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Supervisors Open to Supporting Warming Centers for Homeless
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to explore helping staff warming centers for the homeless, and if needed could draw from a contingency fund of up to $40,000.
The board will make a decision next week, but Tuesday’s item was approved 4-1, with Supervisor Joni Gray dissenting.
Rainy and cold winter weather has been an issue this year, and the supervisors authorized staff to work with homeless advocates and faith-based groups to hammer out the details of the ordinance, which will address where the homeless can go during inclement weather.
In the short term, staff will look at possibly funding some of the warming center efforts, using county workers as needed.
The draft includes three scenarios that would kick in once hazardous weather begins. The first calls for Casa Esperanza, the Rescue Mission, Transition House and Noah’s Anchorage offering all of their existing beds.
Once those are filled, the Rescue Mission could use overflow cots, Casa Esperanza could open to full capacity and the Salvation Army could open an overflow shelter. Once all of the local shelters have reached capacity, local jurisdictions would begin to organize area warming centers.
The issue becomes more complicated, however, when the homeless choose not to go to the shelters — sometimes because of mental illness or addiction.
Protocols didn’t call for county staffing, and “we kind of got stuck there,” Supervisor Doreen Farr said.
In the meantime, the shelter opened, first at Trinity Episcopal Church, then at the Unitarian Society, where homeless turnout increased every night.
Farr said Tuesday she hoped the board would look at the protocols and bring something forward for next winter.
“So many people have been generous with their time and money, but they need help,” she said.
Current protocols allow the county to step in, but “to date, that has not been necessary” because the shelters have been able to accommodate people, said Michelle Mickiewicz, deputy director at the county Public Health Department.
The American Red Cross-Santa Barbara County Chapter has declined to help recently because it doesn’t have the staff equipped to deal with people with mental illness, Mickiewicz said.
“They are saying, ‘We’d love to help with this, but we are not fit for this,’” she said.
Homeless advocates have a different view.
“We don’t care about protocol,” said John Buttny, director of Bringing Our Community Home.
The winter storms have put a “human face” on people who are invisible most of the time, he said.
“Casa Esperanza has been at capacity for weeks,” along with the Rescue Mission, he said. “The weather ... exposed a serious gap in the safety net of services.”
Even if every shelter bed was utilized, it would still leave 300 to 400 people on the street with nowhere to go, Buttny said.
With up to 10 churches already volunteering space for the warming centers, county staff, trained in dealing with people with mental illness, are needed to oversee them.
When asked how much it would cost for one staff member to work overnight from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. at one of the shelters, staff reported it would cost $538.
Some people were taken aback by the amount, including Supervisor Salud Carbajal. “Are we putting people up at the Biltmore?” he asked.
Supervisor Joe Centeno asked why people from the county even needed to be present, and why people couldn’t be trained to watch over the centers for an hourly rate.
The item will go back before the board for final approval next week.
The supervisors also gave the go-ahead Tuesday to the Homeless Death Review Team to research this year’s six homeless deaths and report back in three to five months. The team will collaborate with law enforcement, homeless services providers and interested county commissioners and community members.
About 3,000 deaths occur countywide each year, according to Dr. Peter Hasler, interim public health official with the Public Health Department.
Hasler said 25 to 50 of those deaths are homeless people. The death rates among homeless are the same as those who are housed, he said, despite all the risks the homeless are exposed to. “That’s why we’re asking questions,” he said.
Sheriff Bill Brown also expressed concern about the difficulty of gathering data on the homeless. The challenge lies in identifying who’s actually homeless among the deceased.
Brown said that many times, homeless people will list a shelter or another address as their home address, and people who have homes will list themselves as transient.
The cases are managed by a limited number of officers working as coroners, who are already overworked. The coroner’s office has seen a disturbing trend with an increase in suicides, which were up to 60 deaths in 2009 from the previous year’s 34. The total number of deaths also was up, hovering near a 20 percent increase.
“I’m very reluctant to have to commit that they be involved in a process that’s going to take them away from important work,” Brown said.
Nick Ferrara, a man who said he had been homeless for two years, also spoke Tuesday. He said he’s working on a counseling internship at St. Brigids Fellowship’s homeless outreach program in Isla Vista, and spoke about the death of two homeless veterans, one who died of exposure in December.
“It got me thinking ... We’ve had more folks die here in the last 30 days than in combat in Iraq,” he said. “This place is a battlefield.”
