Santa Barbara County Public Health, local organizations team up for COVID vaccine clinic at Santa Maria homeless shelter

SANTA MARIA, Calif. –  Santa Barbara County Public Health worked with other organizations to get the homeless community in Santa Maria vaccinated.

Many in the homeless community are getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Because it is a homeless population we can bring resources to them,” said clinic supervisor Ashley Guevara.

A clinic was held at Good Samaritan shelter in Santa Maria Wednesday.

Public health also offered flu shots.

“That is what is encouraging them to come out,” said Guevara.

$25 dollar gift cards were handed out afterwards.

“We are all about kids and families and trying to keep them safe,” said Executive Director of organization Fight Back Santa Maria. “There’s a lot of hesitancy around vaccinations. So anything we can do to keep our community vaccinated so we can keep them healthy and get things back to normal.”

Prior to getting the covid vaccine, public health and organizations are educating anyone in the community who has questions.

“Yeah, I did get educated, you know?” said Santa Maria resident Michael Ricky Zamudio. “It’s a lie what people are saying out there.”

Although the clinic has already wrapped up, public health plans more vaccine clinics in the future.

“The goal is to get as many people vaccinated as possible and educate them on the vaccine,” said Guevara.