Santa Barbara County officials are shifting their focus from moving homeless people into hotel and motel rooms amid the COVID-19 pandemic to helping unhoused residents make the transition directly to permanent housing.
The county is working to enhance homelessness prevention and housing activities through increased funding for rental assistance and supportive services, according to Kimberlee Albers, the county’s homeless assistance program manager.
“We are excited about some of those programs coming online,” she said. “The timing is good because the best thing we can do to keep our homeless neighbors safe is to get them into their own home where they can isolate … if we need to isolate.”
The county had surge funding for homelessness during the past couple of years, Albers said.
“The second group of surge funding came on July 1,” she said. “We have four more organizations that are funded to do rapid rehousing.”
A working group is performing a homelessness prevention model for some funding anticipated through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
As of last week, 113 hotel rooms were occupied countywide as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s program, which is known as Project Roomkey. The initiative aims to provide hotel and motel rooms for vulnerable individuals experiencing homelessness as protection from COVID-19.
The program is statewide and a collaborative effort by the State of California to secure shelter for people who don’t have a home during the pandemic. Newsom last month called his program Project Homekey, instead of Project Roomkey.
An initiative called Room Key South, the hotel the county is responsible for operating, is specifically for people at the highest risk of medical complications from the coronavirus, Albers said, adding that more than 50 rooms were occupied last week.
“We are creating a safe place for them to protect, hopefully, away from exposure to the disease,” she said.
The county opened the noncongregate shelter in April, and it “has been continuously operating since then,” she added.
Homeless service providers and street outreach workers identified unsheltered people or those living in emergency shelters to utilize Project Roomkey South. The priorities were housing individuals age 65 or older with a serious health condition, then those with a serious health condition younger than age 65, and lastly all people age 65 or older.
In addition to the county-run shelter on the South Coast, several entities are providing noncongregate shelter for homeless people, Albers said.
Before Project Roomkey started, an emergency homeless shelter opened at Santa Maria High School on March 21 to address the North County’s critical gaps and services related to the growing coronavirus contagion. Designed for more than 70 people, the site was operated by Good Samaritan Shelter.
The emergency homeless shelter closed on May 31 because the high school needed to retake the facility for its use, Albers said.
A diverse group of county leaders, service providers and community members in the COVID-19 homeless task force meet weekly via Zoom. A few months ago, meetings were held three times a week.
“We are trying to get the pulse of what’s happening in the homeless population,” Albers said. “Then, bringing those needs and recommendations to other departments.”
A task force objective was preventing and mitigating coronavirus effects for people remaining unsheltered through support centers and outreach, and re-establish access to showers, device charging stations as well as food and hygiene supplies.
“Those efforts are ongoing,” Albers said. “At the beginning, we lost a lot of our food distribution sites, and showers were hindered.”
At the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, public spaces and gyms were shuttered under state orders to prevent the virus’ spread, and it left few spots to shower or charge an electronic device. In response, Showers of Blessing Santa Barbara continues to provide more than 100 free, hot showers several times a week on the South Coast.
Solar chargers also were distributed at the shower sites, and the locations often had WiFi hot spots as a way to contact service providers, Albers said.
Doctors Without Walls — Santa Barbara Street Medicine and SB ACT are working to address hunger among unsheltered and vulnerable populations in Santa Barbara in response to the coronavirus, and distributing meals and nonperishable goods.
The organizations are giving out 350 to 400 bags of nonperishable items for those experiencing homelessness, Albers said. The county also distributed more than 800 hygiene and sanitation kits to people at encampments and those experiencing homelessness during the pandemic.
As a community, Albers said, establishing an appropriate response for homeless people continues to be critical during the pandemic because the effects have been significant.
“Life on the streets is difficult on our bodies,” Albers said, noting it was vital for the community “to have a Roomkey opportunity or just recognizing this is a population that has a group that is more susceptible to chronic health conditions, making sure we are protecting our health-care system, as well as the individuals experiencing homelessness by making sure they have a safe place during this unprecedented event.”
When asked about COVID-19 testing capabilities for homeless individuals in the county, Santa Barbara County Public Health Department spokeswoman Jackie Ruiz said testing opportunities, including those at the state-run testing sites and clinics, are open to everyone.
As of last week, she said there wasn’t a targeted testing opportunity for people experiencing homelessness.
— 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.
