Maybe people can learn from their mistakes.
That’s the impression I’m getting from Santa Barbara County’s recent encampment cleanups in both the Santa Maria and Santa Ynez riverbeds. Both have had their fair share of repeated efforts to clear out the trash, tents, and makeshift living structures that accumulate in the riverbeds over time thanks to a homeless population with nowhere else to go.
After spending $6 million in state grant funding and months attacking the issue, the county and other local agencies and nonprofits managed to move more than 100 people out of the Santa Maria Riverbed starting in 2024.
But after the money was spent and the cleanup was over, a handful of tents, tarps, and humans sprang up in the riverbed again—something that Santa Maria and the county are hoping to prevent from accumulating through consistent enforcement.
In September, the Board of Supervisors approved $42,000 to help Santa Maria fund a law enforcement position specifically for riverbed patrols.
“We want to make sure that when an area is resolved, it’s not repopulated, and we’re making some headway there,” Community Services Department Director Jésus Armas told the board on Sept. 23.
The money will be “very well spent,” 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said. “If you don’t have that ongoing maintenance and the eyes on it that it doesn’t get repopulated again, you’re going to end up in the same position three or four years down the road.”
All we have to do is look over to Lompoc to see that. In 2018, Lompoc and the county cleared more than 100 people encamped in the Santa Ynez Riverbed and millions of pounds of trash. It cost the city alone around $500,000—and together, agencies and nonprofits aimed to connect people with temporary housing, services, and jobs.
By 2020, Lompoc was already thinking it needed to go back in.
“Due to lack of investment in enforcement, unfortunately, the Police Department and homeless service outreach providers have reported the riverbed has been reinhabited with illegal campsites,” a city staff report stated at the time.
Five years later, Lompoc and the county are at it again. After seven months of work, they’ve cleared about 85 structures out of the Santa Ynez riverbed and connected folks with shelter beds and services.
Taking a page out of the “We Learn From Our Mistakes” pamphlet, 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann is hoping the Lompoc situation will get a similar treatment to Santa Maria.
She said a memorandum of understanding is in the works between the county Sheriff’s Office and the Lompoc Police Department, which share jurisdiction within the Santa Ynez Riverbed.
The agreement is still being negotiated, so fingers crossed!
“Simply by moving people out of the riverbed, we’re not solving the issue. And I want to make that very clear,” Hartmann said. “There has to be ongoing monitoring and ongoing policing, and that did not happen after the first Santa Ynez Riverbed cleanup.”
There also has to be adequate housing. I guess that’s an issue for later?
The Canary is always ready to talk about housing. Send notes to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 9 – Oct 16, 2025.