Three years after PATH took over the Casa Esperanza Day Center and Homeless Shelter at 816 Cacique St., the number of homeless problems in the area are down and the amount of people who have been placed in permanent homes has gone up, programs director Chuck Flacks told the Santa Barbara Planning Commission last week. 

PATH, which stands for People Assisting The Homeless, has to provide updates on its operations to the Planning Commission as part of its conditional use permit.

“The point of our operation is to house people as quickly as possible and give them the support to stay housed, which means we have reduced a lot of the onsite services that we used to provide that caused the concern for a lot the members of the community,” Flacks said. 

Casa Esperanza in its heyday offered 200 overnight beds during the winter, a day center where homeless people could hang out and socialize, a drug detox program, free daily lunch and emergency food distribution. 

“That’s all gone,” Flacks said.

The organization eliminated many of the services that has brought attention to the homeless center, including the day center that caused some Milpas Street business owners to complain.

Flacks said at the Planning Commission meeting that it is not a bad thing for PATH to offer fewer services, but that the organization is focusing on services with a longer-lasting impact.

“We’re not a day center,” Flacks said. “We’re not a place for homeless people to come and be homeless. We make that really clear. We don’t want it to be too comfortable. We don’t want it to be this robust community of homeless people hanging out.”

PATH Santa Barbara has 100 overnight beds available for people in its programs, according to a staff report. 

In the fiscal year ending in 2017, PATH placed 59 people in permanent housing. In the fiscal year ending in 2018, it placed 95 people in permanent housing. The organization served 735 total people in 2018 and actively managed 216 cases. 

“People tend to live better lives when they are housed in permanent housing,” Flacks said. 

Some of the people placed in housing received vouchers for the city and county housing authorities, according to a staff report. 

Lt. Dan McGrew also said that some activity associated with homeless residents has declined in the Milpas Street corridor near the PATH Santa Barbara shelter, including alcohol violations, illegal camping, panhandling, trespassing, urinating in public, possession of shopping carts, and disturbing the peace.

Planning Commissioner Mike Jordan said he was intrigued and pleased with the new direction PATH is headed, because the old model wasn’t working. 

“It was just an industry serving that industry without an end to that tunnel,” Jordan said. “I am encouraged by your evolution.”

Jordan said PATH’s success also means the community needs to search for ways to help the chronic homeless. 

“That leaves the ones on the street who are resistant to the model, who aren’t willing to improve their lives, and as a city, community or society, we are right now failing that group,” Jordan said. 

“We need to find a way to address that.”

The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara recently applied for state grant funding to build 40 tiny homes for the homeless on a commuter parking lot property, but the plan was scrapped after the city received $2 million in funding instead of the $6.5 million it had applied for. Some of that money will go toward a capital project that provides additional local beds for homeless people, according to the city. 

— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.