Anonymous
A homeless encampment near downtown Santa Barbara train station (Photo: John Palminteri)
Source: County of Santa Barbara
Results of the biennial Point in Time (PIT) Count of persons experiencing homelessness were released today. Conducted on January 24, 2019 by the Santa Maria/Santa Barbara County Continuum of Care (CoC), the Count is mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and serves as a snapshot of homelessness in the county on a single night. The County and CoC provided oversight of the PIT Count, working closely with Northern Santa Barbara County United Way Home for Good, Applied Survey Research, Simtech Solutions and more than 500 volunteers.
Countywide, 1,803 persons were counted with the largest number counted in the city of Santa Barbara. The count includes 1,133 persons experiencing unsheltered homelessness and 670 persons living in emergency shelters or transitional housing. In 2017, the official PIT count was 1,860. There was a notable shift between sheltered and unsheltered persons between 2017 and 2019.
|
Year |
Sheltered |
Unsheltered |
Total |
|
2017 |
967 |
893 |
1,860 |
|
2019 |
670 |
1,133 |
1,803 |
Highlights from the data include:
• 42 percent of the unsheltered count (1,133) was persons living in their vehicles (479)
• 115 households with 226 children under the age of 18 were literally homeless the night of the count (this does not include families doubled up, paying for a motel or at-risk of homelessness)
• 423 persons were experiencing chronic homelessness, an increase of 87 percent (226) from 2017
Home for Good recruited more than 500 volunteers to assist, including 449 people who showed up at 5 a.m. to canvas 89 census tracts across the county. A new methodology in alignment with national best practices relied on geographic coverage in place of staged events to more accurately reflect populations. The 2019 PIT Count will serve as a baseline for future data comparisons. Volunteers who were canvassing and surveying used a mobile application from Simtech to gather real-time data. Additionally, vehicle counts were conducted using guidance from Applied Survey Research with demographic information provided from the New Beginnings Safe Parking Program.
The chart below provides count data by city or area compared to the 2017 PIT homeless population estimates for combining both unsheltered and sheltered populations. The homeless population was distributed throughout the county: 1,074 (60%) persons in south county, 475 (26%) persons in north county and 254 (14%) in mid-county.
|
City /Area |
2019 PIT Count |
2017 PIT Homeless Population Estimates |
|
Carpinteria |
21 |
20 |
|
Summerland |
8 |
not reported |
|
Montecito |
6 |
not reported |
|
Goleta |
119 |
124 |
|
Guadalupe |
4 |
not reported |
|
Isla Vista |
33 |
32 |
|
Lompoc |
249 |
274 |
|
Santa Barbara |
887 |
987 |
|
Santa Maria |
464 |
422 |
|
Orcutt |
7 |
not reported |
|
Buellton/Solvang/Santa Ynez Valley |
5 |
1 |
|
New Cuyama |
0 |
not reported |
|
Total |
1803 |
1860 |
The survey included questions regarding last permanent residence and how long a person had lived in the county. The results below support data collected in the Homeless Management Information System that the population experiencing homelessness is largely part of the community and not those who have relocated from other regions.
- 76 percent became homeless while living in Santa Barbara County
- 60 percent have lived in Santa Barbara County for more than 10 years or the majority of their lives
A comprehensive report of the PIT data and Housing Inventory for homeless persons will be released later in the year.
The Santa Maria/Santa Barbara County Continuum of Care promotes community-wide planning and strategic use of resources and programs targeted to people experiencing homelessness. The County of Santa Barbara serves as the lead agency for the CoC. For more information, go to www.countyofsb.org/housing/continuumprogram.sbc.
The County is in the process of a regional homeless planning effort to address homelessness. To review the Phase 1 Community Plan to Address Homelessness, go to www.countyofsb.org/uploadedFiles/housing/Content/Homeless_Assistance/Documents/Phase_1_for_website.pdf. For information about the County’s Housing and Community Development Division, go to www.countyofsb.org/housing.
We normal people should not tolerate bums and hobos and their tents, drug needles, feces, urine, and stolen bicycles. We pay taxes and buy homes and support our local businesses. We run the bums and hobos; they don’t run us. We should give the bums and hobos a sharp poke in the ribs and tell them to move along. Where they go I don’t care as long as they go out of Santa Barbara. Enough already.
Maybe the “homeless” should take classes on how to survive by the 8 million+ illegals that are in the State…
@coastwatch There are not 8 million “illegals” in California it is more like 2.2 million. When you exaggerate, it makes your argument weaker.
https://www.pewhispanic.org/interactives/u-s-unauthorized-immigrants-by-state/
Look at the stats in the article. There are about 100 less homeless in Santa Barbara than there were two years ago. The sky is not falling.
