Goleta Submits Homelessness Plan to Public for Comment
Strategy Prioritizes Needs and Service Gaps
The borders of the City of Goleta contain its share of people without a home, a number that has leapt to 166 in 2020 from 99 in 2017, the first year a homeless survey separated Goleta’s homeless population from Isla Vista’s. It’s a group many residents know personally, and the city’s newly released draft Homelessness Strategic Plan is dedicated to three who died while it was being prepared: Angela Karmas, Leland “Hobo” Goodsell, and Kona Cummings.
The city notes a large number of its homeless residents — 68 percent, or 117 individuals — live in their cars, a fact that informs the city’s plan to attempt to keep people housed, secure, and in touch with needed and available services. As well, about 37 percent were noted to have a chronic health issue, 34 percent have a brain injury or mental-health problem, 31 percent are physically disabled, and 26 percent have a substance-abuse problem.
Roughly 50 homeless people participated in a survey that found 83 percent were Goleta residents, and 56 percent had lived in Goleta for more than five years. Twenty-eight percent said they lived in Goleta when they became homeless, 22 percent had lived in the City of Santa Barbara, and 38 percent had lived outside the county.
