Subscriber Comments for
Carpinteria Homeless

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 325228	2012-09-28 09:33 AM
The economy hasn't been too great for the past few years...
COMMENT 325230	2012-09-28 09:34 AM
It's happening all over the country - not just Carpus.
COMMENT 325231	2012-09-28 09:34 AM
and you have awesome weather. If I was homeless, I'd be here with all the great programs in place, or Hawaii.
COMMENT 325232	2012-09-28 09:35 AM
Vagrants in this state have a very sophisticated communication network funded by do-gooders in Santa Barbara so they know where to go that is friendly and welcoming like Santa Barbara and where to stay away from like Ventura and Solvang. You are merely getting the over-flow from the misguided welcoming policies in the city of Santa Barbara. Many other communities including uber-liberal San Francisco are finally cracking down so the shiftless shift onwards to the paths of least resistance. Send your new batch on to Coast Village Road and the Upper Village Montecito because that's is where most of the Homeless Inc enabling money comes from. They grow it and it is time for them to now harvest the fruits of their generosity they heretofore have dumped on everyone else.
COMMENT 325233	2012-09-28 09:35 AM
You saw two homeless people?! I think I saw one heading toward Goleta the other day. They must be spreading out!
SBJULES	2012-09-28 09:37 AM
They heard about the safe beach. Actually, they've been there for awhile.
COMMENT 325242	2012-09-28 09:46 AM
Does Mayor Schneider run your city, too? (Kidding) If Carpinteria is anything like SB, the problem can be traced to not enough enforcement of panhandling and illegal camping laws, and too much free food, housing, and rehab. Maybe it's time for a new mayor and city council down there? Also, be wary of what we call "Homeless, Inc.," the non-profit-group housing complex that will ruin your city. Up here, Homeless, Inc. lobbies their allies like the Mayor and her allies on the city council to approve policies and community grants that intentionally attract more of "clients" to the area. This in turn gurantees Homeless Inc. more grant money from the City, state, and feds. They got job security, but we lost our parks, libraries, and beaches. Good luck!
COMMENT 325247	2012-09-28 09:50 AM
A whole year? The homeless didn't just show up in a year, they've been part of the scene for at least the 30 years I've lived in Carp. It's not a scene like lower State thankfully. Several hang out in Casitas Plaza, and the State beach campgrounds area, but it's never been a big deal in Carp. The gangbangers are much more of a problem especially at night, and drunks climbing out of the two bars in town. Some are real characters but harmless, like the purple lady, the crazy chick on the bike, the Starbucks laundry queen, the can guy. Many are transient and are around for awhile, then they disappear. There are a few crazies that hang out near Yucca Lane by the auto parts shop. They're the worst. Real kooks. Many stay in local motels until the money runs out, then out to the streets, then back to the motel after the SS check arrives.
COMMENT 325248	2012-09-28 09:51 AM
I often wonder what would happen if we offered no homeless services etc. Would they really leave or would they stay anyway? I think Carp has always had some homeless..good weather, less law enforcement. Just a guess as to why.
COMMENT 325252	2012-09-28 09:55 AM
You saw two homeless people!? They are breeding like wasps here in Santa Barbara.
COMMENT 325256	2012-09-28 10:00 AM
I've lived in Carp all my life. There is a homeless man, short skinny man with grey hair, that sometimes will push his belongings in a cart. Back in the day, like 30 years ago, he would sit in a booth at Foster Freeze and draw his art on their napkins. He is an amazing artist. It's truly sad that he has the issues he has. He went missing for about 2-3 years and his family came to town looking for him. They didn't have a clue and everyone had thought he had passed away. He was actually living down in Malibu during that time. He is now back and us locals are thrilled to have him back. Don't be afraid if you drive by and see him using his "air" guns on his imaginary targets. Now the older woman with short hair that likes to hang out by the City Market by the railroad tracks, she is crazy. If you say hi to her she will chew you out at the top of her lungs. I would recommend walking on the other side of the street.
COMMENT 325257	2012-09-28 10:00 AM
Be very quiet or the walkers will hear you!
COMMENT 325258P	2012-09-28 10:00 AM
I heard that Milpas business owners started handing out flyers to the homeless telling them about the safe beach in Carpinteria........right after white sharks started feeding there.
COMMENT 325261	2012-09-28 10:03 AM
Time to take some of the burden Carp....
COMMENT 325268P	2012-09-28 10:08 AM
Fire all of the majors from the last 30 years in Malibu, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara (sarcasm)
COMMENT 325268P	2012-09-28 10:08 AM
oops ... mayors not majors
COMMENT 325272	2012-09-28 10:13 AM
There are homeless in every city. Just open your eyes and care about your fellow human being. When you are selfish they are invisible.
