Just weeks after several hundred volunteers spread out across Santa Barbara County to gather data on how many people are living without homes, the community was briefed Monday on what they found — and the work yet to be done.
About 100 people gathered at the Cabrillo Arts Pavilion on Monday morning to hear about those findings from Santa Barbara’s mayor, as well as a panel of housing advocates from the Central Coast Collaborative on Homelessness, or C3H, and Common Ground Santa Barbara.
Since 2011, volunteers have gathered to conduct a point in time count and a vulnerability index in Santa Barbara County in order to determine how many homeless are living in the county and how to prioritize the most vulnerable people for housing.
The exercise has brought forward some valuable data about the homeless population, and the groups have had an impressive track record for housing the homeless.
Since 2013, housing providers have been able to house 284 chronically homeless people, 256 children and 133 veterans, according to Rob Fredericks of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara.
Though the organization is having success housing people, the number of homeless surveyed in 2011 and this year was largely unchanged, with 1,536 people recorded in 2011 and 1,455 encountered this year.
Fredericks told Noozhawk that about half of those surveyed had become homeless less than six months prior.
“So even though we have put a lot of good resources and have had good results from housing people, more people are falling into homelessness,” he said, adding that the high cost of housing and low vacancy rates do have a role to play.
Numbers from 2015 showed that Santa Barbara has the highest number of homeless, with 893 surveyed in 2015, down significantly from 1,040 people recorded in 2011. Santa Maria showed an increase in homeless surveyed, with 324 surveyed this year and 243 surveyed the first year of the survey.
“It shows we still have work to do,” Fredericks said of the data.
Also of note in the data was that surveyors found that the majority of the homeless reported living in Santa Barbara County prior to becoming homeless.
About 54 percent of people said they had lived in Santa Barbara County before becoming homeless, with another 23 percent coming from another part of the state.
People who lived out of state prior to becoming homeless amounted to 22 percent, with the remainder not listed.
“Santa Barbara isn’t this national magnet for drawing homelessness,” he said, adding that many of the homeless “are our neighbors.”
The average person surveyed was 43 years old, but the oldest person was 83 years old.
“That’s just not right, folks,” Fredericks said.
Sixteen percent of people surveyed had been formerly involved with the foster care system, 33 percent had experienced domestic violence and 57 percent said they had been victims of violence or trauma while living on the streets.
Dr. David Lennon also spoke about some of the veteran data that was seen this year, including the fact that veterans are homeless longer than the general homeless population — 8.3 years versus 5.5 years.
In addition, 52 percent of those surveyed reported PTSD symptoms, and 66 percent reported having a mental health diagnosis. A quarter of the general population reported traumatic brain injury, and two-thirds of people reported mental illness.
Also surveyed this year were 132 families, a significant increase from 73 families in 2011. Most of the families surveyed were in Santa Barbara, which was home to about 53 percent, and 32 percent were in Santa Maria.
One positive note is that 74 percent of those surveyed this year were enrolled for health insurance.
Jeff Shaffer of C3H said groups are coordinating throughout the county to focus on projects that can expand housing, and are working with landlords to line up tenant for housing.
The group has had success over the past year working with businesses on Milpas Street to house chronically homeless in that area, and now nine out of those 10 people are stabilized and no longer living on the streets, Shaffer said.
Next steps are looking to expand a similar effort to State Street, and the group is in talks with the Downtown Organization to replicate Milpas’ success.
Mayor Helene Schneider said one goal the city is embracing is a challenge put out by first lady Michelle Obama, which encouraged mayors across the country to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015.
Since Santa Barbara will likely have to look for creative way to increase its housing stock, a landlord liaison program, modeled after a program in Seattle, is now in the works, according to Glenn Bacheller of Social Venture Partners.
That program saw almost 5,000 people housed in less than five years, and relies on a contractual relationship between social services agencies and landlords, Bachellor said.
Landlords agree to relax their tenancy requirements and then are provided with tenants who are ready for housing and provided supportive services for at least a year, he said.
It dramatically reduces the risk for landlords because if there is a loss of rent, the social service agency will fill the gap, he said, adding that 94 percent of the people are still housed a year later, and a roll-out in Santa Barbara is anticipated in the second quarter of 2015.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
