More than 100 people recently celebrated the opening of a new housing community for formerly homeless individuals at the former Santa Barbara County Juvenile Hall.
Just 13 weeks since construction started, the 80-unit interim supportive housing community in Santa Barbara soon will have residents moving in.
Located at the former Juvenile Hall site at 4500 Hollister Ave., the La Posada Village housing community is specifically designed for homeless individuals and couples who live in encampments. Each unit is fully furnished with a bed, a desk, a chair, blankets, pillows and bright decor. Each unit has a window, its own locking door, and heating and air conditioning.
“This project is a lighthouse,” said Aaron Edelheit, adviser for the Dignity Moves Santa Barbara Regional Council. “It’s a beacon of hope to not only the people who finally get to come in off the streets, to dignified housing, but to others. People and communities are watching.”
It’s Dignity Moves’ third tiny-home-style community in Santa Barbara County. Hope Village opened in Santa Maria in March with 94 units for residents. The Downtown Santa Barbara community at 1016 Santa Barbara St. has 34 units, making 208 units for Santa Barbara County’s homeless population.
Matt Riley, a member of the advisory council for Dignity Moves Santa Barbara, said there’s no defined timeline for how long residents can stay at the communities, but most people stay for six months to a year to get back on their feet.
Numerous city, county and state officials attended Friday’s grand opening to walk through the site, explore the rooms and celebrate that residents soon will be moving in.
Good Samaritan Shelter will be providing residents with three meals a day, receive intensive case management, and receive mental and physical health services. There also will be constant on-site security.
The idea for this type of community came from the desire to build housing at a low cost that allows people to take a step from homelessness, to interim housing, to permanent housing.
“We thought tiny homes, prefabricated homes, manufactured homes might be a great solution,” Riley said. “We’ve coupled that with some ideas around philanthropy for the construction costs, and that’s what we have here.”
While these communities are just meant for individuals and couples, Riley said Dignity Moves plans to build family units.
“We have family units on the drawing board that we’d love to see built,” Riley said. “We’re still working with the county, but it’s not an approved project. It’s just something that we have our eye on.”
Santa Barbara County Second District Supervisor Laura Capps said the project is opening the door to the very basic necessities that people need.
“It’s opening doors to give people the basic things that we all take for granted — warmth, light and security, first and foremost,” Capps said.
Capps went on to say that in Santa Barbara, homelessness is a housing issue before anything else.
“We have the highest rents in Santa Barbara, of any small city in the country,” Capps said. “There are all these other issues of mental health and addiction, but first and foremost, it’s too hard to live here, and too many doors are completely closed to too many of the people that make our community work.”
La Posada is a collaboration of Dignity Moves, Santa Barbara County and Good Samaritan Shelter, which will be operating the site and providing services. Residents are expected to move in within the next few weeks.