Santa Barbara is starting to look like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Let the homeless take over the streets and parks,
@Mas- There are at least 2 million+ in LA County, San Bernardino, County, Orange County and San Diego County alone…
@Coastwatch Where do you get your numbers from? I was referencing the Pew reseach . You must be jusr making it up as you go. How Trumpiuan of you!
If someone thinks Santa Barbara is starting to look like San Francisco I suggest the next time you are in the bay area walk through the tenderloin or skid row in LA. There is no comparison.
@ Mas- the Los Angeles Almanac said they estimated 2.8 million in 2012 … That is a long time ago… Have you been to LA…?
Uh the number of “illegals” in the US has been falling in the last few years. BTW wtf is the “los angeles Almanac? read the Pew report.
I am harressed, every day at every gas station, supermarket, been here 15 years…
Pay a huge amount for a home to rent.
Pick grocery stores more expensive so I don’t get bothered…sad..
Goleta, is so bad now…Trader Joe’s, o.k.,
Gelsons, Whole Foods, fine..
They are at every entance, exit..
Now with small cute dogs…feel terrible
for the dogs…
Those places began a way, and continued to what they are.
A more realistic question would be: how does lower State compare now, than it did even 20 years ago?
At least there’s not really any increase in violence, just an increase in unpleasant surroundings, and of course an increase in commercial vacancies.
I love this area. I loved it a lot more when it was still a town. I’ll love it til the day I’m priced out of it, and will be glad for my time here. Looked up Grover Beach recently, thinking it might be like sb in the 90s, but nope, its the same sitch there as here.
That still going from discusting to horrid, neither very appealing .
If there are fewer panhandlers and vagrants it is because they destroyed State Street retail and fewer pedestrians for them to hassle. Thefts and break-ins have gone up in order to compensate their declining pan-handling street income. Vagrants have no place in this town.
What I don’t get about these statistics is how things are recorded as though all of the transients/homeless/unsheltered are telling the truth. Who’s to say which of these vagrants has lived here for a decade or became homeless while living here? All we have is their “truth,” and I suspect most of them want to talk story and only illicit sympathy. Nearly all of the homeless I’ve ever spoken with are from the East Coast or grew up in colder climes. Santa Barbara and Goleta need to put in place ordinances that restrict this mess of people pandhandling, sleeping in the parks, living in makeshift camps in the bushes, camping on the beaches, sleeping on benches, sleeping in downtown doorways. It’s got completely out of control.
There were about 554,000 homeless people in the US in 2017. With a US population of 327 million, that means our share of homeless from Goleta to Carpenteria by population is about 350. I propose that the local cities find the funds to help that number of people. The rest of the money should come from the feds because this is a national problem.
exactly…well said pit!
i see people get downvoted for just being correct. way to ignore reality, edhaters!
I believe we should take care of our local homeless. If 76% are from this area (I doubt that number is correct but I’ll go with it) then that leaves ~1,400 total “local” homeless. With ~1000 already sheltered, we only need roughly 400 – 500 more beds. I’d be willing to pay more in taxes if came with the following polices: 1. ALL Homeless assistance is only provided to individuals who can prove residency in SB county prior to becoming homeless (no more homeless tourists). 2. Anyone who can’t prove residency get’s a one way ticket out of town. 3. The kicker. Make it illegal to sleep on the street, in your car, or in the bushes. This should not be acceptable. The police should be empowered to go around pickup anyone found living in the street.
With 400,000 county residents I can’t imagine it would be that expensive to provide another 500 beds with mental health services. If we can pull enough resources to provide the local homeless with adequate services and eliminate the homeless tourists, we can (and should) make homelessness illegal.
But we’re not going to be honest about the situation.
if you are going to be honest about the situation illegal immigration has nothing to do with our homeless population.
really? i have been shopping at Trader Joes (all 3 locs) and Ralphs downtown for decades…i have not once seen a panhandler there, aside of March of Dimes and the xmas bell ringers. Please let us know where the hordes of homeless panhandlers are at.
It seems wrong to remove comments due to down-votes. They may be the most accurate comments or at least a legitimate to the discussion, but they are silenced because certain people can’t stand to be challenged. Inappropriate comments should be removed by the moderator, but opposing views should not be removed due to down-votes as they are now. That is not debate or even discussion. Just show the number of down-votes and let people see the comment and decide if they agree or not for themselves and reply if they want. That would be legitimate debate. Hiding opposing view from the “in crowd” is not. Unfortunately this is what is going on in our Universities also…..I wonder how long this comment will stay up?
