Santa Barbara County’s tally of tents and forts made of tarps and wooden planks in the Santa Ynez Riverbed is 85 fewer than seven months ago thanks to an ongoing cleanup initiative.
In her role as the county’s encampment response coordination manager, Katherine Soto-Vasquez doesn’t often dwell on those stats during a typical work day, she explained.
“When folks have been homeless for longer periods of time, it’s just about building trust. It’s almost going in without expectations of what it is that we’re trying to accomplish,” Soto-Vasquez told the Sun, “and just letting them know that we’re here for them regardless of the choices that they make.”
The county’s expansive six-phase project to clear Santa Ynez Riverbed encampments began in March. Since then, Soto-Vasquez and other county employees have spoken face-to-face with more than 60 long-term riverbed residents.
Many of them are chronically homeless—homeless for more than a year—with disabilities and substance use disorders, according to county Homelessness Assistance Programs Manager Jett Black-Maertz
“When we’re working in the riverbed, it is those higher acuity individuals that … need much more help than light touch assistance,” Black-Maertz said. “They’ve been out of the societal norm long enough that it’s more than just getting them a job to get them back into housing.”
Black-Maertz added that the county would essentially “end up playing a game of Whac-a-Mole if we didn’t have a place for people to go.”
Amid the cleanup initiative’s sixth and final phase that began in September, the county continues to offer an immediate space for people to stay, thanks to support from the state’s Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF) program, Black-Maertz explained. The funds allow the county to contract extra beds at shelters in both Lompoc and Santa Maria.
One of the key differences between this year’s Santa Ynez Riverbed encampment cleanups and the 2018 effort that cleared nearly the same number of encampments—between 60 and 70—is a commitment to follow-up, 3rd District county Supervisor Joan Hartmann told the Sun.
“Simply by moving people out of the riverbed, we’re not solving the issue. And I want to make that very clear,” Hartmann said. “There has to be ongoing monitoring and ongoing policing, and that did not happen after the first Santa Ynez Riverbed cleanup.
“What we have now that we haven’t had before [is] an agreement between the Lompoc Police and the Santa Barbara County sheriff,” she added.
The county’s Community Services Department is currently drafting a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would have the Lompoc Police Department and Sheriff’s Office work “together on regular intervals to go out into the riverbed and ensure that we don’t have the re-establishment of the encampments,” according to Hartmann.
Lompoc Mayor Jim Mosby said he hopes the MOU will resolve jurisdiction issues between the two agencies related to certain city-owned parcels of county land in the riverbed that he would prefer to see annexed someday.
“The city owns a good chunk of land. … The complication is the county and LAFCO [Local Agency Formation Commission] won’t let the city add it to their city limits. So, then you have a dual jurisdiction,” Mosby said. “The city of Lompoc has limited jurisdiction over enforcement. The sheriff then has to step in.”
While the MOU is in its preliminary stage, county Housing and Community Development Assistant Director Joe Dzvonik told the Sun that the department has kept the city of Lompoc informed about each phase of the current Santa Ynez Riverbed cleanup since March.
“And as a result of that, the Lompoc PD would assist us where they could,” Dzvonik said. “We’re trying to work through those jurisdictional issues with the Lompoc PD and the county sheriff’s department. They’re really the ones who are going to coordinate that piece of it. But with [the] idea that if they see something—if they see encampments—they need to contact us. … We may even go with them on certain patrols.”
Discussions between the two agencies about the incoming MOU have been harmonious so far, county Community Services Department Director Jesús Armas recently told elected officials.
“They’ve both been very cooperative and they both indicated that with reasonable planning, they’ll be able to assist us in keeping some eyes on the [Santa Ynez] Riverbed,” Armas said at the Board of Supervisors’ Sept. 23 meeting. “We want to make sure that when an area is resolved, it’s not repopulated, and we’re making some headway there.”
The Santa Ynez Riverbed’s regression after its 2018 cleanup served as a cautionary tale during the hearing, referenced by some supervisors before the board approved new funding to increase enforcement in the Santa Maria Riverbed.
“If you don’t have that ongoing maintenance and the eyes on it that it doesn’t get repopulated again, you’re going to end up in the same position three or four years down the road,” 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said.
Lavagnino was part of the 5-0 vote that allocated $42,000 of county funds to help pay for a new Santa Maria park ranger position, whose salary would be split between the city and the county. The full-time ranger would be responsible for patrolling the riverbed, with an aim to prevent new encampments from arising.
“It’s going to be money very well spent,” Lavagnino said at the meeting.
Over the course of several months in 2024, Santa Barbara County collaborated with the city of Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo County, Caltrans, and some local nonprofits to clear the Santa Maria Riverbed of encampments, while connecting more than 100 people living there with housing, health care, and employment resources.
“Just to kind of put it into perspective for people who didn’t understand how large it was, there were over 100 encampments,” Lavagnino recalled. “Every time we drove across the [Santa Maria River] Bridge, we’d look out and see a whole other city out there in the riverbed.”
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 9 – Oct 16, 2025.