While the two-bedroom apartment that materialized for Delbert Faulkner and Larry Olsen last week seemed like angels’ handiwork, it came about through very worldly channels—a collaboration between three agencies and a half-dozen individuals determined to get people on the Vulnerability Index (V.I.) housed.
Faulkner, who placed in the top 100 of the V.I., was on the waiting list for a Section 8 Housing voucher and had been for some time. But that list is notoriously long; the wait, even for veterans, can take years. Fortunately for him, last summer, the City of Santa Barbara designated $200,000 in Federal HOME Grant money for a Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) program for chronically homeless persons. This TBRA money went to the City’s Housing Authority to be doled out in vouchers, very much the way Section 8 Vouchers are doled out, except targeted to the chronically homeless. To read more, see homelessinsb.org.