Goleta is prioritizing its focus on updating the city’s homelessness strategic plan and the reopening of the Goleta Valley Library in the 2026-27 fiscal year.

The Goleta City Council unanimously approved the Neighborhood Services Department’s work plan on Tuesday, which outlined those two goals and myriad other priority and long-range projects.

Reopening Goleta Valley Library by 2027

The top priority for the Library Services Division is completing the Goleta Valley Library’s $1.7 million capital campaign.

The campaign, launched in February and estimated to be complete by December, is raising money for the interior furniture and decor.

The campaign is related to the renovation project of the library at 500 N. Fairview Ave., to modernize the library and make it compliant with current building codes.

As of Tuesday, the fundraiser had reached 52% of its goal, according to city librarian Elizabeth Saucedo.

The library closed in April after the city received a $4.2 million grant for the renovation project. Construction kicked off in February.

The grant does not cover interior renovations, which is why the capital campaign was created. 

Library construction needs to be completed by summer 2027 per the project grant’s requirement.

Also on the to-do list for that project is finalizing and procuring the furniture selection and assessing and refreshing the collection ahead of the reopening.

Department and library staff are also eyeing upgrading the library bookvan or replacing it all together in 2028. 

“We love our bookvan, but our bookvan was pretty much designed as a pilot van, and we feel it needs either a pretty significant overhaul,” Neighborhood Services Director JoAnne Plummer said. “Our dream is to have a bookmobile.”

Council members were supportive of that dream.

“Yes, sign me up,” Councilman James Kyriaco said. “When, where, how and what can we do to make that happen?”

He said he envisions the bookmobile to serve the eastern Goleta Valley area to further expand library services. 

While supportive, Kyriaco also asked about the library’s budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year. He said he has heard that county library partners are facing funding challenges and wondered if that would impact the van.

Saucedo said that discussion involves a proposed reduction in per-capita funding from $9.42 to $9 a person in the library’s population zones, which encompass more than 111,000 people.

Plummer said any budget cuts wouldn’t significantly impact the current bookvan operations and instead would cut some of the library’s outreach events.

A workshop to further discuss the budget is scheduled for Monday, according to Saucedo. 

Revising Homelessness Strategic Plan by 2027

The No. 1 priority for the Homelessness Services Division is to update the city’s five-year homelessness strategic plan, estimated to be completed by spring 2027. 

“There’s been a significant shift in homelessness activity, but we see it with vehicular homelessness,” Plummer said. “We have just noticed that there is a need to make some changes.”

Chuck Flacks, the city’s homelessness services coordinator, said he takes issue with the current plan because it does not have strategic, measurable, actionable, reasonable and time-bound (SMART) goals.

“They are a vision,” he said.

By creating SMART goals, he said, the city can create measures to track the progress of the plan. 

“We currently don’t have clear objectives to know how well we are doing,” Flacks said. “We don’t know what’s left to achieve.”

Councilman Stuart Kasdin agreed with Flacks, calling the current homelessness data “unreliable” but questioned how well a performance measure would be.

Other initiatives for the division include: tracking the progress of residents served by the county’s Homeless Prevention, Diversion, and Retention program and establishing a service provider presence at the Goleta’s Train Depot.

Those projects are estimated to be completed by December.

Plummer said she anticipates there being a need for services at the depot and hopes to work with a county provider who may already know some of the homeless people.

“We are looking at offering some office hours and office space at the depot,” Plummer said. “We are working on that and hoping we can make that happen.”

The Goleta Train Depot, which is still finishing construction, is expected to open in the summer.

Council members advised Flacks to prioritize work on homelessness prevention efforts, too. 

“I hope that we put more time, energy and money into prevention to get folks help before they are living out in the elements for years,” Mayor Paula Perotte said.