Before dawn Wednesday, 425 volunteers headed out for Santa Barbara County’s annual Point In Time count, an effort to track the number of people experiencing homelessness and understand their needs.

The results of the count won’t be released for a while, but last year’s effort reported 1,887 homeless individuals countywide, including 1,200 unsheltered people.

Homelessness across the United States increased by a record high of 12% in the past year, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. About 28% of the nation’s unhoused population live in California. 

“This is a problem that people need to be working on, that people need to be aware of,” said Jett Black-Maertz, Housing Program Specialist and head of the county’s Point in Time Count. “If we’re able to solve the homelessness issue and the housing issue, I think that’s gonna reverberate throughout all levels of the community.”

Behind the numbers are real people with real stories. Stories about childhoods and journeys that can’t be found in analytics, and circumstances that could happen to anyone.

“Volunteers have reported really great experiences, like ‘I felt a great connection to this person, they had this whole life behind them before they became homeless,’ so it’s really revealing about the humanity of people that are living on the streets that we see day to day,” said Black-Maertz.

As a child, Josephine Lino lived with her parents and her seven brothers and sisters on Coronel Street, on the lower west side of Santa Barbara. She played in AYSO, went to Monroe Elementary, and then Santa Barbara High School.

Lino was 16 when she became pregnant with her first child.

“I was the black sheep of the family,” said the 50-year-old with a side smirk and a cautious tone. “I was really rebellious, I’d run away and go party with my friends, and do what I wanted to do.”

Lino said her parents struggled to get by, that most of her upbringing was in poverty. “We always had to wear hand-me-downs, so out here in the streets, it doesn’t phase me because that’s how I grew up.”

Multiple housing facilities and rehabilitation centers later, and after two husbands, 11 children and four grandchildren, Lino now lives unhoused around the same neighborhoods she grew up in. 

Throughout the marriages, Lino said she and her kids would move around a lot due to her addiction battle with drugs, and her trauma responses from her first relationship.

After her last divorce, Lino said she lived in Section 8 Housing until her kids were old enough to move out, around 2021, which is when Lino moved back onto the streets.

Lino teared up when she talked about her children. 

At age 50, Lino said her oldest child is 34, and her youngest child is 14. She also added she has four grandchildren, saying “they’re beautiful, they’re my everything.”

Lino said sometimes her sons will see her when they’re driving through Santa Barbara, and will occasionally bring her to get some food and clothes. 

For the most part, especially with her daughters, Lino said her children have been too hurt by her struggles with addiction and her relationships with men to become more involved in her life. 

“I really want to go back to school,” she said. “I want to be a drug counselor, I want to be able to give back, because I was treated good in homes.”

Stretch, who also goes to Showers of Blessing, is a 6-foot, tattooed East Coast man who used to be a welder. 

He lives out of a push cart and sleeps on the ground near the base of Stearns Wharf. He loves to play video games, his favorite food is pizza, and he recently had his heart broken.

Stretch said his hometown in Massachusetts offered him and his girlfriend at the time each a one way ticket to California in fall 2023. Four days of bus rides later, they arrived in Santa Barbara.

“But she left, said she wanted to go back, she was done with me,” Stretch said with strain in his voice. “I don’t know what love is anymore, man. I gave up on it a long time ago.”

The 50-year-old said he stopped working when his back began causing him chronic pain. “Work wasn’t helping, so I was just like, you know, I’m just done.”

Stretch said he “chose” to become an unhoused individual, and that he doesn’t want pity for it.

“I don’t want to work,” said Stretch. “I’m just in too much pain. I’m trying to get food stamps, seeing if I can collect disability. I’m still getting my life together.”

On a day-to-day basis, Stretch eats whatever food is offered to him by the public or what he can get with his food stamps. He said he used to weigh over 300 pounds and is down to 200 pounds from being homeless. 

Stretch explained he has a negative mindset “95% of the time,” that he’s not happy where he is, but doesn’t expect it to get any better. “I better get used to it,” he said. 

Stretch said he’s been offered housing in Santa Barbara, but he chose to remain out on his own. “I don’t do rules and regulations,” he said.

Although Stretch said he’s been a “loner” for the majority of his life, he enjoys playing chess with some of his neighbors and he likes to make casual conversation with passersby. 

“We appreciate the stuff given to us, whether it’s food, water, money,” he said. “We appreciate it, but don’t feel sorry for us.”