Santa Barbara races to relocate homeless people after fire scorches hillside

The city of Santa Barbara will consider several sites to move people out of homeless encampments in fire-prone areas.

The Santa Barbara City Council is considering the Sears parking lot, the downtown Staples building, the Earl Warren Showgrounds and several city parking lots, including the Carrillo-Castillo commuter lot and City Hall.

“How do we show political courage? How do we show leadership?” Councilwoman Meagan Harmon asked. “One of the ways to do that is for us to be the first. What better place to locate this site than in the City Hall parking lot? If we did that, that’s our local government saying to our neighbors, we are going to go first. We ask so much of you, we are going to take the first step.”

The council voted 7-0 on Tuesday night to direct city staff to analyze the sites and return in two weeks for a vote. At that time, the council plans to declare a state of emergency for homelessness in fire-prone areas.

The city is racing to find a place to house people living in encampments as the area heads into fire season.

The Loma Fire, which was declared fully contained on Monday, scorched seven acres on Santa Barbara’s Westside and damaged to homes.

Although the wildfire was not started by an individual living in an encampment, shook up City Hall, and served as a sudden and real reminder of how quickly a fire can start and spread in areas near homes.

Harmon also pushed back on one of the other sites being proposed, the Carrillo/Castillo commuter lot, which was the site of an ill-conceived tiny homes proposal a few years ago.

“That’s a really difficult spot, and there’s a real lack of trust already in that neighborhood,” she said.

The big challenge going ahead will be to find a site that doesn’t create a backlash among residents and businesses. Councilwoman Alejandra Gutierrez pushed for Santa Barbara County to get involved and said that the Eastside, her district, already bears the brunt of the city’s homelessness issues.

“We can think of spaces in the city, but we are limited,” Gutierrez said. “I really think the county has a lot more spaces that we could partner up. We really need them right now to step up to the plate because we need to solve this.”

Gutierrez said she was thankful the city was having the meeting, but that it’s time to stop being reactive.

“What happened on the Westside was terrifying,” Gutierrez said. “I have family and friends, I was there. The streets were flooded with people.”

City officials said there are about 300 unsheltered or homeless individuals living in encampments or on the streets. Getting them to one spot, they acknowledged, would not be easy.

Barbara Andersen, the homelessness collaborative facilitator for SB ACT, said it can take 15 to 18 engagements with people living in encampments before they choose to seek shelter.

It could cost, according to the city, as much as $900,000 for the shelter, services and maintenance for the four months to get the city through fire season.

Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon said she is happy to have the conversation about encampments now, but that it is also late.

“It’s really sad that it took this fire to bring it,” Sneddon said. “But I think we are averting a much larger disaster by taking this seriously now.”

Sneddon also said homelessness happens everywhere, not just downtown.

“I can tell you up where I live, I see a steady stream of neighbors experiencing homelessness, walking up in the evening and coming out in the morning from creekbeds, from bases of hillsides here, in the high-fire or extreme high-fire zone,” Sneddon said. “This is a danger, not just to the neighbors and the neighborhood and the entire city, but to those who are experiencing homelessness themselves. If they are caught in a canyon or a high-fire area, there’s no way out.”

Sneddon pushed for the Sears parking lot as a possible site.

“The Sears parking lot would be a really excellent location in terms of considering a location that is away already from heavily impacted areas with shelters and encampments,” Sneddon said. “That might cost us a little bit to lease or pay rent on some of that land, but I really believe it is important for human dignity that there be privacy. I am not a fan of human beings being put in a situation that seems like a fishbowl.”

The council is scheduled to select a site at its June 8 meeting.