[Noozhawk’s note: Second in a series sponsored by the Hutton Parker Foundation. Click here for the first article.]
Just a year ago, Santa Barbara resident Ahmodd was facing homelessness after being previously incarcerated and not having the proper resources to get back on his feet. He was referred to PATH Santa Barbara in early 2021 and now has an apartment to call home.
Ahmodd loves his new apartment, is now able to start looking for employment, and can’t wait to buy a skateboard, said Tessa Madden Storms, PATH Santa Barbara’s regional director.
Getting people off the streets and into permanent supportive housing is the nonprofit PATH’s mission, and it has helped move 36 previously homeless individuals into 26 different households through its scattered-site supportive housing program, according to Storms.
“The permanent supportive housing model is really based on both long-term financial and rental assistance and long-term comprehensive, intensive case management services,” Storms told Noozhawk.
“It is really targeted to the folks who are most vulnerable and living on our streets.”
Homeless individuals are referred to PATH by a coordinated entry system, an assessment tool that allows PATH’s homeless service providers to identify the most at-risk individuals by analyzing health, mental health, length of time experiencing homelessness, and where they are currently residing, Storms explained.
All that data is compiled and each person is given a score, with a higher score indicating someone who needs more care, she added.
Individuals are referred by the Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness Department, Good Samaritan, CityNet and Project Roomkey, among other partners.
“The coordinated entry system itself is kind of the central triaging body, it encompasses all of the service providers and provides people an opportunity to enter our supportive housing program,” Storms said. “We’re looking at that top-tier of folks, the ones who are at most risk of dying on the street.
“We want to house someone so they can live stably and independently in perpetuity, but we want to save our neighbors from dying on the streets.”
Once the individuals are referred, PATH provides wraparound care, including housing location and landlord engagement, indefinite rental and financial assistance, intensive case management, and retention and community linkages, she said.
“We want to make sure that housing is not a first or last step,” Storms said. “We’re committed to wrapping around care and supporting individuals to live stably.”
There are about 800 individuals experiencing homelessness in the City of Santa Barbara, Storms said, adding that that is a very approachable number to reach.
“One of the interesting things about Santa Barbara is the opportunity to truly end homelessness in the city,” she noted.
PATH’s supportive housing program is different from similar programs in other areas in the sense that it is a scattered-site program, meaning that PATH does not provide the properties for homeless individuals to live in, but connects them to properties and provides the complete scope of services, Storms explained.
“It’s an interesting dynamic in the Santa Barbara community as it stands,” she said. “With our program, we don’t have the property but we have the full scope and scale of services in our contract.”
While the scattered-site model presents a bit of a barrier because it is more challenging to go from house to house than it is to provide all the care in one spot, PATH’s program has a high level of staffing considering the number of households it serves, Storms said.
She said the case management ratio of the program is 25:3, reflecting how at-risk and at-need this population is.
“It’s definitely much more of an intensive model than some of the others,” she added.
The supportive housing team consists of an associate director, a case manager and a clinical case manager.
Once the individuals are placed into permanent supportive housing, then the nature of the program shifts toward retention, Storms said. The individuals are provided with weekly in-home case management and individualized service plans are developed to guide client interactions, including biopsychosocial assessment for each client served, she added.
PATH staff also provide in-home inspections for compliance with Housing and Urban Development Department standards, according to Storms.
PATH provides the services to make sure that the individuals do not make the transition back into homelessness by providing long-term leasing or rental assistance paired with supportive services, Storms said.
“We have a housing-first model,” she said. “We move them in and then provide the wraparound services to help them achieve stability.”
Making It Home
From 3 to 4 p.m. on June 5, PATH Santa Barbara is hosting its fourth annual Making It Home Tour — a virtual, guided journey through the homes of PATH supporters and tenants throughout California. The online-only event will consist of a compilation of home tours and personal interviews connecting us all to the question, “What does home mean to you?” Click here to purchase tickets online.
Click here for more information about PATH Santa Barbara, or click here to make an online donation.
— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
