Milpas Residents, Business Owners Unhappy About Homeless

Oh the Milpas business district has been hurting for as long as I can remember. Maybe it has something to do with the design that is heavily dominated by oversized SUVs, diesel monster trucks, hotrods, lowriders and mouthy motorcycles. Really you can't tell the difference between the CEOs, the Gangsters and sometimes the Police (especially when off duty.)

Deliveries are a nightmare and the pedestrian experience is pretty crappy. Oh all that ongoing HWY 101 widening activity isn't a help either. Even the round-a-bout (which we all love) is geared toward moving cars rather than people. And that is the problem. Think old Spanish European Village rather that old tired California Dreamin fleeting fantasy.

I love the visual improvements like the Cornstalk Light poles and the removal of overhead utilities and poles. The problem is all these improvements are superficially environmental and designed to make the Hybrid eco drivers feel good while gazing out their windshield.

Sorry I could not make this meeting but clearly the people are leading and hopefully next the leaders will follow.

It was an interesting meeting, but if it was to "help" the homeless, it certainly didn't. After listening to the discussion, all I heard was "call the police" and with that an acknowledgement that there is little they can do given the jail overcrowding. Mike Foley made a valuable point that a distinction should be made between "homeless," those who stay at the Casa Esperanza, and vagrants ---- much of the problems that those of who live in the area see are caused by vagrants. Maybe so, but they, too, probably are homeless.

Locking the bathroom doors at Cabrillo seems to me a huge mistake - whose idea is that?! It may direct drug dealing elsewhere but it most surely will direct urination and defecation elsewhere, too. Perhaps the city or Casa Esperanza could hire several of those without homes who would like to earn a minimum wage (and who are reliable) to stand guard at those bathrooms? Is there much/any drug dealing at the facilities by Borders?

I think the Casa Esperanza should be made smaller with a second unit elsewhere, perhaps on the West side, nearer the bus/train stations --- and not have everything concentrated in one area.

What about moving shelter to Montecito, next to the house of Harold Simmons, or Lady Ridley-Tree...since they are such supporters of enabling addiction?!

To Milpas Residents- Don't worry the police is working hard to get all this marijuana off the streets, that should improve your situation right?

First off being homeless is not a crime.

Public urination is a crime.
Public intoxication is a crime.
Loitering is a crime.
Vandalism is a crime.
Theft is a crime.
Trespassing is a crime.
Littering is a crime.

When I see people committing these crimes, as I do on and around Milpas, East Beach and Downtown it pisses me off and it is disappointing.

I suppose people that are upset about the 'homeless problem' are really mostly concerned with these crimes.

To me these are generally more of a 'nuisance crime' than a serious crime. Nuisance crimes do not carry any weight in our legal systems, charges get dropped or they are simply un-enforced because 'there are bigger fish to fry' or (as loonpt calls it) the Prison Industrial Complex can't make much money off of them.

Meanwhile the cops say they are understaffed, the sheriff says the jail overcrowded the same story from homeless shelter 'therapists' shelters are full and the DA rarely prosecutes...the whole city seems to be incompetent or just plan greedy.

If we look to the city/police to solve the problem we are kidding ourselves and wasting our time.

I'll tell you where there is not any crime, at my house. There also doesn't seem to be much crime happening right next to these problem areas like at Fess Parkers Doubletree or Joe's on State Street. Why? Because it is private property and people are taking care of theirs.

If the city can't take care of the softball field or the sidewalk in front of The Habit, they should relinquish their responsibility of it to people who can and people who want to take care of it.

