more articles like this

Homelessness In Other Counties
updated: Jul 13, 2012, 1:51 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

How do the cities of Ventura and Monterey handle the homeless in comparison to Santa Barbara? There is much discussion on this topic and I wonder about the situation in other places. I do not have an agenda about this topic, just curious.

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

COMMENT 297220	2012-07-13 03:18 PM
Ventura and Monterey buy their homeless a one way ticket to Santa Barbara. You aren't aware of this program?
COMMENT 297221	2012-07-13 03:20 PM
I know that in Ojai the police used to drive the homeless to Ventura, or stick them on the bus to Ventura. Not sure if they still do that.
COMMENT 297223	2012-07-13 03:26 PM
Go talk to some of the "homeless" or transients sometime at the Casa Esparanza during one of the feedings and ask them where they are from and how they got here....You will be amazed at the outcome. 90+% are from out of the area and most from out of the STATE!
COMMENT 297225	2012-07-13 03:29 PM
220, can you provide a link or some other info about said program?
COMMENT 297233P	2012-07-13 03:48 PM
Haha, good one 220. I'm from Monterey/Carmel and it seems like most of their homeless end up in Salinas or other neighboring cities. I'm unsure what the policies are in each town but with all the violence in Salinas it seems the city and police don't have the man power to do anything about it. Whereas Monterey is a lot calmer and much more of a tourist attraction.
COMMENT 297234	2012-07-13 03:49 PM
@ 297223, the same can be said for the non-homeless too.
COMMENT 297238P	2012-07-13 03:51 PM
A more interesting question is...why don't you see any homeless people in Montecito? Answer? Because it's a homeowner priority to make sure that local politicians know that it's unacceptable and they will be voted out of office and have their contributions cut off if law enforcement allows them to loiter and camp. You need to send that same message to your politicians, and back it with money, instead of not contributing and just making noise. Pay up because your sound and fury signify nothing in the face of campaign money and "friends".
COMMENT 297239	2012-07-13 03:53 PM
No panhandlers on the streets of tourist friendly Solvang. No RV squatters either. They are doing something right. Signs greet all entrances of Ventura no RV parking is allowed. Like the ones that legally failed in SB, or so we were told. Different counties have different judges. InSB this case was assigned to the bleeding heart judge who wouldn't want them parking on her posh street, but dumps them everywhere else. Bunch of unsavory type are ruining the very nice redo of Old Town Ventura, but this used to be their turf so they redid the town but did not get those living in vans down by the river to move on. New Beginnings, funded by the Hope Ranch types goes out for national publicity which keeps this SB RV "safe parking" high profile mess going, while demanding the city keep paying them more to support their "volunteer" do-gooder activities.
COMMENT 297240	2012-07-13 03:54 PM
In Santa Barbara, we give bums multimillion dollar tax breaks to shore up their bad hotel investments.
COMMENT 297246	2012-07-13 03:59 PM
My friends in Thousand Oaks say that there not a transient issue there. Of course, it's much nicer here by the beach and we even have a homeless in Santa Barbara website. Everyone who comes here gets nicely situated with places to sleep, free meals, super weather, often free medical, dental and occasional foot washing. Why not!??
COMMENT 297252P	2012-07-13 04:15 PM
In other towns it is just not acceptable like it is in SB. Instead of welcoming transients and advertising services they enforce laws that keep the area free of loitering panhandlers and RV camps. My husband says there used to be a law that if you were caught without a certain amount of money on you the police could ticket you for being a transient. I don't know if this is really true but I think somewhere in the middle would help bring SB back to how it was when I grew up here. Housing assistance, shelters, free services, and other handouts should not be advertised to draw more people here. In fact it should definitely be limited to locals down on their luck for temporary support. Parking laws should be enforced as well. There is no reason a person should receive long term housing asistance. And all of these programs should be work for services instead of handouts. The beaches and parks could use some cleaning. Put people to work to earn the assistance. They will appreciate it a lot more.
