get worse. Vacation rentals and housing speculation have made the problem worse. Housing is now a commodity, just like stocks and bonds.
sacjon
please stop with the team democrat cheerleading. I’ve donated, I’ve volunteered. My main criticism of over 70% supermajority team D on homelessness wasn’t based on trying. Do you remember when Democrat and LA Mayor Garcetti (with Presidential delusions) was spending over $600,000 per homeless unit in LA? My criticism was that at $600,000 per unit, we were never going to get this problem solved. I criticized team D because even with a blank check and no one to stop their agenda, the problem was getting worse but they blamed others. That should concern you too. Team D in CA controls Governors office, State Senate, State Assembly, The US Senate, most of the US House seats, most local governments at a majority voting bloc that is superior enough to steamroll projects through. If you want to know who is not doing the job, put down the pom poms and look in the mirror.
I am not saying the “cons” are doing any better in CA, but they have no power to start or stop any programs, so look to the people in power (almost all Team D) and require that they produce results or find another team D member. Rinse and repeat. I do not care what party gets the jobs done, I’m fine with Team D being a booming success in line with their current power, but with all the power, all the money, you want to applaud failure and mediocrity? Please insist your party prioritizes accomplishments and stops blaming the powerless bogey strawman… its been in majority power in CA for decades, no one else is to blame, no one else gets the credit
The so-called homeless are being drawn to California in droves from all over the country. This is true. These folks come here for many reasons, but mainly because in Cali we continue to provide and promote this lifestyle. Is it no wonder why some 35-40% of the nation’s street people live here. My father used to tell us not to put any milk out for the stray cats because a free meal is always easier and better than one you have to work for. Many of these folks always have the money for cigarettes, the marijuana, piercings, tattoos, drugs, booze and so on. Really? When I give you dough you are going to spend it on dope/tatts/booze, and you will sit there allllllll day with a sign scrounging for monies provided by the guilty folks. Sorry, tough love is the only way, otherwise when you “put out the milk”…..the strays show up, and most certainly they have.
Except these are humans and not cats. If I were ever to fall on hard times or have a mental health crisis, I’d hope my community would treat me with compassion and not compare to an animal. Wouldn’t you?
SB_Surfers_Lives: I agree with you, but as far as I know, most cats do not buy drugs, get tattoos, piercings, smoke weed, drink booze all day, or create general meyhem all around town. So, yeah….not more calling people cats. That being said, I still call my sister a “pig” for leaving our guest room a complete mess, and my college friend a “leech” for staying with us for about ten days without so much as lifting a finger to help around the house or buy any groceries (although we DID have a really/really good time!!!). Please feel free to enable those who do harm to themselves with the money and support provided to them. BTW, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you are down on your luck, just know that I will be here to assist you all day long for as long as it takes. Just do your part is all that I would ask….simply, do YOUR part.
I guess Baby some of us could call your comments akin to a seagull, thought process as simple as a gnat, and compassion as minimal as hungry bear.
… and some of us think Baby is making valid points.
Mine mine mine mine mine mine mine! Sqwaaaak!
5:36 – Yeah, but that’s just a few cretins., basically.