City Provides Community Update on Efforts to Create First Homelessness Strategic Plan and Requests Feedback
Public Invited to Feb. 19 Community Meeting and Survey Completion by Feb. 9
GOLETA, CA, February 5, 2020 – The City of Goleta continues to move forward on its path to create the City’s first-ever Homelessness Strategic Plan. City Staff invite you to join us for a community meeting on February 19, 2020 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at the Goleta Valley Community Center located at 5679 Hollister Avenue. The event will serve as an opportunity for the community to get an update on efforts being taken to create the Homelessness Strategic Plan and to hear directly from City staff regarding possible strategies to address homelessness in Goleta. Each attendee will also be asked to prioritize their preferred solutions and share which options they would not support at this time.
Community input is an essential part of the City of Goleta’s effort to develop a comprehensive Homelessness Strategic Plan. The City encourages community members to participate in this process so the options presented to City Council reflect the needs and desires of its constituents. In addition to public meetings, the City released a survey in December of 2019 to directly hear from those with input on homelessness in our region. Staff are still taking responses to this survey through February 9, 2020. We hope to get as much participation as possible with input from residents, businesses, service providers, and those who are or who have experienced homelessness.
The survey can be found online in both English and Spanish at the following links:
The Community Open House held December 11, 2019, and survey are elements of a larger effort to address homelessness, which has included stakeholder meetings, best practice discussions with communities nationwide, and years of partnership supporting regional homelessness efforts. City Council and staff believe having a strategic plan will provide important direction and clarity around needs, service gaps, and priorities in order to make effective and strategic funding decisions that serve both the existing homeless population, as well as those at risk of becoming homeless. With the goal of being adopted in the summer of 2020, the Homelessness Strategic Plan will help guide and coordinate efforts to prevent and address homelessness within the City of Goleta.
We appreciate the community’s involvement and input in this process thus far and look forward to continued engagement during this important effort. For more information, please contact Dominique Samario, Management Analyst for the City of Goleta, at dsamario@cityofgoleta.org or 805-690-5126.
Learn more about Goleta’s Homelessness Strategic Plan at https://tinyurl.com/GoletaHomelessnessPlan.