For the first time in more than 20 years, Good Samaritan Shelter didn’t receive a Santa Maria public services grant allocation, and it could potentially impact how certain services can operate, Executive Director Sylvia Barnard told the Sun.
She planned to approach the Santa Maria City Council during its April 4 meeting, which was held after the Sun went to press, to try to get approval for emergency shelter and warming center funding, she said.
“I am planning on speaking to advocate for the operational funding for our shelter system and warming center,” she said. “We rely on the city’s investment into the shelter system so we can leverage it with county, state, federal, and private funding.”
Barnard requested $20,000 for Good Sam’s emergency and family shelters and $20,000 for the Santa Maria Warming Shelter from the city’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)—a federal program that provides local governments with funds for local organizations to address needs community-wide or for low to moderate income residents, according to city documents.
This year, the city has nearly $1.4 million available with about $209,000 dedicated to public services, $938,000 for capital projects, and about $7,500 for each council member to allocate, according to city documents.
Barnard’s requests were for the public services portion of the grant, and she filed an additional request for capital funds, according to city documents, but the Block Grant Advisory Committee did not recommend that Good Samaritan receive these funds.
Although Good Sam’s budget for the two shelters combined is close to $1 million, they both heavily rely on CDBG funding, she added.
“I think the challenge is people see Good Sam has grown, and we have a larger budget, but all our new funding is dedicated to new programs. It doesn’t go back and support the shelter. The programs that are the least funded are the shelter programs,” Barnard said. “The warming shelter [was] open more than twice our normal season because of the storms. You can imagine how much extra staffing, supplies, and funding that took that we didn’t originally plan for.”
This winter season, Good Sam’s Freedom Warming Center was activated for 50 nights, and served 241 people. Last year, Good Sam provided 22,774 bed nights at the Santa Maria emergency shelter and 12,310 bed nights at the family shelter, Barnard said. Overall, the organization served approximately 1,500 unduplicated people in Santa Maria alone and 3,500 countywide.
Although she doesn’t expect the City Council to make any changes, she hopes she can convince a few members to allocate their individual $7,500 funds to Good Samaritan’s services.
Mark van de Kamp, the city’s public information officer told the Sun that the committee’s decision happened in part because Good Sam is set to receive more capital funds than it requested and was ranked the No. 1 priority for capital funds to address homelessness in the city. According to city documents, the Block Grants Advisory Committee recommended $237,500 for family shelter rehabilitation and an additional $12,500 for project delivery costs.
“The committee has a difficult task: There are way too many wonderful agencies and finite funds we can allocate,” van de Kamp said. “The committee recognizes and appreciates the great job performed by Good Samaritan, and the committee has to look at an agency’s capacity to offer services without CDBG funds, the overall needs of the community, and what to do with the finite funds.”
The City Council is scheduled to review and approve the overall allocations in the drafted Community Development Block Grant Action Plan on April 4. If approved, it will begin a 30-day public review period and a final approval will take place on May 2.
This article appears in Apr 6-13, 2023.