Turkey Drive: Good Samaritan’s ‘Hope Village’ housing community helping reduce homelessness in Santa Maria

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The new Hope Village homeless housing community in Santa Maria is proving to be a success after opening earlier this year.

Located on Santa Barbara County-owned land next to the Betteravia Government Center, Hope Village is a temporary small fenced-in community that has been created through an innovative public-private collaboration to provide interim supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness.

"It's a very unique non-congregate shelter," said Kirsten Cahoon, Good Samaritan Director of Homeless Services. "It's the first of its kind in Santa Maria. It was really meant to target the unsheltered population within about a two-mile radius of this facility. Downtown Santa Maria started to really feel an impact of the unsheltered community didn't have enough shelter beds. It's a really non-traditional model. Everyone gets their own room and we really knocked down all those barriers to entry, like bringing your partners and your pets in and having the privacy and just the dignity of being able to lock a door."

Hope Village opened in late March 2024 and has been created through a partnership with Santa Barbara County, Good Samaritan Shelter, Dignity Moves, Dignity Health, and Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley.

"Clients can stay here from eight months to a year," said Brian Mason, Hope Village Program Manager. "We try to give them case management and lined up to get set up for permanent housing. We opened up on March 27th of this year, and since then, we've actually had 150-plus clients go through, and out of those 150-plus clients, we've had 15 clients that actually went to permanent housing."

Funding for Hope Village is being provided through a number of different public and private sources.

The community will stay where it is now for five years, and after that period of time, the plan is to relocate Hope Village to another site in Santa Barbara County.

Hope Village residents will directly benefit from the ongoing News Channel 12 Turkey Drive. On Thanksgiving, they will be able to enjoy a traditional holiday meal that has been provided through generous donations collected from the community.

"It means a lot of time," said Hope Village resident, Candy Reyes. "It just means that we get to eat a turkey, like as a family, and for me, it's been a while since I've had a turkey. It's just exciting and that means a lot of people coming to donate. We get to eat a turkey just like they are. I'm grateful that there is people that do care and I just wish everybody was like that."

The News Channel 12 Turkey Drive is set for Thursday, November 21, with all proceeds benefiting thousands of clients with Good Samaritan Shelter in Santa Barbara County and SLO Food Bank in San Luis Obispo County.

For more information, or to donate, visit the News Channel 12 Turkey Drive webpage.