Tag archives: homeless population
Two weeks ago, the Hands team was on a countywide conference call regarding the upcoming camp clearing by Union Pacific. Outreach teams should attempt to get everyone camping along the railroad tracks into shelter before the clearing. Shelter beds, of course, are scarce. PATH, the Rescue Mission, and the Salvation Army are the only providers, […]
We’ve written in these pages before about how the Hands Across Montecito project is a solid outreach team that helps people leave homelessness in our area. In January, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) required every jurisdiction to perform a point-in-time count of the people living unsheltered to allocate funding for homeless […]
In the spring of 2020, as the pandemic unfolded, Montecito neighbors started noticing a significant uptick in homeless individuals on Coast Village Road, traveling along the tracks, and encampments began mushrooming along the freeway. I contacted Luis Alvarado from Santa Barbara County’s Behavioral Wellness Homeless Outreach Team, and we started walking the tracks and outreaching. […]
My last article talked about the climate crisis as an example of market failure. “Free” markets in fact require a vast government infrastructure: Laws, enforcement, courts, established financial systems. And a system to rebalance extreme wealth inequalities. Homelessness results from a lack of the latter mechanism. Wealth begets wealth. This can happen directly as wealth […]
Amid a 120-day cleanup of homeless encampments, the question becomes: What happens on Day 121? You might not have noticed Joe — or maybe you did but kept your eyes on the road in front of you. Joe, a senior citizen, would panhandle at numerous off-ramps around Santa Barbara, spending 16 years sleeping on the […]
The COVID pandemic was surely a challenge for just about everyone in Santa Barbara and all around the world, but some communities were harder hit than others. Not so much here in the city or Montecito but consider what it must have been like to go through the 15 months of lockdowns, surges and protocols […]
When we started the Hands Across Montecito project late last year, we counted 31 individuals living unsheltered along our railroad tracks and on beaches. We took an approach now touted by Bakersfield: work cases individually, on a by-name basis. Each person’s needs are different, so you have to find the solution that works for them. […]
Community members that are experiencing homelessness could often use a path to help guide them from the street into a home. Since the early 1980s, People Assisting The Homeless (PATH) has been helping individuals, veterans, and families requiring assistance find their way to long-term housing solutions. “We do that by really focusing on moving people […]
Last Friday, Jane Olson, one of the founding members of our Hands Across Montecito homeless outreach project, happened to be out walking near Hammond’s Meadow and encountered a very thin woman screaming at the top of her lungs and disrobing. We had met this woman before, during the homeless point-in-time count at East Beach in […]
In 2020, the Montecito community witnessed a growing population of unsheltered individuals in the area. Encampments mushroomed and became quite visible. Bicycle thefts were up as were incidents of trespassing on private property. I started visiting the encampments in Montecito with Luis Alvarado, a case manager from Homeless Outreach Services at Santa Barbara County’s Behavioral […]
Solving tough community problems requires committed people coming together to build effective coalitions. Congratulations to Sharon Byrne, executive director of the Montecito Association, for her courage in launching “Hands Across Montecito,” a community-based homeless outreach project, scheduled to roll out this month in Montecito. Homelessness in Our Area The State of California leads the nation […]
All too often the amount of people living on the street in the area is referred to as the “homeless problem.” While there is a negative connotation to the word problem, problems also have solutions and New Beginnings Counseling Center (NBCC) is one of the nonprofits in town working to provide solutions. Their range of […]
According to the Wall Street Journal, California has 12% of the nation’s population, but accounts for half of the homeless population. San Francisco is only a few degrees cooler than Orlando in January, but the homeless rate in the City by the Bay is 30 times higher than Orlando. In the last year, homelessness in […]
After more than two years and a $12 million budget, the 33-year-old 40,000 sq. ft. Rescue Mission is ready for its closeup. The extensive project represents five years of planning, permitting, fundraising and rebuilding the facility, which has served more than three million meals and provided 1.6 million stays for the homeless since 1986. The […]
PATH – People Assisting the Homeless – hosted its third annual Making It Home tour, with a sell-out event for 200 guests taking a tour in trolleys of four of our rarefied enclave’s toniest properties and raising around $75,000 for the nonprofit formed four years ago when Casa Esperanza, started in 1998, joined the 35-year-old […]