EDHATBARBARA	2012-09-28 10:18 AM
"The poor you shall have among you always."
COMMENT 325281	2012-09-28 10:20 AM
When people say they want to 'crack down' on the homeless, what do they want to have happen? For the police to issue more citations that they can't pay? For there to be more arrests so that the taxpayers have to pay police for processing them and providing care while they are in jail? That can't be very cost effective. If the solution was more enforcement, we'd have had this problem solved a long time ago. I get the feeling these posters would appreciate it if the cops busted a few heads and threw them on the nearest freight train out of town, like in the 1930s. But I don't want to have cops that would do that on my police force, do you?
COMMENT 325290	2012-09-28 10:29 AM
The homeless population is at a record high. I have lived here for 30 years and have never seen so many bums loitering our streets like they are now. I don't visit downtown SB too often but yesterday I parked by the Habit and there was a group of about 20 transients smoking weed in the back, by the public parking. The looked like they were all in there twenties and seemed to be having a good time. I said hi, they said hi, it wasn't like I was threatened by them or anything but wow, there are so many people just hanging out along State St, it's a shame. There are a lot now in Goleta too.
COMMENT 325230	2012-09-28 10:39 AM
Didn' t Bum Fights originate in Santa Barbara ???
COMMENT 325268P	2012-09-28 10:49 AM
325290 - I wonder if/how many of them are Iraqi veterans?
COMMENT 325302	2012-09-28 11:01 AM
And the meek shall inherit Santa Barbara.
COMMENT 325303P	2012-09-28 11:03 AM
68P: Probably none. Are there homeless vets? Yes, surely there are and there are ample and well-deserved services available for those who seek them. Are the local vagrants and recently arrived grifters "veterans" of anything other than the Oregon to So Cal vagrant "circuit?" Nope. Continuing to play that card won't make it any more real.
COMMENT 325233	2012-09-28 11:11 AM
290 - sounds like everyday in Eugene, OR. I went to school there back in the 90s and boy, I'd never seen so many "hippies" in my life! They'd beg for change and then drive off in a Forerunner. "Trust fund hippies" is what we'd call them. I guess being "homeless" was cool. My point is, SB is starting to look a lot like Eugene....
SHAKEY	2012-09-28 11:29 AM
The sheltor will buy a few chosen ones a bus ticket to any were they want to move to, the bad part is they will only spend $1.50 on the ticket and Carp is the end of the line. After all winter is coming and they need them close enough to come back and sign in so the sheltor will recieve MORE MONEY, at witch point they are free to kick them out into the cold and rain !! They will justify them self, saying they didn't want to follow there rules.....But they got there MONEY and there pockets will be fully again.......
COMMENT 325268P	2012-09-28 11:34 AM
325303P - It is not "playing a card" - it is reality. Homeless veterans: Stand Down http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7372852n REGION: Study finds up to 2,000 homeless veterans in county http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/region-study-finds-up-to-homeless-veterans-in-county/article_40844a70-9d82-586f-a946-e1bab39c1627.html There is much more on google.
ROGER DODGER	2012-09-28 11:38 AM
I was homeless in Carp 30 years ago it was alot of fun. Slept at the state park "Bike and Hike" section ate out of the dumpsters downtown. Good place for a homeless man to retire Carp!
COMMENT 325336	2012-09-28 11:53 AM
Just got back from downtown San Fran.... SB and Carp homeless seem quite pleasant compared to those in that city....wow.
COMMENT 325344	2012-09-28 12:05 PM
After speaking with several homeless people, I'v asked them all the same question. Why dont you not have a decent place to live or want to work for it? Believe it or not most all of their responses were, "Because we choose to be homeless". That blew me away, I was expecting some excuse surrounding Gov. or Coroprations, but no, it was that they choose to live the way they do. If thats the life they choose, then guess what, I dont want you bringing it around the life I chose. So homeless, go somewhere else and stop leeching of hard working people's money and getting drunk behind Vons. There is no excuse for your decrepit, disgusting, foul-mouthed presense to be around good people and their children.
COMMENT 325369	2012-09-28 12:29 PM
God forbid someone be poverty stricken in Carp. Lotsa shamefull comments here.
COMMENT 325232	2012-09-28 12:46 PM
Claiming this is a fault of the economy or lack of jobs is only making excuses that don't stick. These are panhandling vagrants who go where life is easy and the locals are generous. Feed them and they will stay. Don't feed them and they will move on. That is the lesson Santa Barbara is still trying to comprehend. You can't have illegal immigration and alleged "unemployment" at the same time. There are jobs and there are those who refuse to work. You need to decide in Carpinteria which one's you want to welcome to your town. There is an ample social safety net for the truly impaired your tax dollars are already funding. What you see on your streets is a social life style choice. It is your city's choice how you deal with it. Don't fall for the guilt card because this is a life-style choice you can choose to reward, or not.