The board voted unanimously Tuesday to proceed with the study.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 02.03.10 @ 09:54 PM
Answer this Ken Williams. Of all the deaths in Santa Barbara, 1.7% is homeless. Why should we be concerned? Where is the bill of rights for the taxpayers not to die an early death. That $40k should not be spent on warming shelters.
» on 02.03.10 @ 11:09 PM
Im confused- the vast majority of these deaths were in the city of sb. The article doesn’t mention what the city is contributing to this effort—money? Buildings? Or nothing but the problem?
» on 02.04.10 @ 08:24 AM
guess when the south county supes want to engage in social engineering and widen what was once an internal public health study into a free for all “death review” group it does not matter what the county’s Chief law enforcement or health officer says about the real statistiics or needs.
» on 02.04.10 @ 09:26 AM
Staffing!!!!!????? Funding!!!!!!????? The government is broke!!!!!! How is the government going to warm us all after they tax and spend us all into homelesness?
» on 02.04.10 @ 10:12 AM
Wow 300 to 400 people on the street with nowhere to go?? Gee I wonder why there have been more deaths? It sounds like Santa Barbara has become home for the world’s homeless. Come to Santa Barbara! It’s not so cold and you get free food and shelter and a cup of coffee at the schmuck taxpayers expense! And I can’t afford my mortgage let alone support the world.
» on 02.04.10 @ 10:14 AM
None of the deaths were due to not having a place to sleep.
» on 02.04.10 @ 10:17 AM
“The coroner’s office has seen a disturbing trend with an increase in suicides, which were up to 60 deaths in 2009 from the previous year’s 34. The total number of deaths also was up, hovering near a 20 percent increase.”
No mention of the fact that the number of homelessness itself this year is probably up 50 percent! This 20% I am sure is proportional, but being used as a tool to pry more money away from the soon to be homeless.
» on 02.04.10 @ 11:35 AM
Many of these deaths WERE related to the need for shelter. Drugs and alcohol were involved in some deaths. But that weakens the body even more. This County needs more detox beds and housing that people living on Social Security can afford.
» on 02.04.10 @ 11:44 AM
These liberals are clueless—tax and waste losers..
Vote Farr- Carby the dog catcher and Wolf out—-
Bad for the taxpayers—union puppets..
» on 02.04.10 @ 01:27 PM
Warming shelters are needed. The thing is, we need someone knowlegeable to be at the Sup’s meeting. A lot needs to taken into account when staffing. Got to remember, many of the homeless that don’t make it into the shelters are because they have been destructive and aggressive towards the homeless using the facilities. Many times drunk or loaded. they lost their priveleges at these facilities. So now th inruly will be at the warming shelters. Need some form of security that has an understanding of this population.
» on 02.04.10 @ 01:45 PM
As much as this is a necessity, we’ll have to wait while the local politicians find out how much money they can spend and how much political influence can be garnered. What a shame…I hope Supe Gray gets the boot asap!
» on 02.04.10 @ 02:21 PM
how much is the City of Santa Barbara providing? buildings? Police?
» on 02.04.10 @ 03:27 PM
If those commenting want a warming shelter they can start a privately funded one themselves. It is not the government’s job. These liberals think government is one big money tit that they and all their fantasy ideals can drain from indefinitely.
NEWSFLASH: These are taxpayers dollars that come out of the citizens’ paychecks!!!!!!! For every cent taken by the government it is taken away from the citizen. Government is to have only limited functions and monies. The money that go to the government is through taxation and should be to fund the most basic of services for the citizenry ONLY! Just because someone has a baby pet ideal does not mean it is the government’s job to resolve and pay for it.
If you people want to start a business or a charity that opens and funds a warming center go for it if you think there is a need and you are either in agreement that it is necessary and or are passionate about it. It is called personal responsibility. Quit sucking from the tit that is fed by everyday people’s money (Other People’s Money—OPM!) and do it yourself. Government is not your mommy or daddy or unlimited fantasy bank account. Get off your butt and create what you think is necessary.
» on 02.04.10 @ 03:30 PM
Warming shelters for the homeless in Santa Barbara. LOL. What a complete and utter joke!!! Liberals are just OUT OF CONTROL in this city, county, state, and country.
