After more than 400 volunteers hit Santa Barbara County’s streets in February to capture a snapshot of those experiencing homelessness, the 2022 Point-In-Time Count’s preliminary results showed a 3.4 percent increase over 2020.
The count showed 1,962 people were experiencing homelessness in the county on Feb. 23, according to a county Housing and Development press release—a number county officials thought would be higher.
This is the first year the annual U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-required Point-In-Time Count to collect data on homelessness has happened since 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Santa Barbara County Homeless Assistance Program Manager Kimberlee Albers said.
“We anticipated—[based] on the numbers we consistently see in our systems—that we would see an increase in homelessness. It’s a very modest increase when we look at it countywide, but the North and Mid-County numbers increased,” Albers said.
Santa Maria’s numbers increased from 382 in 2020, to 457 in 2022 and Lompoc’s went from 211 to 290, according to the data. However, South County cities like Goleta and Santa Barbara saw decreases in their numbers—Goleta from 166 in 2020 to 91 in 2022, and Santa Barbara from 914 to 822—which Albers said surprised her.
“I think we would have expected the increase to be consistent across the county based on [other] data we are seeing. We’re not seeing people moving in any significant numbers,” she said. “It was a very cold evening [for the count]. I know there was some difficulty finding folks in South County.”
Santa Barbara County Continuum of Care Chair and Good Samaritan Shelter Executive Director Sylvia Barnard monitors those who are accessing services at the county’s two sobering centers in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria, and said she expected higher numbers as well.
The Santa Maria Stabilization Center—a facility only for those experiencing homelessness—has served 284 clients since April 2021, Barnard said, which is equivalent to more than half of the number of homeless individuals counted in Santa Maria on Feb. 23.
“Doing a Point-In-Time Count during a pandemic is difficult with social distancing and considering safety. Hopefully, the next count will have more volunteers and reach more locations,” Barnard said. “I do think our numbers would have been higher—especially those who are unsheltered.”
Overall, the data still shows a need for more services, county Program Manager Albers said.
“We know the numbers have been increasing and there’s a need for both shelter and housing. It doesn’t change our trajectory. We have our community action plan that includes the need for shelter, housing, and services in all areas of the county. It just emphasizes we need more of all three in order to address homelessness,” Albers said.
The housing management team’s still analyzing data, and a future report will be released in May that focuses on sub-populations—like veterans, families, and those experiencing disabling conditions. That information will be presented to the county Board of Supervisors in May, Albers said.
“It [becomes] a more comprehensive report on homelessness with the Point-In-Time Count subpopulation data,” she added.
Albers said she hopes the data collected will help get more state and federal funds allocated to the county so it can provide more services.
“There’s a lot of funding that has been coming out of the state, and having an accurate count is critical to funding,” she said. “There is a housing affordability crisis in our community, and it’s accelerating as we emerge from COVID. We have to realize in the short term with modest growth [in homelessness] that we could see another growth with the extreme lack of affordability.”
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 7, 2022.