After the deaths of three homeless people Saturday and Sunday, homeless advocates appealed for help Monday during a hastily called news conference.
Five panelists seeking help from the city and county of Santa Barbara gathered in a private home, near a memorial painted with dozens of names of the homeless who have died over the years.
Two homeless deaths were discovered Saturday morning. The body of a 43-year-old woman was found in a driveway off the 300 block of Castillo Street. A 43-year-old man was found beneath the Milpas Street Underpass, and reportedly was in possession of illegally obtained methadone pills.
On Sunday, officers conducting a premise check in the same area found another body — a 52-year-old man who also was reported to have methadone pills in his possession.
The coroner has custody of the bodies and is working to determine the causes of death, according to police, who said the deaths — so far — seem unrelated.
But this weekend’s deaths pushed the toll in Santa Barbara to five this year, signaling to Michael Foley, executive director of the Casa Esperanza homeless shelter, 816 Cacique St., that something needs to be done.
“We think it’s reached a crisis point,” he said.
After a particularly cold and rainy week, every bed at the shelter has been full for the last 20 days, according to Foley.
The new year’s toll comes on the heels of 28 deaths among Santa Barbara’s homeless in 2009.
The crux of Monday’s appeal was to the city and county to open up warming centers during cold or rainy nights, which recently have been held in local churches.
The warming centers serve as a place for the homeless to sit or sleep for the night — out of the elements.
“It’s remarkably temporary,” Foley said. “The warming shelter helps them stand up and fight another day.”
Dr. Lynn Jahnke, a retired oncologist, has been spearheading the effort to get the warming centers up and running since the cold weather began.
“It has to do with being a concerned citizen,” she said.
Jahnke said she takes issue with the fact that there’s no protocol in place, only a draft that various county committees have been mulling over for nearly three years.
“What took three years for the county to consider, we were able to construct in three hours,” she said of the shelter that will be open Monday and Tuesday nights at the Unitarian Church in downtown Santa Barbara because rain was in the forecast.
“The city and county seem surprised that it rains every winter,” she said.
With the recent heavy rains, Jahnke said the warming center at the church had opened six days in a row.
It was a huge success, she said, and that people who had never been to a shelter before showed up. The warming shelter will be open whenever there’s a chance of rain or temperatures are expected to drop below 35 degrees.
Jahnke said many churches have been willing to offer their space, but finding qualified volunteers to supervise the facilities has been a challenge. Each night it has been open, the center has seen an increase in homeless.
Those who make their way to warming shelters vary from “slightly inebriated to severely mentally ill,” she said, and volunteers would need to be experienced in dealing with the homeless. Anyone willing to volunteer can call Jahnke at 805.455.0204.
The public is being asked to donate sleeping bags, blankets, warm clothing and socks. Rain gear also is in short supply locally, and Foley encouraged people to donate to Bringing Our Community Home so it can purchase and distribute the rain gear.
All of the homeless deaths have occurred at night, Foley said, and professional street outreach is needed at night.
Jeff Shafer, executive director of the Uffizi Mission Project, said the warming centers are essential.
“It’s about us as a city and what we’re deciding to be,” he said.
The American Red Cross is unable to help unless a state of emergency is declared, and the county would have to intervene to take some of the pressure off the shelters. A proposal had been given to the county, according to Foley, but has sat on the desk of county CEO Michael Brown for the past three weeks.
County officials responded Tuesday, however, that Brown hadn’t received any such paperwork.
Like shelters, access to mental health care also has been a dire need for Santa Barbara’s homeless.
In December, 43 homeless came to the shelter for the first time, reporting that they needed help dealing with mental illness, compared with 27 in 2008.
Roger Thompson, director of the Consumer Advocacy Coalition, attended Monday’s news conference and echoed the need for access to mental health care.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will hear a presentation Tuesday about the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services Department, one of the agencies charged with addressing the mental-health needs of the homeless. It drastically reduced spending last year and has historically been cash-strapped from years of bad billing practices.
The supervisors will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Santa Maria at the Betteravia Government Center Board Hearing Room, 511 E. Lakeside Pkwy.
Foley encouraged residents to call the supervisors to tell them that the department is in crisis and to demand improvements.
He said there are some people who don’t want to be in the shelters, but those are “a true minority,” and many of them suffer from mental illness.
Social worker Ken Williams on Monday handed out a “Homeless Bill of Rights,” a document that’s been circulating and gathering support throughout the community.
Among the listed fundamental rights of the homeless are the rights not to be murdered, physically assaulted or raped.
“It’s ridiculous we even have to bring this up,” Williams said. “Santa Barbara has to decide if we’re going to accept this.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com.