» on 02.04.10 @ 03:48 PM
Sounds like atleast 4 ‘supervisors’ need to go. These people can go work for private charity. Sadly however if they are in a supervisory role at a place that has to watch its outflow these four wouldn’t last longer than a week. They would spend foolishly and quickly and be given the boot! As we need to do ASAP! Time to make some serious changes in Santa Barbara. We have a beautiful city and have turned into a homeless haven chasing away visitors and tourist who do not make a second trip once they realize we are the new Santa Cruz. Gee and I thought Santa Barbara made money off tourism. Guess these supervisor don’t care about our income and our beautiful city—just the homeless.
» on 02.04.10 @ 04:26 PM
when did the homeless start paying taxes? Oh. That’s right they don’t and never did.
This money comes from tax payers’ dollars to fund basic services for the tax paying community. We have a right to demand our basic services are met and that our money is spent in a limited capacity for relevant services. The reach here out of bounds. Private charity needs to step in if their is a need. The tax payers dollars are not for non tax payers that are only here to scam, mooch, steal, leech, and otherwise drain the income and bring blight to Santa Barbara. Move along vagabonds. We are not here to fund your lifestyle, your drugs, and your dependency. There are many homeless charities our there already. If there is a need they can step in.
For those of you who want to see warming shelters contact your local charities or national ones, not the city, county, state, or federal government. It is not their role. Their role is to provide basic services for the tax paying community.
» on 02.04.10 @ 05:05 PM
The only way I would approve of these warming houses would be if each of the four supervisors took $10,000 each from their yearly salary to pay for them. Then I might approve and just for no other reason than to see these people realize that if they love this idea so very much they can go ahead and pay for it themselves from their pay (which also comes from tax payer dollars because sadly they work for us the tax payers.)
We hired them unfortunately and we need to fire them and start hiring fiscally responsible supervisors that understand that the role of government is to provide limited and basic services to the tax paying community.
We need to shrink government. We need get spending under control and it starts with not funding projects that one have no business being initiated by government but should be handled by private entities and two that work against the best of the community.
Attracting the homeless to Santa Barbara because they get the best hand holding and coddling that money can provide is a fantastic opportunity for any homeless person that thrives on stealing from, living off others’ generosity, as well as chasing tourism, visitors, and even local residents away from Santa Barbara’s great places.
» on 02.04.10 @ 05:20 PM
The following is a quote from the above article:
The supervisors also gave the go-ahead Tuesday to the Homeless Death Review Team to research this year’s six homeless deaths and report back in three to five months. The team will collaborate with law enforcement, homeless services providers and interested county commissioners and community members.
end quote.
How much does this “Homeless Death Review Team” cost and how much will be the overall cost for it as well as the time and cost taken from using law enforcement’s time, as well as country commissioners time both of which are paid by tax payers dollars as well. How much!? In the mean time local paving of roads is left undone and unfunded.
HMMM. These are not the priorities I support in my government officials. They need to go and they also need to account for the cost of this project.
» on 02.04.10 @ 06:13 PM
I agree with the comments. You all should start calling the Sups and letting them know. I am not aware that there was one comment from the public saying this was bad. Plenty of support from the self-servers though. How many deputies, firefighters and public health nurses are going to get laid off to help this program?
» on 02.04.10 @ 07:32 PM
All in all, citizens have stepped up to help the homeless in this community in a way they never have before. Lets report on this. I can vouch, as someone who saw the organizing of one of these shelters, that my peers do not wish to be compensated for their “sacrifice” one night away from the comfort of their temperapedic. It is an honor for them to even be involved.
» on 02.04.10 @ 08:28 PM
Is it possible to make it any more attractive for the homeless to live in Santa Barbara? I’m surprised we aren’t paying for the bus rides here from the other towns that are dumping them on us.
» on 02.05.10 @ 10:48 AM
I really love one person pretending to be seven different people with the same opinion. Everyone knows what you are doing. It’s dishonest and misleading.
Give it a rest - if you were really paying taxes you would be WORKING, not posting online at all times of the day.
Hope your boss doesn’t find out!
» on 02.08.10 @ 09:58 AM
Odd the Sup Carbajal thinks $538/night is expensive for a county staff person. He lead the votes for all the pay raises, vacations, benefit and pensions.
P&D now charge $180+/hour which would cost $1980/night to staff the warming shelters. The mental health guys are not getting their share!
» on 02.08.10 @ 10:56 AM
How about the Goleta area,other than Isla Vista? Anthing for homeless in Old Town to go? People have asked me. Thanks.
» on 02.08.10 @ 02:47 PM
I was in a town in Clif and saw a huge group of government workers spending nights at the most expensive hotel in town—Not motel 6—Why? servants of the people??
Overtaxed taxpayer..?
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