Santa Maria’s Good Samaritan Shelter is one of the first homeless services agencies in the country to offer three stages of transitional housing, the nonprofit’s leaders announced at a groundbreaking ceremony on April 18.
The shelter, in partnership with the county and city of Santa Maria, is building 16 units of permanent housing at its main campus on West Morrison Avenue.
“This is the last piece of our housing project,” Chief Financial Officer Jack Boysen said at the ceremony. “We think we’re the first in the country to offer all three levels of housing: emergency, transitional, and permanent.”
The county and city allocated $2.9 million in funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay for the facilities. Good Sam started its campus project in 2003 with the construction of the emergency shelter.
“They clearly need permanent housing. It’s nice that they have some land they can carve out for it,” said Bob Havlicek, director of finance for the Santa Barbara County Housing Authority.
People who live in the units will have direct access to all of Good Sam’s onsite services, including the after-school program, drug and alcohol counseling, and parenting classes.
Additionally, one- and two-bedroom units will be open to smaller families.
“A lot of our clients are single parents, single mothers,” Boysen said, adding that small families aren’t eligible for other government-subsidized housing, like Rancho Hermosa Apartments.
Good Sam will start accepting housing applications approximately three to four months after construction, which is scheduled for May 2013, is completed. Tenants will have to meet certain qualifications in terms of need and lifestyle.
The nonprofit is looking into getting the units approved under Section 8 of the affordable housing act. The designation would stay with the property, offering rental assistance to whoever lives within its walls, Boysen said.
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 3, 2012.