COMMENT 297255	2012-07-13 04:20 PM
A man jumped in front of my car on Main street near the library. Yelling about "Gimme money"! So I gave him a bunch of spare change. Kind of shocking, but hey he got some money.
COMMENT 297265	2012-07-13 04:35 PM
I know in SLO they have signs around popular shopping centers that say something to the effect of "the shopkeepers of this center donate to the local homeless shelter. Please don't give money to panhandlers. It disrupts traffic etc." There are no homeless to be seen in most of these areas. There are some downtown but in the last 3 years of living here and walking around downtown I've never been solicited.
COMMENT 297270	2012-07-13 04:41 PM
In Carmel I believe they send Clint out to shout "get off my lawn" pants pulled real high, whilst leaning on his Gran Torino. Works every time. In SB apparently Oprah shouts "you get a sidewalk, you get a sidewalk everyone gets a sidewalk!"
ROGER DODGER	2012-07-13 04:42 PM
I was houseless in Salinas 30 plus years ago and I loved it. Although things are much different when your young. You are stronger for one..My Uncle lived in Carmel Valley and not only did not lock his cars he left the keys in all the cars. It amazed me. In Monterey I asked the cops to put me up in their jail till I could get on my feet..They said "No" It was the first time anyone ever asked them that. I asked a preacher named Arnold Steinbeck to buy me a one way ticket to Santa Barbara and like a tick on a dogs lass I have never left. Of course that doesn't answer your question. The police never bothered me in Monterey or Salinas unless I broke the law. In Monterey the only thing I remember doing that was aganist the law was dumping a college student off the warf drunk after he spit on a sea Lion or it might have been an otter. I was not arrested. I'd be willing to bet there are homeless in both cities today. Though they might not be seen much there are homeless people in Montecito alot of places to hide.
COMMENT 297272	2012-07-13 04:44 PM
Well if you ask a dozen people you will get a dozen different opinions. Interestingly the prevailing opinion is that the homeless should be shoved along to be the next town's problem and we've been stuck with everyone else's problem for decades. That bus ticket myth has been circulating since the 80's. C'mon you guys, why not push for the kind of extermination you're all wishing for? Concentration camps is always been a popular choice: for Japanese Americans 70 years ago, for gay/lesbian Americans as proposed just recently by some nice Southern preacher and now for... homeless Americans??? C'mon you patriots, do I hear a Hoo-rah and an Aymen? You've done it before....
COMMENT 297274	2012-07-13 04:47 PM
My husband, kids & I were walking downtown on Chapala the other day and the kids asked what a certain very cool looking spanish building is for and when I told them that it was housing for people that were homeless they were shocked. They said "that's so much nicer than where we live and you guys work really hard, maybe if you quit your jobs our city would help us out." I am sad to say that they have a point!
COMMENT 297283	2012-07-13 05:13 PM
Bottom line- You build it, they WILL come...! Unfortunately, the homeless situation is one of our larger "Industries" that is supported by your local politicians... How many people do you think are employed by the county and city as "social workers" out reach counselors, drug rehab counselors, housing authority placement workers, the housing authority subidizes the "homeless industry" here in SB. I forgot to mention all the homeless industry administrators who graft off the "non-profits..." Find out from the SBPD, SBFD and Cottage how many calls for service are spent on this "industry..."
COMMENT 297343	2012-07-13 07:49 PM
Well put, 240.
COMMENT 297345	2012-07-13 07:59 PM
The Answer: Helene Schnieder must go as Mayor. She is a nice enough lady, but she panders to the "homeless industry"- Stop allowing the SB Housing Authority to take over properties for subidized housing. - Stop build chronic homeless housing on our tax dollars (Carrillo and Castillo complex, and Cota between Laguna and Olive)- Make the Police Dept, City Attorney and Local DA prosecute the trainsients who loitter, pee in public, drink in our parks, sleep in alcoves, camping / defecating on our beaches and urban camping along our RXR and Hwy 101; prosecute the"petty crimes..." Allow the Salvation Army and ONE (1) Resuce Mission - THAT's IT! Word will get out.
