Homelessness Across the State & In Our Backyard: Part Two

What I am beginning to understand about homelessness is that it presents much like the game of Whack-a-Mole – once you get a handle on one aspect of the problem, another one rises up. So, how would I assess the 2024 performance of our relatively small 13 employee homeless team? Well, let’s just say “we’re gaining on it!”

Aside from the team’s June 10 presentation to the Board, I also had the pleasure of coffee with our Community Services Department (CSD) Director Jesús Armas and Co-Director Joe Dzvonik. These gents are very ying-and-yang with differing styles and backgrounds that like most good executive partnerships enhance their effectiveness. 

CSD’s $27M Housing Division derives just 12% of its revenue from the County with 69% coming from the State and 19% coming from the Feds. What I admire about this Division is their transparent use of data that is oftentimes tied to their funding – wouldn’t it be sublime if the County used a similar data-driven funding model for other departments. Just saying!

Anyway, the annual Point-in-Time count is only part of their data set and was gathered using 400 volunteers on January 21. It is decidedly directional but what it showed was that the most visible of our homeless population – the “unsheltered-outdoors” – declined by 17% in 2024. Both Armas and Dzvonik agreed that those districts with new DignityMoves facilities were responsible for driving the decline. Now it’s up to our fiscally challenged County to fund their ongoing expenses to the tune of about $1.3M each year per facility. 

In Supervisor Nelson’sFourth District (Hope Village) the total number of unsheltered was reduced by a whopping 36% while Supervisor Capps’ Second District (La Posada) showed an 8% decrease. Unfortunately, here in the First District the total number increased by 14% with 34% of all county unsheltered (this includes vehicle/outdoors) living here. Montecito and Summerland are home to 4% of the unincorporated county unsheltered. So, yes, Supervisor Lee and the cities in D1 should absolutely huddle. Fun Fact: 86% of our homeless population reside in our eight county cities, i.e., we need to create a process that encourages more meaningful County and City cooperation. 

Most State and Federal social service funding comes through the County with many of our cities (Santa Barbara is a notable exception) not budgeting much, if anything, to solve the issue. This fact led to a joint state grant application by SB City and the County resulting in $2.4M directed at vehicular homelessness which, in 2024, rose by 34%. The funding was used to launch the New Beginnings Safe Parking Program, which received echoing praise from Mayor Randy Rowse and Dzvonik, who were thrilled with the early results. By the end of March, 15% of the city’s entire unsheltered population had enrolled in the program. 

There are far too many intertwined variables to magically “fix” homelessness. Therefore, experts – from around the country – define success as a state of equilibrium where the number of people coming off the homeless rolls equal those who enter. Based on this Functional Zero (FZ) metric, our team is doing well: In 2022, the difference between those entering/exiting was 902; in 2023 it was 788; and in 2024 it declined by 56% (wow!) to 344.

Like Santa Barbara, our other cities need to more vigorously coordinate with the County. Crazy Idea: Develop Joint Power Agreements for a more formal, efficient, and targeted dispersal of social service funding. The goal of this team is “to eliminate chronic homelessness and achieve FZ.” So, if the County cares (and I think it does), it will need to provide more than compassionate lip service and 12% funding. Good luck!  

Jeff Giordano,
SB County Resident