Mike Foley did not refer to any person as a "vagrant". That is all too often used as a derogatory and hateful term, sadly on full display at this meeting. The people who must live on the streets and in bushes are not objects, they are human beings who deserve respect and, when requested, our help. What he said was that if a person living on the streets is causing problems in a neighborhood at night, they are clearly not living at Casa Esperanza. In fact, if communtiy members want fewer problems, the solution is more housing, not less. Nearly 400 people were housed as a result of Casa's work last year. Another 1,500 people received food that was NOT stolen or the result of panhandling. Casa Esperanza is a part of the solution - not the problem. Individuals who believe that if services for the homeless disappear, the homeless will too, are mistaken - tragically mistaken. The last thing Santa Barbara needs is another 1,500 homeless people on our streets absent shelter and basic life-lines. Consistent law enforcement, united neighborhoods, consistent social services and low-income housing solutions have been proven to lower homelessness in other communities. Our score card shows the need for significant improvement in all four of these categories. When everyone works together, positive change will happen. The Milpas area can be a safe neighborhood, a vibrant business environment AND a place where any homeless person in need of help can find it. Santa Barbara is a great place and Santa Barbara can accomplish this. This community deserves a vision that embraces everyone. That vision exists. The homeless people dying our the streets (89% with a mental health diagnosis), and the neighborhoods that suffer, deserve political and spiritual leadership that makes that vision a reality and settles for nothing less. In response to individual's who suggest that Casa Esperanza move to a different location, I remind you that of the many locations chosen for a homeless shelter by the City of Santa Barbara, the County of SB and others, many were rejected and Casa Esperanza was directed to this location. If someone has a better, appropriately zoned location, with access to the funding required to build it, big enough to ensure that the homeless have in one location the services they need to move from homelessness to housing - please step forward!

java are you volunteering your neighborhood?? or let me guess, its not "appropriately zoned".

When hunger is an issue, you don't call the police. I know there are problems that warrant a police call with the homeless, but some of it may be hunger driven. Stealing fruit off a tree? What would you do if driven by hunger? I gave $9 to a guy and his girlfriend the other night in Trader Joe's parking lot. I watched them go straight into Carl's Jr. When I turned the corner, they were ordering at the cash register. What disgusts me most about this is that Carl's Jr. got the money. But hey, it's not the liquor store or drug dealer. Maybe the politicians running for office can raise money to feed people instead of their own campaigns??? Now that would be serving the community.

spacey I suggest you have a friend or family member help you revisit the "give a man a fish..." parable. It seems as though a major portion of the lesson has gone right over your head.

Tucker, where do you suggest homeless people use the restroom? I imagine you aren't volunteering your home.

Here we have people talking about closing bathrooms, and we have others complaining about homeless people using public areas as bathrooms.

If you want homeless people to stop being a nuisance, then don't let them be a nuisance. No homeless person has EVER been a nuisance for me, because I don't let stupid things bother me.

Some people just need something to complain about. Get over it, and stop blaming all your problems on homeless people. You should, if anything, be feeling sorry for them.

rcobban, even fishing is now illegal without a government issued, relatively expensive permit. In fact, pretty much every single kind of work or business that a homeless person can do has been outlawed by the government.

Minimum wage laws make it illegal for people to work who are less productive. A business will never hire somebody if they are going to lose them money, so when you start making minimum wage laws you are outlawing certain people from working.

Progressives are tricked into believing that minimum wage laws help poor people when all it does is get them fired, or prevent them from ever working in the first place. Ironically much of the poverty in this country stems from government policy that is considered 'progressive'.

I recently spent a week in San Antonio, Tx and did not see a single panhandler or a bum anywhere near downtown. Last week I was in Carmel for five days and once again did not see a homeless person or panhandler. What do they know that we don't? Seems to me Santa Barbara make them feel too welcome.
Just saying.

AndyG, Amen!

Still the same griping, the same problems, & the same blame game.
And things just get worse for those who can't keep up & the self-righteous whine a little louder. When are we going to figure out that whining, a sense of self-entitlement, criminalizing poverty, robbing people of their freedoms simply because they are poor and homeless using bigoted terms to describe the poor and homeless, etc. AREN'T WORKING?

When did things work? When did we live in a place where anyone who had an income could afford safe, decent housing, food, clothing, transportation? What have we done to create a society that is so dysfunctional, frantic, broke and desperate that we have THOUSANDS of people with no homes...& our only responses are either to warehouse them out of sight of the "decent people" and tourists in shelters and endless programs, or to throw them all in jail?