COMMENT 297376P	2012-07-13 10:57 PM
It's not healthy to be homeless. We need to make it clear that being homeless is not an option. Let's give them a place to live, with sanitary facilities, and if they can't abide by the rules, then they are not welcome in our city. Time to grow up and take care of yourself.
COMMENT 297390	2012-07-14 06:24 AM
Other communities don't tolerate them.
COMMENT 297410	2012-07-14 07:33 AM
Bear in mind, I've been harassed constantly.... Yet unlike the freeloaders we see so often; I work, I pick up other homeless people's trash. I provided assistance to tourists. i cooperate in all police matters, and I've been to city council to describe the very same thing you're discussing here. When the police come rolling up, for some reason they've got their sights on me.... Why is that? Maybe Capt Whitham was right when he told me "It's all about money." With that being said.... I do appreciate your efforts to bring this matter to light. I hope one day I will be able to meet with you all and ask you to sign my petition to reform the "safe parking" program! It's my honest opinion that none of this will be accomplished with the current status of city hall. Maybe we can get "Hope & Change" right next time around! THANK YOU EDHAT!
COMMENT 297412	2012-07-14 07:37 AM
As a child in the 1950's, I recall a large government facility that housed hundreds of mentally ill patients. It looked like a college dormitory complex with many buildings, large park areas with many benches, all fenced in. People wandered around inside, sat on benches, talked to others, or talked to themselves. By the early 1960s, that facility was closed due to lack of funding. I believe we are watching the results of not funding mental health hospitals/institutions. This same lack of funding for mental institutions plays out now in many communities nationwide. On the plus side, I believe the more intelligent homeless population members choose SB.
COMMENT 297427P	2012-07-14 08:23 AM
297265: There is such a sign by Carls Junior on Milpas - it seems to make no difference. People apparently still give money. There should be other signs at all the exits, especially by the Quinientos exit where daily handouts are asked for (and given) for "jokes". The best Trader Joe's could do for the neighborhood is keep their carts on the property instead of littering the neighborhood - but that's another issue. COMMENT 297410: What changes are you proposing for the New Beginnings, Safe Parking program? I would like to know and perhaps you would write an op ed here about that? I hope that Edhat is open to publishing that? (Fwiw, I think it is an excellent and worthy program, but, not a participant in it, I don't know its details. I heard that the Garden Street parking lot has been withdrawn from the program.)
COMMENT 297431	2012-07-14 08:27 AM
The Mayor, Helene Schneider doesn't care about Santa Barbara. That is why she does nothing about the homeless harassing tourists & citizens. How many times do law abiding citizens have to get assaulted before something is done about the homeless problem. Why would the citizens of Santa Barbara vote in such a sorry excuse for a mayor?
COMMENT 297439P	2012-07-14 08:41 AM
412. You're correct - we have dear Ronald Reagan to thank for closing those facilities for the mentally ill, which were far from perfect but at least the residents were protected from all the sneering and self-righteous disgust we see here. Why don't we open a sanctuary in the old Miramar hotel while they're figuring out what to do with that? We could house the homeless and the mentally ill now in jail (current alternative housing for them) and then keep the real criminals in jail longer? Everyone's off the streets except the "nice" people who belong there.
SBJULES	2012-07-14 08:46 AM
While I've never been panhandled in Montecito, there is a homeless camp by biltmore property and the railroad.
COMMENT 297463	2012-07-14 09:15 AM
If a qualified mayoral candidate made cleaning up the town a priority, I would write them a big check as would most people I know. If it takes writing up new no loitering laws and moving limited services to less touristed areas, that would be a good start.
