A local organization is using new data to understand who is losing housing in South Santa Barbara County and how community members can address the issue.
The Santa Barbara Alliance for Community Transformation (SB ACT) on Homelessness organization held a public meeting on Tuesday at the Goleta Community Center.
The collaborative shared a three-year plan for tackling homelessness in Santa Barbara County, along with some new data on how mental health, substance abuse, and housing struggles are connected.
Rich Sander, the executive director and founder of SB ACT, told KSBY about the trends he is seeing among the local homeless community.
"Our unsheltered numbers are going down. That's a good thing. That means more people are off the street, and there's more people on shelter beds," Sander said. "But we're also seeing a high rise of vehicular homelessness. And so, that's something that we're looking at as a county to determine what can be done for that."
The SB ACT on Homelessness Collaborative's three-year strategy includes increasing the number of households diverted from homelessness by 15%, helping more than 50 individuals access interim or permanent housing, reducing the number of returns to homelessness by 25%, and improving attitudes towards homelessness among key stakeholder groups.
The collaborative is made up of leaders from Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria, along with local businesses, non-profits, and the County of Santa Barbara.
