Santa Maria Sun / News

Bringing Our Community Home presents two-year progress report on its effort to end homelessness

BY AMY ASMAN

Making a difference, one year at a time Lompoc Mayor Dick DeWees (center) congratulated Bringing Our Community Home on its successful early efforts to end homelessness in Santa Barbara County over the next 10 years. PHOTO COURTESY BRINGING OUR COMMUNITY HOME

It’s only been two years and already community members involved with Bring Our Community Home: The 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Santa Barbara County have managed to move hundreds of chronically homeless individuals and families off the streets and into permanent housing.

During a press conference on June 17, Bringing Our Community Home officials shared a report of the progress made toward ending homelessness from 2007 to 2009.

According to the report, 108 supportive housing units have been built in the Santa Maria, Lompoc, and South Coast areas since the plan’s inception. There are another 109 units in the works. Locally, some of those housing developments include Good Samaritan Shelter’s Casa De Familias and the College Park and La Morada facilities in Lompoc.

Bringing Our Community Home runs on a “housing first model,” which puts homeless individuals and families in permanent housing before providing the supportive services necessary for maintaining their housing.

The housing and services are the result of a collaborative effort between Bringing Our Community Home and about 50 agencies throughout the county, including the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department; Homeless Advisory Committees for Santa Maria, Lompoc, and the South Coast area; Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health Services (ADMHS) Cares; and more.

In the last two years, the plan has implemented such services as the Homeless Services Locator—bringsbcohome.org—which provides information on more than 50 homeless service agencies in the county, and a Santa Barbara County Jail Discharge Planning Program, which helps homeless inmates avoid being released back onto the streets.

The plan has already made a difference in the lives of hundreds of local residents, a fact that hits close to home for Gary Mueller, a member of the Bringing Our Community Home governing board.

 “Lives have been saved by the creation of housing for the chronically homeless,” Mueller said in the progress report. “My own life is one of those which have been rescued by this innovative example of humanitarian concern.”

For more information about Bringing Our Community Home and the 10-year plan to end homelessness, call 884-5115 or visit bringsbcohome.org.