Anonymous
Homeless Camp Cleanup in September (Photo: City of Goleta)
Source: City of Goleta
The City of Goleta is preparing a Homelessness Strategic Plan to help guide and coordinate efforts to prevent and address homelessness within the City of Goleta. This Plan is one of many strategic efforts being undertaken by local cities and the County of Santa Barbara to support cooperative efforts to address the problem of homelessness on a regional basis.
Over the past year, the Goleta City Council has expressed a desire to adopt a comprehensive plan to help prioritize and guide City funding efforts in the area of homelessness. Neighborhood Services and Public Safety staff have been working to establish and strengthen relationships with regional service providers, jurisdictions, and community members. Staff are excited to enter the next phase of the strategic planning process, seeking input from service agencies, community members, and those who are experiencing or who have experienced homelessness themselves.
The City seeks your input on its first-ever Homelessness Strategic Plan. While the City of Goleta has a history of supporting organizations and regional efforts serving those at risk of homelessness and those experiencing homelessness, the City currently does not have a comprehensive plan analyzing the state of homelessness in our region and the most effective steps forward. City Council and staff believe having a strategic plan will provide important direction and clarity around needs, service gaps, and priorities in order to make effective and strategic funding decisions that serve both the existing homeless population, as well as those at risk of becoming homeless.
On Wednesday, November 6, 2019, from 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. service providers and other local jurisdictions will be meeting at Goleta City Hall to share input on the current state of homelessness in the region, service gaps, best practices, future goals and objectives, and service strategies. Then on Wednesday, December 11, 2019, from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. at the Goleta Valley Community Center, there will be an open house for the community to interact on a one-on-one basis with City staff and homelessness service providers, as well as provide ideas and input on homelessness in our community. During this time, staff will also release an online survey seeking personal input from residents, businesses, service providers, and those who are or who have experienced homelessness. A link will be shared in the next edition of the Monarch Press.
City staff will present an initial outline of the Draft Homelessness Strategic Plan in winter of 2020, with a goal of completing the Draft Plan and presenting it to City Council for review and comment next spring. Staff plan to present a final Homelessness Strategic Plan by summer of next year. The City seeks the community’s input throughout the strategic planning process.
City staff want to take this opportunity to thank the community in advance for their time and support of this major effort. For more information, please contact Dominique Samario (dsamario@cityofgoleta.org or 805-690-5126).
Instead of using taxpayer funds to “Homeless Inc.” , like every other community plagued with these trolls, the City of Goleta might want to hire (PAY) the Hell’s Angels or Mongols or Banditos to come in and “clean house”.
Goleta! Good for you! Hoorah! Sometime in the future…oh…2020…draft… goal…initial outline…oh. Summer next year…sorta like a response to Climate Change. Kick the can further down the street. But, hey, it’s a start. How about treating encampment fire starters as an Arson Emergency today?
Goleta’s reeponse is….-“we don’t have any ideas do you?? This problem is not new, why did you run for office?
“Over the past year, the City Council has expressed a desire to adopt a comprehensive plan.” Lol so in other words they thought about doing a key part of their job for a year but Didn’t do it. It’s like dealing with kids not doing their homework.
Does SB have a plan? Why is everyone complaining about Goleta trying? All the same people saying “do something!” are here whining that Goleta hasn’t done enough, yet here they are responding to a recent spate of homeless camp fires and you all are STILL crying about it. Put a sock in it it or do something yourself.
Make it as uncomfortable as possible for them to live there. They will either leave or finally crack and seek the help they need, go into a shelter, whatever. But making it easy for them is not working and will continue to make this worse.
City of Goleta: communicate to Goleta citizens that we all need to stop giving cash to the vagrants. The vagrants will leave when the cash dries up.
Goleta’s city council is a bunch of bums! They have made a complete mess of the Goodland
A humane but forceful purge is required to solve the problem.