The struggle to survive in a Santa Ynez Riverbed encampment can be brutal.
“In order to have a tent to sleep in, you might have to go have sex with somebody,” said Ann McCarty, executive director of the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center. “If you want something to eat, this is what you’ve got to do. If you want a hit off the pipe, this is what you’ve got to do. That’s exploitation. That’s trafficking. We know it’s happening.”
In Lompoc, the intersecting issues of homelessness and human trafficking are complex, with local leaders and organizations working to address the root causes, including inadequate resources and a growing need for coordination. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, human traffickers often target individuals in poverty, homelessness, or marginalized communities, and without access to safe and stable housing, survivors remain vulnerable to re-exploitation.
One of the main challenges to addressing trafficking within the riverbed is the lack of people coming forward, McCarty said, noting that some individuals don’t identify as trafficking victims while others fear the consequences of seeking help.
“The shame that’s associated with sexual violence keeps them stuck in that position, because, No. 1, they think nobody’s going to believe them,” McCarty said. “No. 2, they’re thinking everybody’s going to blame them for their situation.”
Another main hurdle, according to McCarty, is the lack of health care and shelter resources in the area. While shelters do exist in Lompoc, she said that they are not always the safe spaces they’re meant to be.
“There’s abuse that happens at homeless shelters as well, and they know that,” McCarty said. “So then they think, ‘Well, I can’t go to that homeless shelter because my friend got raped there.’ Or, ‘I’ve been there before, and I was verbally abused, or sexually harassed, or just didn’t feel safe.’”
The North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center is in the process of starting a Care and Coordination Center that will be open one day a week to support women experiencing homelessness. With funding from local nonprofit Kingdom Causes Inc. (KCI), McCarty hopes they will be able to have this center up and running in a few months.
“We know that they’re not going to walk through the door the first day and identify someone that’s been trafficked,” McCarty acknowledged.
“But it’s a small community, and we’re hoping that through the trust that we’re hoping to build with the individuals that walk through the door to seek services, that we’ll be able to get people connected with resources that we already have in place,” she said, adding that those connections include counseling services and anybody else who can provide support. “So that we can get them out of that life.”
Jeff Shaffer, the Santa Barbara regional catalyst for KCI and a member of the Santa Barbara County Human Trafficking Task Force, explained that KCI’s mission is to bring together partners throughout the county to address the needs of society and create positive change.
Unhoused women are one of the populations most vulnerable to trafficking, he said. He shared data from the Homeless Management Information System showing that there were 176 women experiencing homelessness in Lompoc in 2023.
Shaffer recognizes that trafficking can happen to both women and men, but he noted that data has shown women as the most at-risk group. To address their needs, KCI launched an initiative focused on creating a network of coordinated care and resources to ensure lasting safety and stability.
“Really the plan is more around ending women’s homelessness in Lompoc because if you end that risk factor, there’s not going to be trafficking happening anywhere in that city with that population,” Shaffer said. “That’s kind of our overarching goal—how do we increase care, coordination, training, outreach, and specified housing so that women are no longer on the streets?”
While this might seem like a lofty goal, Shaffer said that no woman is safe living on the streets, so they must do everything they can to combat this issue. To make that to happen, they need cooperation from “everyone.”
“If you’re going to deal with a major social issue, you have to bring everyone together—the funders, government structures, nonprofits, for-profits, businesses, faith communities, volunteers,” Shaffer said. “Educate them, bring them into the room, and get everyone going in the same direction based on the same plan.”
When it comes to addressing the unhoused population in the Santa Ynez Riverbed, Santa Barbara County 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann explained that historically, city and county officials have struggled to reach a consensus on how to tackle the issue. She emphasized that the county has effectively worked with other cities to clean up encampments and get people off the streets.
“We’ve seen from the huge strides that have been made in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria that this is a problem that’s solvable,” Hartmann told the Sun. “It just takes consensus on the part of the people that are going to do it. You’re going to have homeless people. Do you want it managed or unmanaged? Do you want just a wild place in the river, or are you willing to create the kind of housing and services that can transform people’s lives?”
In 2018, Lompoc made a concerted effort with the help of the county to clean out the riverbed, dismantling 60 to 70 encampments and displacing more than 100 people experiencing homelessness. The goal was to keep people out of the riverbed and off the streets by partnering with local agencies and organizations to provide care and shelter, but many unhoused individuals returned to the riverbed.
“What happened when we cleared the river in Lompoc the first time was that it was too short a period, and there was no follow-up,” Hartmann said. “You’ve got to make sure that the river is cleared over time. Rivers just aren’t a safe place for people to live, so clearing them, I think, is a moral imperative.
“We have to have someplace, though, for them to go. We can’t just say, ‘disappear from the face of the earth.’”
While Hartmann said that the county is actively engaged in “solving the homelessness issue in Lompoc, funding extensive outreach and services to those living in the riverbed,” recently elected Lompoc Mayor Jim Mosby said that the county “has been turning a blind eye to it.”
Mosby expressed a desire for more involvement from law enforcement, especially when it comes to issues of drugs, violence, and theft, noting that in the past “it’s been hugs, not handcuffs.”
“There’s a new mayor on the block here, and my attitude is zero tolerance to the insanity that’s going on with multiple felonies that are happening out here,” Mosby said.
Hartmann remains confident that Lompoc can clean up the riverbed and reduce homelessness in the area through partnerships with Mosby and other city leaders. Before that can happen, though, McCarty from the North County Rape Crisis center said that local officials need to ensure that mental health care, medical services, and ample housing options are readily available.
“I think riverbed cleanups are beneficial when all of the processes that should be put into place are put into place prior to them happening,” McCarty said. “Just going in and doing a sweep is not effective, and it is dangerous because when people scramble, they can get even more aggressive because they get scared.”
Staff Writer Emma Montalbano can be reached at emontalbano@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 9, 2025.