COMMENT 325268P	2012-09-28 01:17 PM
325379 Facts - at the end of 2008, the economy was losing 700,000 jobs a month. Over the last 3-4 years, 5 million of those have been recovered. There are still many more not available. And the salaries are much lower. Why on earth would the term "job creators" be used so much? There is a heading on Yahoo today "From $180,000 a year to $8 an hour"
COMMENT 325416	2012-09-28 01:44 PM
It would be nice if the implacable haters in this forum themselves suffered from something more serious than selfrighteous indignation. They certainly don't suffer from understanding or knowledge. The notable explosion of homeless numbers began in the 1980s under the administration of Ronald Reagan, who cut the federal budget for housing-assistance in half. So those with little money who could no longer find one-room low-cost places to live and be safe had to go on the streets. By 2005 there were estimated to be more than 744,000 homeless in the US on any given night. The worst recession since the 1930s has of course dramatically increased this number. Amazingly, the "sophisticated network" of homeless - they must all have laptops! - has resulted in homeless coming to places with mild climates since it's possible they hope to stay alive rather than be frozen to death before dawn in Fargo, ND. "...there are ample and well-deserved services available for [veterans] who seek them." !!?? What a profound grasp of the actuality of the homeless, mentally-ill men and women who, often damaged in mind and body after having fought in their country's war, are denied treatment and turned away in droves by a Veteran's Administration woefully underfunded by those who avidly put up dough for foreign interventions but now seem to have empty pockets for those whom they sent into the fire. (5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino has even arranged a special day - "Stand Down" - for these untreated on-the-street vets in Santa Maria in October.) "... most all of their responses were, 'Because we choose to be homeless'". Does one laugh or cry at this profound examination of the root causes of people who struggle to stay alive on streets, in alleys, under bridges, in parks and woods? - the 15% or so who are children whose mothers, separated from marriages in which they were often abused, have no money and no one to take them in? And "bums"?? - a word from the Great Depression? Did your mother or grandmother offer these "bums" a sandwich or a glass of tea when they came to the back door in the 1930s? Mine did.
COMMENT 325422	2012-09-28 02:05 PM
OMG! Two homeless people in Carp? I didn't see in the Coastal View, so it can't be possible! In all seriousness, there's been homeless "sightings" in Carp for the past 40 years. By myself and many others who had their eyes open. Lots of tourists, kids, parents, dogs, cats, etc. etc. Just like a normal average town.
COMMENT 325303P	2012-09-28 02:22 PM
"Smithers," I seldom read, much less respond to anything that starts off by castigating so-called "haters" but at least you didn't accuse anyone of "hating on" someone/something. Only replying to your take on my "profound grasp" of part of the issue. Yes, there are homeless veterans. Yes, the Veterans' Administration is far from perfect. Yes, there are services available for those who seek them. No, very few, if any, of our "local," but recently arrived vagrants are homeless veterans from the Iraq or any other misguided foreign intervention. I do realize that being a moral beacon for us all must be challenging at times.
COMMENT 325247	2012-09-28 02:30 PM
Really, what's up with all the homeless bashing. Scapegoats for the frustrated who want to blame it all on the poor. How original. Ample services? Do they have seasons on your planet? Most Americans are one or two max paychecks away from homeless. That's a really thin line. If it happens to you, of course it will never happen to you, but if it does, you'll find comfort in peoples responses to your new non-home status, pearls of wisdom such as 'get a job ya bum' and 'why are you on the streets?'. Uh, cause I don't have a home? These and other bits of philosophical wisdom will help you find a job and a house in three hours! Those guys whose home was foreclosed in the KEYT article- hurry up and get a job ya bums! Feel better now? Of course you do. Maybe they'll get welfare, like General Electric or ExxonMobile.
NAN THE NANNY	2012-09-28 02:36 PM
Now now folks, there is no need to get all riled up. Let's try to stay within the Edhat Comment Policies.
COMMENT 325452P	2012-09-28 02:44 PM
While I agree with most of what WM. SMITHERS is saying, I would like to add my 2¢ worth. I worked in Public Safety in Santa Barbara for over 25 years, and can say with authority, having worked 'in the trenches', that quite a few of the local homeless population have options, and do in fact, choose their current lifestyle. Why? A lot of demons the homeless suffer are to blame, alcohol and drugs being the #1 reason, followed by mental illness. Some of the people I worked with, do in fact have incomes from various sources, Government assistance of course, assistance from family members and even trust funds. You can hardly compare the 1930's era 'bums' with today's homeless. One only has to spend just a few minutes on a freeway offramp in order to get enough $ for more liquid courage. Motorists who give $ to someone with a sign, do so to assuage their guilt feelings, only to enable those with demons to continue the spiral downward. I don't know what the answers are, I feel for those in need, especially children and families. The fact is, there is a disturbing trend of young folks who are strung out, aimless, hopeless and looking for a handout and not a hand up.