COMMENT 297477	2012-07-14 09:41 AM
Why isn't there a homeless problem on Coast Village Road (that I'm aware of)? Is it somehow not allowed? I'll bet if the transients were trucked to Coast Village Road, the Upper East Side and the Riviera, somehow the priority of dealing with decreasing the transients/homeless would become a much bigger priority to the city.
COMMENT 297496	2012-07-14 10:42 AM
272's onto something. The answer is to just exterminate all the homeless, never mind the economy and never mind all the ultra-filthy-rich bankers who have done this to them. It's so easy to be intolerant of that which we do not understand.
COMMENT 297514	2012-07-14 11:09 AM
The point of shoving people along is to send the message this is not a condoned lifestyle in this town. Their job is to find one where it is. Unfortunately the rest of the country knows Santa Barbara is the one who condones and supports this lifestyle from: ---- the wealthy who like to keep it out of their own backyards, ----to the laid back who are easily intimidated and can't say no to their implied threats, ---to misguided progressives who don't mind spending other people's money for their own psychic brownie points ......bad karma in this town about this issue because not checking it has turned this town into a nightmare magnet. Don't let yourself get scolded by the few to do things that are counter-productive. SB needs a 12 step program that teaches them to say no and stop enabling poor behavior choices. Start with the book: " When I Say No, I Feel Guilty
LONESTARCA	2012-07-14 11:11 AM
"THE homeless." Is there really such a thing as one label fits all? Some may be on the streets as a way out of society but that number must be pretty small. There are people with mental illnesses that self-medicate with substances that only make matters worse. Addiction is a disease. Most people with a mental illness not on their meds have exhausted the help of their families who have no recourse in caring for "adult" family members with mental illness. This is a complex problem. Why are they in Santa Barbara? Location, location, location. Who wants to be homeless in Bakersfield? If you have to live outside, this is a pretty good place to be.
COMMENT 297539	2012-07-14 12:00 PM
514, right on. When did we get the idea that it was now acceptable for men to not work, get drunk all day, be entitled to meals and shelter, and then let them panhandle us? Why do some factions shame others who think enabling might not be the right thing to do here? Why do some people think Santa Barbara must assume responsibility for solving the homeless problem for the country? They tell us we must provide shelter and housing for anyone that's been here one day after arriving from somewhere else. Why do we fight for the rights of the homeless to be homeless? Why do we tolerate antisocial and criminal behavior in this city, zone homeless problems into someone else's neighborhood, and consider ourselves progressive for doing so?
DRBUD	2012-07-14 12:28 PM
The best routine for the homeless I ever have seen was years ago in Wash. D.C. They would routinely sweep these types from the sidewalks, send them to a rehabilitation center in northern VA about 25 miles away & treat them til recovered from whatever problem they had. Once healthy and sober, they would be offered a ticket to any other city in the U.S. and off they would go. Voila! the streets of Washington were free of beggars and drunks! Maybe it's time here in S.B.!
COMMENT 297600P	2012-07-14 02:37 PM
The question posted was how do Monterey and Ventura handle the homeless differently.
COMMENT 297608	2012-07-14 02:57 PM
The issue is no longer why others try to shame us into creating a vagrant magnet out of our city; but why do we still let them do that to us? Is this now our problem; not theirs. How do you shift from letting them (whomever "they" are) make you feel you are not doing enough. Particularly when that shame leads to floundering in the unworkable status quo, and even making it worse. Try saying no to more vagrants, no more enabling life on the streets, no more playing the guilt card for someone else's benefit and self-satisfied piety. Practice saying no until it feels like finally it is the right thing to do. Saying yes to vagrants got us into this mess, for us and for them. It is stupid to say yes to vagrants. Good book to read: "Why do I feel guilty when I say no?"
COMMENT 297665P	2012-07-14 05:11 PM
412 - Yes - the plan was to close the huge mental hospitals and open smaller neighborhood facilities for the people. They took step one, then, when step two came along.....nothing happened. I think it was a state thing and Reagan was governor. Also; starting under Reagan as president, there was a sharp drop in federal funding for affordable housing. I can't remember the numbers.....but from millions and millions of dollars down to next to nothing......
