As nighttime temperatures drop this winter, people living outdoors have limited options for a warm place to sleep amid Santa Barbara County’s post-holiday coronavirus surge.
Per the public health recommendations, the Freedom Warming Centers need to space individual beds 10 feet apart during overnight stays to accommodate for distance while sleeping as well as for getting up to use the restroom at night, according to Erin Wilson, director of administration at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara.
“This means that in spaces which have typically opened for FWC activations that we can only shelter about one-third of the guests we normally would,” Wilson told Noozhawk in an email. “Because of that, we have worked hard to partner with additional sites, so that should the capacity get close, we can open an overflow site and accommodate additional guests.
“We have not had to do that yet with our numbers being fairly low and low occurrence of activation triggers (rain, cold weather), but should we need to open our overflow center, we could accommodate up to 50 people over two locations.”
If numbers are approaching the overflow capacity, the FWC will work to organize a third Santa Barbara location to shelter individuals, Wilson said, “and can do so quickly because of our long-standing partnerships with partner locations in Santa Barbara.”
Other than spacing, Wilson said, the FWC worked with the county Public Health Department to create an FWC-specific COVID-19 procedures manual, including instituting health screenings for all staff and guests upon entry, personal protective equipment, additional cleaning and sanitizing of the space throughout the night, individual meals (compared to normal congregate meals), and protocols for what to do should an individual present with COVID-19 symptoms.
The FWC, which started in 2009, is providing a place to sleep for some of the most vulnerable people in the community when extreme winter weather is forecast for Santa Barbara County.
The Unitarian Society is the organizing force and fiscal agent for the countywide, multifaith grassroots effort. The FWC operations include locations in Carpinteria, Goleta, Lompoc, Isla Vista, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria.
In the past four weeks, the number of shelter beds has been even more limited at People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) in Santa Barbara.
PATH, a nonprofit organization on Cacique Street, provides a 100-bed shelter program for men and women as well as a variety of services for people experiencing homelessness.
Tessa Madden Storms, PATH’s regional director, said this week that up until recently, PATH Santa Barbara went about nine months with one positive COVID-19 test received.
“We’ve maintained that capacity for the entirety of COVID, until four weeks ago, when we started to have a few people that were testing positive like almost every other shelter provider across the state,” Madden Storms said. “PATH works across the state, and we are seeing this everywhere right now, unfortunately.”
PATH is not accepting new residents after COVID-19 cases were confirmed among people who have resided at its facility. Madden Storms added that the organization will release information about when it will begin admitting new intakes of people.
“We are excited to hopefully start admitting new residents again in probably the next couple of weeks,” Madden Storms said Tuesday.
PATH’s winter shelter program also is put on pause, she said.
“We have not yet opened winter shelter this year, but are looking forward to doing that,” Madden Storms said.
The winter shelter program typically provides an additional 100 beds for people experiencing homelessness.
This year, public health guidelines such as social distancing measures are limiting the number of beds that PATH will offer. The organizations will operate at a capacity of 35 people.
PATH’s inclement-weather winter shelter program, which run from Dec. 1 to March 31, will activate on nights when temperatures dip to 40 degrees or below and/or if the local weather forecast is predicting two consecutive days of a 50% probability (or above) of rainfall.
Shelters in Santa Barbara County are continually implementing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 protocols, including flipping sleeping mats so people sleep in the head-to-toe formation to create additional social distance, according to Kimberlee Albers, the homeless assistance program manager for the county.
“At various times during the emergency, a number of shelters have had to close to new guests in order to serve who they had and make sure that those protocols are being done, or wait for additional testing results from the Public Health (Department),” Albers said.
Data from the federally mandated 2020 point-in-time count identified at least 1,897 homeless people in Santa Barbara County, a 5% increase compared with the 2019 tally.
Conducted in January, the point-in-time count is an annual survey of individuals and families experiencing homelessness on a given day in the county.
As a result of COVID-19 concerns, the 2021 point-in-time headcount of the county’s unsheltered homeless population will not occur in January because of the ongoing pandemic. The county received a waiver from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development not to conduct the point-in-time count of people who are unsheltered, Albers said.
Albers noted the ongoing need for additional shelter spaces and housing beds for individuals experiencing homelessness.
“We talk a lot about how to reduce encampments,” Albers said. “The way to reducing encampments is through housing and shelter. As a community, we have to develop more beds, and not just during inclement weather.”
Meanwhile, organizations such as the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission also are offering shelter to the area’s homeless residents. The Santa Barbara Rescue Mission is the only organization between Oxnard and Santa Maria that provides overnight accommodations and hot meals to homeless guests 365 days of the year.
The Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, 535 E. Yanonali St., usually operates with 39 beds for women and 94 for men, said Rebecca Weber, the organization’s director of communications.
The organization has decreased its beds to 34 for women and 82 for men to create more social distancing among guests, she said.
As dusk fell on a recent Tuesday, two tents were pitched under a giant tree at Alameda Park along East Micheltorena Street in Santa Barbara. A person, surrounded by belongings, was sleeping on the grass area near Santa Barbara Street and East Sola Street.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.