Front Page
July 2, 2007
By Scott Steepleton, News-Press Associate Editor
Santa Barbara County has been taking its 10-year plan to address homelessness on the road to cities across Santa Barbara County, hoping to restructure a system that spends more than $30 million each year on about 1,000 of the neediest of people living on local streets.
The Goleta City Council was the most recent group to hear a presentation on where government has been when it comes to addressing the homeless, and where it could be.
The driving force is Roger Heroux, the former county public health director turned health care consultant whose landmark report in 2006 shed light on exactly what Santa Barbara County and its cities are up against when it comes to moving this ever-increasing population in a new direction.
More than 100 people from business, government, nonprofit, social services, and community members helped write the document, called "Bringing Our Community Home."
Helene Schneider, a Santa Barbara City Council member and co-chair of the leadership council that brought the plan to this point, said ending chronic homelessness can have a positive ripple effect on all forms of transiency.
"Some people can't believe how much money is being spent. Some of the money is doing good work, but a lot of it is moving people through the system," she said.
And by "the system" she means jail, the emergency room, detox, shelters and the other service centers that serve this population.
"Wouldn't it be better to use a chunk of that money to get some of these people out of homelessness and into housing?"
That's the idea behind "Bringing Our Community Home."
It sets out to move people out of the sometimes revolving door of today's system and into permanent supportive housing and self sufficiency.
The focus is on the chronically homeless, which national studies show make up 10 to 15 percent of the total homeless population but use more than half of the services aimed at helping people on the streets.
"When we talk about ending homelessness, we're not talking about homeless in general," said Pat Gabel of the county Housing and Community Development Department, one of many who worked on the plan in the early stages. "We're talking about the people who use these critical services."
"We saw the importance of restructuring the services, leading them in a new direction, rather than maintaining the status quo."
Cities across the county signed on to the project, and pitched in financially to help pay for the work.
Local plans such as the one here are being promoted by the Bush administration as a way of getting the chronically homeless into "permanent supportive housing" that is comprehensive, and individual case management to help them achieve residential stability and exercise greater influence over decisions affecting their lives.
A person deemed chronically homeless typically is in his or her early 40s and has a history of hospitalization, unstable employment and incarceration. Such people may also be:
. Unaccompanied;
. Homeless for a year or more or homeless multiple times over several years;
. Disabled by addiction, mental illness, chronic physical illness or disability, or developmentally disabled.
These plans, which are popping up all over, have a motivator in money: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is giving higher scores to grant applicants of certain programs in jurisdictions with plans and strategies in place.
Officials say in 2005 Santa Barbara County received more than $1.3 million through HUD's Continuum of Care grant program for various projects throughout the county.
The plan may also open the door to money through Gov. Schwarzenegger's initiative to end long-term homelessness in the state.
Announced in August 2005, that initiative included commitments of $10 million in state Housing Finance Agency funds to community organizations that lend to supportive housing projects and almost $900,000 for the formation of a council on homelessness, and pre-development costs like permitting, engineering, site development and environmental reports.
Beyond using supportive housing as a means to end homelessness, Santa Barbara County's plan includes:
. Preventing chronic homelessness from repeating;
. Preventing homelessness from becoming chronic;
. Reaching out to and treating the chronically homeless;
. Increasing income to end chronic homelessness;
. Financing a system of housing, services and treatment.
With the Goleta presentation over, the plan is set to make another step toward implementation.
A governing board of 30, including five nonvoting elected officials, will be seated, with their first charge to hire a director and a fundraiser.
Casa Esperanza, the shelter on Cacique Street in Santa Barbara, will serve as the fiscal agent.
Once the staff is in place, backers say they can get to helping -- in a whole new way -- the people who need it most.
"I've met with a group of people who live at El Carrillo (Studios)," a project of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara. "When you hear some of their stories about how they became homeless you think, 'This could be anyone that I know.' They had wealth, they had homes, and then something happened to them."
"Each one of them has said having a place to call their own with services right there is a life saver," she added.
They don't want a handout, Ms. Schneider said, they want a hand up.
"Everybody could use a little extra help at some point. I remember in college I needed a little extra money for books. I was lucky to have a family who could help," Ms. Schneider said.
"But let's say I didn't have anybody in my life that could help. You just miss that little opportunity and the next step is in the opposite direction."
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