Homeless Help Center Will Stay, but Jodi House Demands Its Leadership Do Better

Santa Barbara City Council Sits Silently as Both Sides Duke It Out for Relief

About 100 city big shots were on hand for Monday's opening of the FARO Center, including Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse, wielding some theatrically oversized scissors designed for just such ribbon-cutting ceremonies. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

It was a knock-down, drag-out fight for the ages, pitting one exceptionally vulnerable group of people against another in front of Santa Barbara’s City Council early this Tuesday afternoon. Making matters so volatile, the two groups happen to operate out of properties right next door to each other on the 600 block of Chapala Street. Complicating matters further still, this dispute was engineered — with nothing but the best of intentions — by City Hall itself. The question before the council, City Hall, and, really, the community at large, is how to fix this mess.

On one hand, there were the S.B. ACT advocates — ardent, urgent, and eloquent — for a drop-in navigation center on the 600 block of Chapala Street, where it was hoped that people on the streets could connect with the on-site service providers that would eventually help bring them back indoors. They spoke movingly of the redemption, rehabilitation, and transformation they experienced at the center because of the trust and acceptance extended by center staff, many of whom had lived on the streets themselves.

The FARO Center, as it’s called, first opened its doors last June amid much celebration and fanfare that such an impossible dream could be accomplished. It was celebrated by everyone, except its immediate neighbors.

Right next door to the FARO Center lies the Jodi House, which for nearly 50 years has provided a much-needed day center for people struggling with debilitating brain injuries. At Jodi House, clients prone to isolation have learned coping skills in a safe space where a sense of community is fostered. Some of Jodi House’s clients are homeless themselves. Many more teeter on the brink of homelessness.

Both populations — those who are homelessness and those with brain damage — are dealing with special challenges that can render people raw and reactive. Such shared similarities don’t make them good dance partners, however.

This Tuesday, Jodi House representatives were not calling on City Hall to shut down the FARO Center, but they were seriously demanding that City Hall to bring it under control.

Executives and clients from the Jodi House told the mayor and councilmembers that management of the FARO Center has been woefully less than what was promised when the city first approved it, and that FARO clients were often heard screaming and shouting, which could have a destabilizing effect on Jodi House clients.

Jodi House’s attorney had already put City Hall on notice earlier this spring that he would hold City Hall legally responsible for the nuisance he charged the FARO Center had become: fights, loitering, arguments, defecation, urination, loitering, and more than a few cases of trespassing by one FARO Center client who refused to leave until the cops came.

The legal letter sent by Jodi House this March got City Administrator Kelly McAdoo’s back up. City Hall had hired a private security firm earlier this year in an effort to project a calming presence on the street, but FARO Center staff objected that the security guard wasn’t properly trained, that he caused potentially volatile situations to escalate, and worse, that two sexual harassment complaints had been filed by center staff. The security company was then pulled.

But shortly after, City Hall notified S.B. ACT that it needed to change its operational protocol. No longer would clients be allowed to just walk in; clients would have to make appointments to be seen. That’s a big change. S.B. ACT objected that people on the streets don’t operate in an appointment-only world, and the people who needed help the most would be effectively excluded by such a change.

The number of visitors the center was seeing was twice what was initially projected. Were they seeing the resident service providers? Or were they just hanging out? City officials complained they weren’t being given the numbers they needed to judge. Those numbers told S.B. ACT the operation was a success; they were seeing more people than they ever expected and helping them.

Both sides — City Hall and S.B. ACT — have complained about the communication style of the other. Both sides have called the other high handed and unilateral. On May 1, McAdoo notified S.B. ACT its sublease was expiring August 1 and that it would no longer be paid to manage the property.

The deal, in other words, was up. The FARO Center, City Hall insisted, would not be shut down. However, someone else would manage it.

The FARO Center’s attorney, Beth Collins, wrote McAdoo a letter requesting that S.B. ACT be given a 120-day extension. Collins got a letter back saying the city would consider it but only if the FARO Center was operated on a referral-only basis, a slightly less charged and more improvisationally open term, perhaps, than appointment-only. It also said that hot meals could no longer be served. Hot meals, however nutritious and strategically therapeutic, had been explicitly discussed and rejected by the Planning Commission; only snacks and bag lunches were envisioned when the project was permitted. And finally, the letter stated that the needle exchange program — never envisioned or mentioned as a possibility when the project was first approved — had to be discontinued.

The letter also stated that City Hall would put the contract out to bid in the meantime. S.B. ACT, it said, would “be encouraged to submit an application.”

That’s a big break. S.B. ACT and City Hall had been partners for the past seven years working on plans that would best service the needs of the homeless population. Their working relationship was respectful and close. Now they had to find a way to salvage that partnership.

Two weeks ago, S.B. ACT submitted to City Hall 34 letters of support from some of the most important nonprofit organizations and homeless advocate groups. Last week, Beth Collins and S.B. ACT Executive Director Rich Sanders spoke before City Council saying that they were addressing the concerns of Jodi House clients — including one who had complained he had received three death threats from FARO clients — and were moving people off the streets in a big way.

This Tuesday, S.B. ACT showed up with a legion of supporters. Their numbers were impressive. They spoke with passion. So too did the supporters of Jodi House. No councilmember spoke, since they are not legally allowed to speak about any topic not on the agenda. And also, they had been warned that any comments could be used in the litigation against them.