Among the people helping to sort, cull, collate, and curate all sleeping bags, socks, jeans, T-shirts, scarves, hats, and implements of human warmth now being donated as part of the Santa Barbara Public Defender’s Office’s fifth annual collection drive for people living on the streets is a woman named Tracy Hobson.
“It’s my favorite time of the year,” Hobson said. “The people are in such great need, and they are so grateful.”
Hobson knows firsthand how Santa Barbara might well be a close approximation to paradise, but for people on the streets, it can be cold, wet, and scary. For many moons, Hobson — now of retirement age — worked as an executive assistant up in Silicon Valley. An abusive relationship, addiction, and depression took their toll and eight and a half years ago, she rolled into Santa Barbara. It was, she said, a choice between Monterey, San Diego or here; God intervened, she explained, and pointed her in the direction of Santa Barbara.
When she arrived, she thought she had a bed with Domestic Violence Solutions; it turns out she didn’t. She bounced from The Santa Barbara Rescue Mission to the homeless shelter at PATH.
For about six months, she lived on the streets, sleeping near the county Administration Building. Her companion at the time was her dog, a Lab/husky mix. Hobson was shifting from place to place. Sleeping, at best, was a crap shoot. She never knew who was nearby and who to be wary of. When people got too close, Hobson recalled, her dog would move around, loudly rattling the tags attached to her dog collar. This would wake Hobson up.
At that time in her life — about the time of the Thomas Fire — Hobson and her dog could often be seen on State Street near the former Peet’s Coffee shop, then functioning as a watering hole and gathering spot for all sorts of county government workers. While there, Hobson encountered a county employee with thick, black, Peabody-esque horn-rimmed glasses and an easy, brisk sense of authority. The woman complimented Hobson on how well she’d been caring for her dog. Then she slipped Hobson a $20 bill.
A few weeks later, Hobson would encounter the woman again; this time she gave Hobson $100. More than that, she got Hobson into a sobriety program. At night, Hobson recalled, she and other sober living home residents would watch the Thomas Fire coming over the mountains.
As always, there are bumps in any road to recovery, but Hobson says she’s managed to stay sober the last five years. And the woman she met by Peet’s, it turns out, was — and still is — Public Defender Tracy Macuga. Under Macuga’s tenure, the Public Defender has focused on providing a social service component to the department’s mission. The thinking is to keep homeless people out of jail and in programs that might help get them back on their feet.
For Hobson, that’s been her now for about seven years. But Macuga, Hobson said, took it even another step. She offered Hobson a job. For a while, Hobson worked special assignments for the Public Defender. Translated into plain English, that means she scanned thousands of old legal records into the Public Defender’s then evolving computerized records system. Today, Hobson is back on her feet and living with friends.
But she hasn’t forgotten the big boost Macuga gave her; she’s trying to repay the favor by helping out with the Public Defender’s sleeping bag drive. Pretty much anything clean and warm, she said, is welcome. Donations will be accepted under the archway of the Santa Barbara Courthouse Monday through Friday — holidays excepted — from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The last day donations will be accepted is December 11. The big distribution event takes place on Friday, December 12, just outside the courthouse. It starts at noon and goes until 2 p.m. or until they run out, whichever comes first.
“Did I say that’s my favorite day of the year?” Hobson asks. “I just love it.”
For more information on the drive, including where to donate in North County and how to donate virtually, click here.
