Santa Barbara County and Santa Maria are fighting over the homeless and a Motel 6.
At least, that’s the simple version of the story.
The real story goes back many years but comes down to ideological differences and what Santa Maria believes is best for the city. Mayor Alice Patino, City Councilmember Etta Waterfield, and others don’t think the Motel 6 on East Main Street should be converted into housing units for homeless people with wraparound social services. You know, the whole, “It’s not the right place,” refrain (Heard that one before!). And the Housing Authority of Santa Barbara County does.
But to make it happen, the city and county need to become better communicators—like any couple in a marriage on the rocks. And Fifth District Santa Barbara County Supervisor Steve Lavagnino, who lives in Santa Maria, is skeptical about the county and city’s ability to make that happen.
“The city has a very skeptical eye when it comes to the county wanting to help. I don’t think their values align with the county values, so they are prone to be very skeptical any time that we try to collaborate,” Lavagnino said. “We’ve just run into the city of Santa Maria doing things differently than the county does, and they l*ike it that way.”
Umm. That’s an understatement! I don’t think I’ve heard any government on the Central Coast complain more about state and county government policies than the folks on the Santa Maria City Council. Also, it’s hard to align with county values when the majority of the work that’s being done filters through government buildings on the south (liberal) end of the county.
The bottom line, Mayor Patino said, is that the county should go through city planning processes just like any other project would, and it hasn’t yet. But the Board of Supervisors’ agenda item that sparked all of this negative naysaying was simply to apply for funding on the project, and that application was due by Jan. 31. Although it was a tight squeeze, the county and city managed to come to enough of an understanding to actually apply for $18 million in state funding for the project.
The project’s definitely not out of the woods, yet—as Housing Authority Director of Housing Development John Polanskey said, “We’re still working with the city of Santa Maria.”
It seems that Santa Maria isn’t too keen on Housing Authority projects of this nature, accusing the organization’s currently operating affordable housing projects of having criminal activity and neighborhood disturbances. Patino said the city is looking forward to more discussions, understanding, and solutions.
“It’s going to be a mixed reaction, but you’ll find that people in Santa Maria are very compassionate and caring people that take the way they treat other human beings very seriously,” she said.
OK. Great! Unfortunately “compassionate and caring” can only get you so far when it comes to addressing the complicated problems associated with homelessness.
Lavagnino wants action, people! He’s frustrated, sick of the status quo, and believes that one location isn’t necessarily better than another.
“The homeless issue seems like it’s going unaddressed, and it’s impacting the residents of Santa Maria,” he said.
The Canary thinks Steve Lavagnino is right. Send thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 17-24, 2022.