COMMENT 297667	2012-07-14 05:28 PM
Being from the mid west - small town - there are no services - no nanny state - you don't work - you don't eat - no free housing - you get food stamps - you clean the fire house - or sweep the city streets - no one rides for free - It's hot in the summer and - 20 in the winter - Cali land is all about acceptance and not personal responsibility Until you grasp the concept that this life style is not OK - you get state street mid day - GRUNGE -
COMMENT 297692P	2012-07-14 07:21 PM
We spent last evening in Ventura on Main street. Lot's of people having fun. No bums, not panhandled once - not once. Yes, Ventura is doing something much different than Santa Barbara - becoming a great community for locals and tourists. I wish we'd do the same...
COMMENT 297728	2012-07-14 08:51 PM
The problem is that intelligent, competent people are busy raising families, paying mortgages, running small businesses and working 50+ hours each week. That’s why we end up with losers who see the SB City Council and Mayor's position as a route to a pension, big bucks (or at least bigger than they've earned working for Planned Parenthood), self-serving graft and West Coast Liberal Boss Tweedism. When someone with half a brain cell runs for Mayor, they'll win in a landslide.
COMMENT 297767	2012-07-15 08:15 AM
42 comments so far here and none are proposing methods that are legal and/or affordable. To answer the original question in the posting, both Monterey and Ventura have the same homelessness and panhandling problem that Santa Barbara has. Some people need to get out of their myopic bubble.
COMMENT 297831	2012-07-15 11:47 AM
Many are strong and probably could work even if they are mentally ill. The other day I was walking to a restaurant on upper state and a transient with a shopping cart began following. When he began grabbing his crotch I started to laugh. It was kind of funny. I'm a woman so I guess he got mad because he pushed his cart into me from behind and I started to run. What surprised me what that he was able to keep up with me, pushing his cart, for 2 blocks without even breaking a sweat or getting out of breath. He finally gave up when I darted into a nearby store. Couldn't someone this fit get a job doing manual labor even if he was mentally ill?
COMMENT 297838	2012-07-15 12:09 PM
The Santa Barbara botanic gardens have several homeless "camping" in the gardens. I wont let my kids go alone after seeing the two very dirty looking men jumping a fence after dark. The gardens don't seem to care, they are to busy looking busy, maybe if they cleared some brush the homeless wouldn't see it as a free campground and hey the whole neighborhood would be happy, the botanic garden is one of the worst offenders with overgrown brush, also cars park on Las Canoas road at night near rattlesnake trail, a big eyesore
COMMENT 297840	2012-07-15 12:17 PM
Santa Barbara is more well known then Ventura, and, although more affluent than Ventura, is more liberal/tolerant. The Moreton Bay Fig tree near the train station was a big homeless campground. That changed when the US101 overpass was built, and that land, which had been cut off by the surface freeway, was now desirable again....the homeless were dispersed, some along the railroad tracks, some to other communities...and some to State Street. Ventura's history is different; it was a middle class/working class town that, until the late 1990's, had a rundown downtown with (mostly) thrift stores and the like. Around 1997, the thrift stores had become "antique shops." and some nicer stores and restaurants opened. Perhaps the local merchants and police, not having the same level of tolerance of their counterparts in Santa Barbara, were more effective in getting the panhandlers, etc. to "move it along."
COMMENT 297850	2012-07-15 01:03 PM
Ventura believes in reciprocity. You get something, you have to give something. They don't enable panhandlers or grifters. They have a no shopping cart theft ordinance, and a no-panhandling ordinance. They also refused to build their own Casa Esperanza after they saw that all ours attracts is out-of-towners. They want to serve Ventura's homeless, not everyone else's. Maybe we could learn something, instead of continuing to think we're just so special and unique.

28% of comments on this page were made by Edhat Community Members.