Common Ground SB Rallies the Troops

Common Ground Santa Barbara is revving up its engines again. Leaders of the community-wide effort to house the most fragile homeless people here told about 40 volunteers on Tuesday what’s been happening behind the scenes of the campaign and what the strategy is for moving forward. Nine people from the vulnerability list have been housed so far, according to Rob Fredericks, deputy director of the city’s Housing Authority. Three more people are going to be housed “imminently.”

In mid-May, Fredericks and Alice Villarreal Redit, client services coordinator with the Housing Authority, met with affordable housing providers in the county to ask for a commitment of units for people on the list. All of the housing officials were anxious to help, said Villarreal Redit, but only the Mental Health Association (MHA) and Santa Barbara Community Housing Corporation (CHC) have committed actual units thus far. Also, these housing organizations, as well as shelter managers and officials from the County Public Health Department and Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services (ADMHS) are all participating in Common Ground SB’s new Housing Placement Working Group. homelessinsb.org.