It was another State Street monologue no one really wanted to witness. A tall young man — bearded, well dressed, and soiled — bent intently over a green trash can in front of a downtown bank and shouted into the abyss. I couldn’t make out the words, but the exchange apparently did not go well. After about 20 seconds, he jerked his head up, wheeled around, and marched angrily up the street, hollering at the top of his lungs. No one asked any questions. We already knew the answer: Get out of the way.
It’s an old story, one that Santa Barbara has been wringing its hands over for the past 35 years. Last week, the City Council heard what I’d say is by far the most promising, creative, and innovative proposal devised yet to address the issue. For the first time ever, Cottage Hospital, the Housing Authority, city cops, and the PATH homeless shelter are all sitting around the table, talking about working together. That’s never happened before. Instigating this newfound unity of purpose is $550 million in one-time-only grants the state legislature just made available for communities to deal with homelessness. Of that, Santa Barbara County will get about $9 million. The specific proposal discussed by the council would take about $6.5 million of that.
On the Richter scale of good news, this qualifies as a major earthquake.