Tag archives: homelessness
In the middle of another heat wave, it’s 95 degrees near the beach in Montecito and everybody has moved indoors. Everybody except our small group trailing behind Luis Alvarado, a determined homeless outreach specialist with the Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness Department who has come to Montecito to make contact with as many homeless people […]
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 […]
Monday morning at 6 am, a crowd of 30 gathered at a church in Santa Barbara’s Eastside to perform a homeless census count. This is part of the Hands Across Montecito Project, started by the Montecito Association in response to concerns of large encampments growing along the tracks, encounters on Coast Village, thefts, and fires. […]
Since 2009, the Organic Soup Kitchen has been the only organization in Santa Barbara County to deliver nutrient-rich soup meals to low-income families and homeless individuals. What started as a homespun effort to provide healthy meals to the homeless in local parks, has gradually become a successful, self-sustaining enterprise with its own kitchen that works […]
At their monthly board meeting on Tuesday, July 14, the Montecito Association Board of Directors voted to approve a pilot program to help homeless people in the Montecito area get the help and resources they need. The program includes partnering with outreach coordinators from City Net, an organization comprised of a team of nonprofit professionals […]
Not Missing After All Nicholas Schou’s article in the 18-25 June 2020 edition of the Journal is a deeply flawed and misdirected screed against private wells disguised as an “investigation” of “Montecito’s Missing Water.” An alliterative headline to be sure, but missing? It may be unknown, but it hasn’t gone missing. At the outset, when […]
It was standing room only on Monday, January 27, at Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall for the Montecito Journal Media Group’s inaugural event: the First District Supervisor Debate. Incumbent Das Williams and challenger Laura Capps faced off to answer several questions formulated by MJ CEO Gwyn Lurie and KCRW host and reporter Jonathan […]
Everyone Deserves a New Beginning… New Beginnings Counseling Center held its annual fundraiser in a new way with an evening of theatre at the New Vic. It was a stage reading production with award winning professional actors including a wonderful nine-year-old girl, Hope Dekkers, and Stephanie Edwards, who co-hosted the Tournament of Roses Parade with […]
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 […]
“Problem Solvers” Do It Again We had it all: the beautiful ocean along our coast, the great weather, the clean land and the beautiful new and growing economy. We could walk to school, to the store by ourselves and never thought anything would go wrong. We had new shopping centers and movie theatres that sparkled. […]
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 […]
Earlier this week drivers may have been caught in heavy traffic in lower Montecito, as Caltrans crews closed the Hot Springs exit at Highway 101 in order to clear out a long-term homeless encampment located under the freeway bridges. The massive encampment had not been cleared in over three years. The Coast Village Association, the […]
Hamburgers and hot dogs ruled the menu when the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission held its 11th annual Independence Day barbecue in the parking lot at its newly renovated property on East Yanonali Street. More than 300 homeless guests enjoyed 560 hamburgers and hotdogs, and 27 pounds of macaroni and potato salad, while quaffing hundreds of […]
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 […]
Gourmands were out en-masse when Italian culinary wizard Massimo Falsini cooked a host of delights at the home of software entrepreneur Frank and Allison Paolini for Epicurean Santa Barbara to raise funds for his charity, the Refettorio Program, which helps the homeless. Massimo, who hails from Rome and was executive chef at Solage, a five-star […]
For some reason the memory of silent-film star Charlie Chaplin is exploited with the fantastical myth that he “built” the Montecito Inn. Totally untrue. In David Myrick’s definitive history (“Santa Barbara & Montecito,” Volumes I and II), he explains the origin of the Montecito Inn in some detail. “Don B. Sebastian and William S. Seamans,” […]
PATH – People Assisting the Homeless – hit a definite home run with its second Making It Home tour, a sell-out event with 260 supporters taking a tour in eight trolleys – two more than last year – of four of our rarefied enclave’s toniest properties and raising around $75,000 for the nonprofit formed three […]
What a ride this has been for us all. While we are not yet out of the woods of what will probably turn out to be the worst wildfire in California’s history, I write this letter with a cautious sense of optimism. There are still over 8,000 firefighters on this fire. On 12-hour shifts, there […]
I would like to recommend to Bob Hazard, who wrote the recent Guest Editorial (“California Screaming,” MJ #23/48), that the Los Angeles Times of Tuesday, December 5, published a brief letter from a Godfrey Harris under the subject of “Why we pay taxes”. From Mr. Harris’s point of you, which I agree with, Americans are […]