1% of our city’s population is homeless? Holy cow. That’s quite an indictment on our city, its leadership and its future. What bothers me is there is still not a peep of a plan to help or end it from our mayor, the Cathy Murillo. This woman has turned out to be the worst possible mayor at a time when our city desperately needs a strong leader. Deeply disappointed in the city’s management, staff and elected officials. They are failing miserably and we are all going to continue to pay for it with taxes and the continued decrease in the quality of life so many of us work so hard to achieve.
Well, if you were going to live outdoors, where would you want to live? Someplace cold, or not?
I lived in the northeast for a long time. There were homeless there too…but winters got mighty cold, and there were fights for the “grates” where heat would come up from where the subways were.
That says something “Where they go, I don’t care”. They don’t cease to exist. You bury your head in the sand if your expectation is that “move along” does…anything. It doesn’t fix the problem.
Actually LetMeGo, getting rid of the bums does fix our problem. Sure it does nothing for the bum’s problem but this is about us, not them. If I were a bum, I’d move to BLM land near Quartzite. You can live rent free with hundreds, and in some months, thousands of other RV dwellers. One can buy a cheap RV for a couple of grand and live rent free. The weather is great, the views unbeatable but you won’t be able to hang out on the beach all day and game the local Homeless Inc system… But you can live on $500 a month and if you’re thrifty and learn to cook your own meals, at least have shelter and peace.
Those who have participated in these counts agree with you 100%, Roger – there is a severe undercount .Plus political motivation drives the millions of dollars we now spend on vagrancy, who want to prove what they do is “working”. The whole “count” exercise is now reduced to one more self-justification scam that serves to maintain the status quo for those employed by Homeless Inc.
Only a very small percentage of vagrants are veterans and the VA already runs a specific program for homeless vets. We already gave at the office for this sub-population group. Veterans need to take advantage of what has already put on the table.
Thank you for explaining why there has been this concentration of theft and assault crimes in the Upper State Street area. Agree, letting addicts bottom out is a proven path to recovery. We should no longer interfere with what works.
More than 25,000 at UCSB now, not 20,000, but many live in student housing on campus or in IV. SBCC is the one who lost its way and stopped being a local community college a few years back in order to drive up their own operating revenues. Out of district SBCC, SBCC recruited out of district students, has had the largest impact on loss of local small unit housing in town, along with plenty of illegal STR conversions. What is the status of the city’s ADU policy – how many former illegal second units have been legally converted, or new legal ones added. Has this ADU policy grown the numbers of small unit, less than market rate housing units?
Yes, there has been a recent and noticeable increase in theft, break-ins and assault. Track your neighborhood on the CrimeSpotter website.
Or due as much damage as 3 families in one house.
Watch this about Seattle
go to youtube
“Seattle is Dying”
Pit- California however has 25% of the country’s homeless and growing.
50% of Santa Barbara police calls have to do with homeless. It’s a huge burden.
We have a Methodism clinic off upper state street that acts as an artificial reef for addicts. They can never be more than a mile away from it and there are encampments along the train tracks and overpasses nearby.
Our climate may be nice but we make it even. Over with warming shelters. Take the warming shelters away. If they don’t want to die they don’t have to become heroin and meth addicts in the first place. Whether it’s AIDS, and overdose, a train, or freezing to death, they’re going to die anyway.
“Methadone clinic” meant to type
Undocumenteds are only here because they can find work. Having 50,000 students here (30K at SBCC and 20K at UCSB) puts way more pressure on the housing stock and parking than the undocumenteds living 5 to a bedroom and not owning cars so not contributing to the parking problem.
Perhaps we should stop wasting millions of tax dollers on illeagles,and put that money to better use helping our homeless AMERICAN CITIZENS! Many of whom are Veterans that proudly Served This Country.
There is a difference between homeless housing and low income housing. Low income housing requires an income. There is designated homeless housing (often within low income buildings). With regard to homeless, it’s people with addiction and mental health issues. It’s a different set of services all together. Obviously, it’s not black and white. But to say that illegals occupying low income housing is the reason we have 900 homeless people with disabilities and mental health issues is just wrong. The only thing it does is show your bias for blaming every problem on illegal immigration. That’s a different issue.
And while we’re at it, making homelessness illegal, let’s make being poor illegal, too!
Actually, you’re ALL wrong!..
If any of you spent a month homeless, you’d see where & why the problem lies, & what would be a viable solution.