Hypothermia kills about 700 people experiencing homelessness in the United States annually, according to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.
This year, Santa Barbara County counted more than 1,900 people who were homeless during its Point-in-Time Count. Although specific data about homeless, weather-related mortalities couldn’t be verified, Erica Bottorff—a holistic defense advocate at the county Public Defender’s Office—said homeless community members have died in previous years due to the dropping temperatures.
“Many of our clients at the Public Defender’s Office are experiencing homelessness, and it’s not uncommon for our clients or community members to come into our office requesting items to stay warm,” Bottorff said. “We want to prevent any deaths this winter.”
To help meet this need, the Public Defender’s Office launched its fourth annual Sleeping Bag Drive: a donation event to collect sleeping bags for clients who may be experiencing homelessness. The office kicked off its fourth annual drive to collect 250 sleeping bags and will accept other items like sweaters, coats, hats, thermal underwear, socks, and scarves through Dec. 12 at either the Santa Barbara or Santa Maria office locations.
“I think when we first started this, we [noticed] that the shelters didn’t have enough capacity to host everyone,” Bortoff said. “Those people staying outside were asking for items to keep warm at night.”
The office’s Community Defender Division is a group of social workers, outreach workers, case workers, and housing specialists who work with individuals experiencing homelessness, she said. Oftentimes, people would come in and ask for sleeping bags along with obtaining other services.
“Our office, in addition to many other outreach teams, are working with unsheltered people to obtain permanent housing, but this process takes time. In the meantime we want to make sure everyone stays warm and safe so they can remain engaged with their outreach workers and work their way into permanent housing,” Bortoff said.
After collecting items, the Santa Barbara and Santa Maria office locations will host a distribution event from noon to 2 p.m. on Dec. 15 where individuals can walk through stations organized by size and item and collect whatever they may need, she said.
Normally, sleeping bags go the quickest, but the Public Defender’s Office will hang on to any leftover items to hand them out throughout the year. Bortoff added that her team may work with their community partners to distribute to other service agencies.
“It’s really the community giving back to our unhoused community members,” Bortoff said. “It’s really important for community members to be involved in this effort. We can’t solve this problem with only outreach workers; it’s really going to need the [whole] community to be involved to solve this issue.”
The Santa Maria Public Defender’s Office is located at 312 East Cook St. and will be accepting donations during regular business hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Direct further questions to (805) 346-7500.
Highlight
• The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County received 2,500 pairs of brand new athletic shoes donated by Pierce Footwear—an Oregon-based company that turns waste into foam for shoes. The food bank’s Santa Maria warehouse—located at 490 W. Foster Road—distributed shoes to several organizations, including the Santa Ynez Valley Community Outreach (formerly Buellton Senior Center), Band of Brothers, Santa Maria Elks, American Veterans United, and the Cloverlane Foundation, to give free shoes to local veterans.
• The Fund for Santa Barbara awarded Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) $10,000 to support its labor justice, youth development, and language access programs in Santa Barbara County. The Fund will allocate a total of $103,000 to local nonprofit organizations in Santa Barbara County as part of its annual fall general grant cycle. As a nontraditional community foundation, the Fund has been supporting organizations and groups working for progressive social change in Santa Barbara County since 1980. In 2019, the Fund gave a grant to MICOP to further its mission to support, organize, and empower Indigenous migrant communities.
Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor wrote this week’s Spotlight. Reach her at toconnor@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 8-15, 2022.