Shelters/programs aren't working. Criminalizing & jailing aren't working. The homeless population increases daily. Kids aged out of foster care, people too old and poor to keep up with soaring housing costs, people who can't find enough days in the week to work enough hours to make enough money to pay for the ever rising rents, job losses, divorce, death of a spouse, medical bills etc...all contributing factors.

Factors no one seems to discuss.

What DOES get airtime is "bums", panhandlers, drunks, druggies, public urination, "transients", "vagrants", etc.

The same old tired, recycled stereotypes...& the population of homeless increases daily. "Decent people" & "Pillars of the community" whine, gripe, and demand that "those people" be swept out of sight so they can get on with their very important lives. Professional service providers want to see more programs & shelters created to ensure ongoing income for themselves.

Get the homeless roped in, trapped, & plugged into these programs so they can never get out, all supported by the city & the fine, upstanding business community because once the unsightly po'folks are trapped in a program, they are rendered out of sight, out of mind.

And that is EXACTLY the goal. Which is why there's a cozy partnership between municipality, businesses, "upstanding citizens" & the programs & shelters. The latter get "those people" out of sight...& they make a ton of money doing it. The folks running these facilities make a tidy 6 figures sweeping up and warehousing the homeless. Everybody wins...except the homeless person who now not only has no home and no real job, but who has now lost his or her freedom to come and go at will.

Kind of like what we do to people who commit crimes. They are swept up, and incarcerated.

And it will continue ever thus, I fear...until/unless we realize the current model is NOT working, and never will work.

What about those of us that are unhappy with the drunken spoiled brats who prevail in downtown S.B. after dark--the result of the the city's decision to turn downtown into one big bar?

Oh that's right: scantily clad young women and their male counterparts vomiting and relieving themselves on the sidewalk and in people's front yards is ok because they are college kids whose $$$ spent at the bars generates revenue for the city coiffures.

Too bad the average person apparently has yet to figure out that this revenue does not translate to a better day-to-day life for the average resident of S.B.

Why don't we do what we used to and buy them a one-way ticket as far away as we can?

AZ2SB, That didn't work either, they would just come back to a cozy beach-life. Homeless people in Santa Bruta, has been a problem since before the Mexican Government turned over the City (I think), at least when I lived in Santa Barbara County back in 1975-1995, the public held the same meetings and B*tched about the same problems, the police placated the public and the City and County complained about lack of monies to care for the problem, the Sheriff's Dept. use to cart the homeless away in the Jail bus over to San Louiy County and drop them off once every month. The same people would just walk back to the City and the process would start all over.
The Colleges' will always attract the useless party Students, those who want a life with get the Education and go back home, those that don't will party till the money runs out and take-up either on the beach or go home to Mommy and Daddy.
Some of the People on here, who sited taking matter into their own hands to rid the Bums of the City, turned out to increase the Body Count and the bloated bodies washed-up on the beach. Really, if the Community wants a positive change, their going to have to do it without the Government leading, they are Professional Politions and NOT Public Servants. Work with the Police as Neighborhood watch, Observe and Report crimes, all Report Writting Documents can be found on the Police and Sheriff's websites, documentation and reporting crimes creates a problem for your City and County leaders to ignore.
Work with the Homeless Shelters, in helping your fellow residents get up and out of their situation, NOT much money needed as many may know, Public Programs that the President is still offering could be had to help pay for the changes, above all, these People LIVE in our County, they are Residents even if they don't have an Address or a Building to call home. They do want better they just can't or won't try and need help. It won't be easy but B*tching and Whinning won't ever help.
Regarding the Dope Dealing? As a single person, your a victim, as a Group your a Pain in the Dealers Back-side and he will leave or move elsewhere, the question is where and how far. The dealer hates his picture taken, we all carry photo capable devices, USE THEM!!!!! Police love photo's of dealers, users, suppliers, transporters, it gives them a face to the criminal and an easier apprehension tool.
Working with instead of against or demanding someone else do the job is the right way, NOT the wrong way.

Charles.