COMMENT 325233	2012-09-28 03:19 PM
452P - Stated perfectly!
COMMENT 325552	2012-09-28 04:50 PM
Agree with 452P. Stop giving them money and enabling that lifestyle. And if we have to have them, let's move homeless services near the airport or somewhere else than downtown.
COMMENT 325232	2012-09-28 06:18 PM
Anyone who claims they are one paycheck from homelessness is merely planning badly and living beyond their means. You can't live choose to live in Santa Barbara and then turn around and claim you can't afford to live here. Well guess what, you obviously can't but this is your problem, not ours. You cannot have illegal immigration and unemployment at the same time. Anyone claiming they can't find a job or is hiding behind unemployment statistics is simply not willing to do the work that is out there. Go talk to an immigrant and learn how to find work. Then read a book about financial planning so you stop living paycheck to paycheck .... in Santa Barbara.
COMMENT 325637	2012-09-28 08:11 PM
in carp there is "shoot 'em up Tex," the skinny guy who talks to himself, gets worked up and then points his finger and shoots. The "Purple lady" who loves the color purple, The "Angry Lady", you're not a real Carpinterian till you've been told off by her. There is also "the man from outer space," and the "redeemer" recycle guy.
COMMENT 325639P	2012-09-28 08:19 PM
Carp homeless problem is exacerbated by the recycling center behind the Albertsons, which provides cash to homeless people who steal from the state park recycling bins, business recycling dumpsters, and residential bins downtown. I have no problem with folks fishing recycling out of trash containers, but stealing from recycling bins sucks.
COMMENT 325649	2012-09-28 08:41 PM
I heard SB is now giving the bums a one-way ticket to Carp like other towns do to SB.
COMMENT 325232	2012-09-29 09:01 AM
1. Most of the vagrants get federal SSI benefits which they spend on alcohol/drugs. 2. Few are veterans, plus veterans get veterans social support services. 3. There is nothing compassionate about enabling vagrants to continue their lives on the streets with misguided donations. 4. DirtyHarry needs to go back to school because he missed his history lessons. 5. The change to tough love instead of failed feel-good is a step in the right direction.
RHS	2012-09-29 09:49 AM
To OP: How many homeless do you think Carpinteria creates each year? None, one, two....? Carpinteria as refused to create any program for the homeless and no services for their needs, hoping to force them to other places. Goleta does the same. It's time for these outliers to step up to the plate and accept their fare share of the needy. This will alleviate SB's problem as well.
FLICKA	2012-09-29 10:13 AM
Having homeless in Carp is nothing new. I've been here 36 yrs. They camped in the bushes on the bluffs and in the arundo patch on my friend's farm by the R.R. tracks. There were some real crazies in those days (10-20 yrs ago). I walk around 12-15 hrs a week picking up trash for Carpinteria Beautiful, I've only seen 2 women recently.
COMMENT 325811	2012-09-29 10:30 AM
Wow!! Lots of smug, self-righteous Santa Barbara "don't live your lifestyle because you'll ruffle mine" haters on here today! Love how you all offer real solutions, too! With regards to the homeless not being veterans of Iraq--give it time. It's early days yet and they seem to be choosing suicide over homelessness at the moment.
COMMENT 325818	2012-09-29 10:39 AM
Wait till they build a "drop-in" "walk-in" shelter like Casa Esperanza, enabling this segment of the so called "homeless" to continue their vagrancy life style and provide a home base for their substance abuse/mooching and panhandling operations. Those naive' and uninformed ideas of the liberal left that disparage those agencies that have rules and structure and are working honestly to help the true homeless, that is, those folks who want to change their life to get back on their feet and become productive citizens again.
COMMENT 325891	2012-09-29 12:38 PM
All too often, as communities struggle with the issue of homelessness, the people experiencing homelessness are objectified, their plight politicized. It is all so much bigger that that, and simultaneously smaller and intensely individulaized and personal. A paradox. Please consider volunteering your time in direct service to homeless individuals and families at Casa Esperanza. You can be the solution.
COMMENT 325939P	2012-09-29 02:25 PM
Its not the fact that they are or aren't homeless in Carp... it is the aggressive way they ask for money. Not usually for what you might think either but instead for drugs or alcohol. Pan handlers make a pretty good haul, all for just asking for money.
COMMENT 325232	2012-09-29 04:52 PM
Wow, the scolders are out if full force too. Carp, do you want to take a few of those too? We have more than enough. Fire sale on them - two for one. We will deliver them to your doorstep. Special package deal - one vagrant and two scolders. Then you too can be like your sister city to the north.

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