Homelessness Resilience and Reconciliation Summit Thursday, December 3

The One Community Bridge Project (OCBP) and SB ACT will be hosting a Homelessness Resilience and Reconciliation Summit targeting Santa Barbara’s Eastside residents and businesses via Zoom on Thursday December 3rd at 1:30PM. The Summit is a collaborative effort between OCBP and SB ACT to elevate issues and concerns regarding the impacts of homelessness specifically on Santa Barbara’s Eastside. 

The Summit will be facilitated by staff and students from Westmont College’s Initiative for Public Dialogue & Deliberation. There has been ongoing collaboration between Westmont College, SB ACT and Eastside Stakeholders that yielded specific neighborhood based action steps to address chronic homeless issues impacting residents and businesses. In part, the Summit will act to reaffirm what was documented in the action steps a year ago.

Since that time and at the onset of the CoronaVirus Pandemic, SB ACT led a community effort with City officials to abate homeless encampments at Milpas and 101 that also included the Cacique Street underpass. This successful effort spawned further collaboration through SBACT’s Eastside Regional Action Plan (ERAP). This provided a greater opportunity to engage a handful of Eastside residents to advocate for an increase in homeless outreach services for the Eastside, an extension of the Milpas Street Sit and Lying Down Ordinance, a review of alcohol sales permits within the Milpas Corridor, illicit activity in and around the PATH homeless shelter and other areas of Milpas Street, homeless impacts inside Eastside Park and participation in a recent homeless census count organized by City Net.

Simultaneously, this neighborhood collaboration is advocating for government resources to comprehensively address homeless issues on the Eastside, along with permanent supportive housing opportunities. The intent of the Summit is to listen and keep residents and Eastside businesses engaged and updated. It’s also important to hear how homelessness is impacting the social well-being of the neighborhood and the overall quality of life on the Eastside.

For more information regarding the Eastside Homelessness Resilience and Reconciliation Summit contact Mark Alvarado with the One Community Bridge Project at 805-636-2217 or mark@onecommunitysb.org.