Being homeless isn’t a crime. But “many kinds of public conduct are illegal.”
Santa Maria Public Information Officer Mark van de Kamp told us that. And he’s not exactly wrong. But, if the public conduct associated with being homeless is illegal, aren’t we essentially saying that homelessness is a crime?
A recent Santa Maria Riverbed cleanup rousted at least 35 people out of their encampment homes and connected them with resources and collected 25 tons of waste. The cleanup lasted for two days—and cleanup partners are going back into the riverbed for more abandoned property. It’s insanity.
“Homelessness is a very complex social problem with no easy solutions,” van de Kamp said. “I think we’ve made a good impact for now. … That said, not everyone is willing to receive the help, but we make the attempt to connect them to resources and assistance.”
What does society do with the folks who aren’t willing to come into the systems we created for them when that same society can’t even agree on what the “right” systems are? Remember, Santa Maria and Santa Barbara County still don’t necessarily agree on the right place to convert a hotel/motel into housing and services for homeless city residents—and they don’t necessarily agree on whether it’s actually needed or not.
If you look to the 2020 Point-In-Time Count, it sure looks like Santa Maria is taking a bite out of crime—er, homelessness—with about 80 fewer individuals experiencing homelessness in 2020 versus 2019. Anecdotally, it sure seems like the problem has become exponentially worse in the last two years.
What will the 2022 count show us? Likely that cleanups and connecting people with services doesn’t make a huge dent in sheltering unsheltered individuals. And the economic matters spurred by the pandemic compounded the homelessness issue. The problem, as van de Kamp said, is complex. And by and large, citizens don’t want to see it or deal with it.
You know what else some citizens don’t want to see or deal with? Cannabis. And they apparently don’t want to smell it either.
Why is odor the sticking point on cannabis? Cannabis cultivators and processors are literally paying to have odor-eating technology installed at their project sites, and people still aren’t convinced. One woman from Cebada Canyon, where pot is barred from being grown or processed, is so worried about the stench’s impact on neighboring communities that she is a member of the Santa Barbara County Coalition for Responsible Cannabis.
How many cannabis projects has the coalition appealed? I lost count, but it’s a lot.
Odor control is inadequate, Susan Ashbrook said, and it’s only going to get worse! Hold your noses, folks. But not for the stench of rotting cabbage or scent of fermenting grapes—for our leafy, crystal-infused little friend.
And now the county is changing its rules to encourage more processing facilities to apply for permits—and, in turn, hand over more tax dollars to the county, which holds 30 percent of the cultivation licenses in the state. Thirty percent.
Whoa. That’s so much! If we’re going to deal with the skunk, we might as well fill our county coffers with spunk. Which is why 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino is all about processing: which takes the value of marijuana from $200 per pound to $1,800.
The Canary is a spunky punk. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 3-10, 2022.
