Tag archives: homelessness
I was homeless before I knew what that meant. The place I remember most is Lake Tulloch – doing my homework by flashlight, shivering, my shoulders searing from sunburn so deep we packed them in mustard to draw the heat out. The smell of mustard is still the smell of those nights. I would lie […]
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 […]
On June 10 our Community Service Department (CSD) provided the Board of Supervisors with their Annual Homelessness Update. Last year I focused exclusively on CSD’s very solid and data-driven work, but this year I thought I would widen the aperture with a two-part article that looked just a bit at state and city homelessness as […]
In idle moments we mull unimaginable experiences beyond our own. What’s it like to be launched into space? To be on a sinking ship in mountainous, hurricane-tossed seas? To be homeless? “I was never embarrassed about being homeless. It was just a fact. I wasn’t psychologically traumatized by it all. Yes, it was very stressful […]
As the City of SB laments its not insignificant deficit and the County faces its own budget shortfall, our new Community Services Department Director Jesús Armas seems to be bringing a bit of light to the problem of our time – homelessness. Allow me to explain: For the third straight year, permanent housing placement increased […]
New Beginnings’ Safe Parking program turned 20 earlier this year, a milestone you need to celebrate. On the other hand, I wish it didn’t even exist in the first place. In an ideal world, there wouldn’t be homeless people living on the streets or in their cars. The latter is what the Safe Parking program […]
Our group of 10 with morning bleary-eyed faces, meets at the Coast Village Chevron station and trudges down through the newly-rebuilt Butterfly Lane tunnel with its colorful murals. We emerge on the railroad tracks and begin searching from the Bird Refuge to Eucalyptus Lane. As usual, we find only a few people, but there are […]
The nonprofit New Beginnings has turned its focus toward ending veteran homelessness in the county by the close of 2025 through its Supportive Services for Veteran Families program that works to transition currently unhoused veterans back into stable housing and assist those whose housing situation is threatened. But in addition to putting its money where […]
Santa Barbara’s New Beginnings Counseling Center (SBNBCC) held its grand opening with a ribbon cutting reception on Friday, June 9, at its new location, 530 East Montecito Street, Suite 101. The event was well attended, with noted state and local politicians – Congressman Salud Carbajal (CA24), Senator Monique Limón, First District Supervisor Das Williams, District […]
When New Beginnings began serving Santa Barbara as a nonprofit half a century ago, providing confidential, therapeutic psychological testing, assessment, and counseling to low-income individuals and families in the greater Santa Barbara area was its core mission. Experienced masters-and-doctoral-level counselors support clients exploring life transitions, relationship issues, and any number of other concerns – including […]
I got a bit of a surprise call last Thursday from Agent Potter, with Union Pacific [UP] Railroad Police. We’d been notified by the County’s encampment response team that UP was coming to do a South County cleanout sometime in April – outreach teams should work to clear inhabitants of camps so that Union Pacific […]
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, […]
The repurposed Santa Barbara store fronts at 4020 Calle Real, Suite 2, are serving our city’s homeless two meals a day – and a place to call home from 9 am to 3 pm. This is the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center (FVCC), conceived by the Daughters of Charity at St. Vincent’s and the Franciscan Friars […]
As a person who has experienced homelessness as a former addict living on the streets of Ventura County, I have come to understand how chronic vagrancy gives homelessness a bad name. For the last four years I have made the choice to wake up clean and sober so I can advocate for others like me […]
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 […]
Just 24 hours later I was at the Santa Barbara Veterans Memorial Building where 500 homeless turned out for a third Thanksgiving dinner organized by Adam’s Angels, a nonprofit founded by local Douglas Elliman realtor Adam McKaig and fellow resident Crystal Iverson. As they tucked into 400 pounds of turkey and 100 pumpkin pies, they […]
David Fletcher, head food service specialist at the Rescue Mission, certainly had his hands full on Thanksgiving Day, not only preparing for more than 300 homeless guests, but three other local organizations, adding another 100 recipients. David, who started on the job last year, says it has gotten easier as time goes by, with 25 […]
You’ve read in these pages about Hands Across Montecito, a very successful homeless outreach and placement team of the Montecito Association, made up of Montecitans, Sheriffs, Montecito Fire, Behavioral Wellness, and City Net. Our first client, Andrew Verlikanje, really hates litter, so he picks it up. Andrew impressed Heal the Ocean when he wanted to […]
To the charming Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez for A Toast To Home, a fundraiser for PATH – People Assisting the Homeless – which attracted 150 guests and was expected to raise around $60,000 for the 38-year-old charity that has homeless services in more than 150 cities with more than 60 locations. In 2021-22 PATH […]
It’s noon, about five hours later than Hands Across Montecito’s (HAM) usual monthly hike to locate and aid our village’s hidden population of unhoused individuals. We generally arrive just after dawn to find folks barely awake in their bivouacs around freeway entrances, in gullies near the railroad tracks and cemetery, along creek beds, and on […]
