In from the Cold
Former Foes Join Forces on Milpas Street to Help Chronically Homeless
It’s not exactly the lion and the lamb lying down together in the manger, but by Santa Barbara standards it’s the next best thing. When Marcos Olivarez first encountered Sharon Byrne of the Milpas Community Association, it was not under the best of terms. “I hated her,” recalled Olivarez, an otherwise soft-spoken native of Santa Barbara’s Eastside.
At the time, Olivarez had been on the streets for many years. Having just been given the boot by the Casa Esperanza homeless center — where he’d worked for two years — Olivarez made it his life’s mission to torment shelter operators as much as possible. It turned out he possessed a singular talent for doing so. Olivarez, now 55, emerged as the charismatic ringleader of an unruly crew of determined hell-raisers who planted themselves daily in front of the Casa. Alcohol and drugs were very much involved. Shouting and arguing common. Fights frequently ensued. “I was their biggest headache,” he said.
About three years ago, Byrne — tough, street smart, and politically brash — had already emerged as a force to be reckoned with on the Eastside. She was also in the midst of a campaign for City Council. Byrne concluded Olivarez had become an intolerable nuisance, and in a face-to-face confrontation, she told him he had to go. He told her to go to hell. “This was my home,” he said.
