Santa Barbara County to spend 6 million dollars on ending homelessness on Central Coast

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—California has awarded nearly 200 million dollars to move 7,300 people out of encampments and into housing.

Santa Barbara county's portion is 6 million dollars. It’s a part of the Encampment Resolution Fund.

We spoke to Lucille Boss, the County of Santa Barbara Encampment Response Coordinator, about the impact of this grant.

“We know how to end homelessness. It's through shelter, through services and through affordable housing,” said Boss.

The grant aims to connect roughly 250 unhoused people living in dangerous encampments to both interim and permanent housing.

“Earlier this year the storms that we witnessed showed how unsafe and unhealthy the encampments were around waterways, specifically riverbeds, creeks, and beaches. People were gathering their belongings and trying to find dry, safe space,” said Boss.

A specialized outreach team will also match them with critical services.

“Everybody deserves a safe place to sleep at night. Everybody deserves access to critical services to meet their unique needs. Whether those are mental health needs, whether they're substance use disorder needs, whether it's employment, training and connections,” said Boss.

Lucille boss hopes the stigma and dehuminazation around homelessness begins to shift.

“Every individual who is unsheltered right now is somebody’s family member, is somebody, is friends. Many of them are working, but they just can't afford to live where they work and where they have their net work,” said Boss.

The Encampment Resolution Fund is a county wide effort that will focus on 3 distinct regions— the Santa Maria riverbed between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, the Santa Ynez Riverbed in Lompoc and Solvang, and the south Santa Barbara County creeks leading to beaches at Goleta, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland, and Carpinteria.

Outreach will begin this summer.