The Santa Maria River runs through multiple jurisdictions, including those belonging to Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo County, and Caltrans. This makes tackling issues related to homelessness in the riverbed uniquely difficult, Assistant City Manager Chuen Wu said.
“The approach that we take to address homelessness is multifaceted,” Wu said. “It takes work far beyond what the city alone is able to achieve. It has to be in partnership and collaboration with the other local jurisdictions and with service providers.”
Shortly after last July’s $6 million riverbed cleanup effort, Santa Maria started drafting a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the city and the two counties.
“We needed to have an MOU in place for the ongoing monitoring of the riverbed,” Wu said. “We anticipated that—after the riverbed was cleaned—there would be those that would try to move back in. We knew that was going to happen, and so we knew that we needed to put something in place that would solidify those coordination efforts.”
Since the cleanup effort, about 20 encampments have emerged in the riverbed, posing enforcement issues for Santa Maria City Rangers who don’t have authority in each of the jurisdictions. According to Wu, the MOU will outline the responsibilities of law enforcement from each of the areas.
“The agreement is that the city of Santa Maria Rangers would provide that work of monitoring the riverbed, but the MOU would spell out how Santa Barbara County sheriffs and San Luis Obispo County sheriffs would also provide work toward preventing re-encampment and how those two counties would provide funding support for city rangers,” Wu said.
He explained that Santa Maria Rangers patrol the riverbed on a daily basis already, making contact with individuals who shouldn’t be there and informing the respective county sheriff’s offices of their presence. The MOU, Wu said, would simply act as a written agreement to support what they’re already doing and share the costs associated with these efforts.
Addressing homelessness requires more than just enforcement, Wu said, noting that it also entails connecting individuals to local services such as shelters. While making such connections was an integral part of their cleanup efforts back in July, he said that some individuals experiencing homelessness are drawn to the riverbed.
“It’s too big, and in many ways, too tempting for people that are accustomed to living there,” he explained. “I think there are some that have lived there that want to go back because they’re accustomed to that lifestyle.”
Despite this, Wu wants to dispel any misconceptions that the riverbed is back to how it was before the cleanup efforts.
“There are some that are moving back in or trying to move back in on the east side of the riverbed, but those numbers have paled in comparison to the population that was there last year,” he said. “There’s also recognition that preventing re-encampment of the river requires active engagement, active management, and active monitoring of the riverbed.”
According to previous reporting by the Sun, an estimated 110 to 150 people lived in the Santa Maria Riverbed prior to cleanup last year. During cleanup efforts, the city worked with SLO County, Santa Barbara County, Caltrans, and local nonprofits to connect individuals to resources, including housing, employment, and health care.
Even though some encampments have sprung back up in the riverbed, those collaborative efforts created a “significant positive impact,” said Good Samaritan Shelter Director of Homeless Services Kirsten Kahoon.
“We sheltered a lot of people from the river that are still existing in our shelters today,” Cahoon said. “Whether it’s new folks that are heading down there or some folks that temporarily left or declined services that may have gone back, our teams report back that there’s still a significant difference made from the outreach efforts.”
It will take continuous concerted and collaborative efforts to ensure that the riverbed population does not go back to what it was before last July, she said.
Wu hopes to have the MOU in place in the next couple of months so the jurisdictions can work toward these assurances.
Joseph Dzvonik, deputy director of Housing and Community Development in Santa Barbara County, explained that it’s essential to have the city and the two counties in agreement and working together to handle homelessness in the riverbed.
“Everybody has a responsibility to address the issue, and it would be unfair for any one jurisdiction to assume all responsibility,” Dzvonik said. “I also think that if one jurisdiction did assume all responsibility, then nothing would happen because it’s almost an insurmountable problem for one jurisdiction to deal with.”
Staff Writer Emma Montalbano can be reached at emontalbano@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Feb 20 – Mar 2, 2025.