Board of Supervisors — 2021-02-23

Good morning. I will call the order the February 23rd 2021 special meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors Madam Clerk, please call the roll

Chair Nelson and members of the board, I have a couple quick announcements this morning. I am pleased to announce the addition of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors projected calendar that will be published on the last agenda of every month to display the projected items coming before the board for the following month. Please note on today's agenda, the Board of Supervisors projected calendar for March 2021 begins on page 6.

I would also like to remind the public that the Board of Supervisors meetings are now being brought, interpreted in Spanish. Cox subscribers can turn on SAP under their language settings. Comcast is updating its system and should be broadcasting board meetings in Spanish by the end of March 2021. Lastly, Chair Nelson and members of the Board I would like to remind the public who are participating in our meeting today of the board's alternative methods of public participation.

For alternative methods of public participation and to provide public comment on general public comment or an item on the board's agenda please see page 2 of our agenda. Individuals that would like to provide verbal public comment you may do so via Zoom by registering in advance via the link available on page two After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the zoom meeting. Once the chair has announced the item you want to comment on please join the meeting with this information provided in the registration confirmation email.

The clerk will call you by name or the last four digits of your phone number. When removed from mute, you will hear a notification that your line has been unmuted. If you are using a touchtone phone, you may need to press star six to unmute yourself again if you're using a touchtone phone, you may need to press star six to unmute yourself each person may address the board for up to three minutes and this is at the discretion of the chair.

5 6 8 2 2 4 0 again that number is 805-568-2240 those are all my announcements this morning.

Okay, thank you madam clerk before we move on Supervisor Hartman do you have a question? Yes

I just had a comment and that is I wanted to underscore public engagement is really one of our fundamental principles of county government And so to have our meetings available to people in Spanish is a major step forward. And to have the full month ahead notice of upcoming items for the board is also a major step forward. All of us are smarter than any one of us, and if we can engage our community in meeting its needs, we're gonna have a better government able to serve them. So just wanted to highlight that again.

Yes, thank you, Supervisor Hartman. We agree.

There's no report this morning thank you

and welcome. Now is the time for

public comment today if you have signed up for general public comment now is the time to log into zoom to provide your comments to the board. We will begin with Katie Mickey. And as of now that is our only request to speak and hopefully the other members of the Board are logging in as we speak

all right Miss Mickey, please proceed.

Dear County Board of Supervisors, Safe Technology for Santa Barbara County has been in dialogue with you since December 2019 requesting protection from the multiple issues surrounding wireless telecom facilities. They combust and are unsafe in our high fire zones They reduce property values on average 20%. They're unattractive aesthetically. There are thousands of scientific studies indicating that they cause biological harms.

They are operating with no monitoring of power, and they're installed within feet of our residential homes. Prior to December, 2019 Santa Barbara County's telecom code prohibited small cell antennas in residential zones and mixed zones and required proof of gap in service. We want those protections restored. Safe Tech SBC looks forward to a one hour meeting with county council the board of supervisors their staff and public works with the nation's number one telecom attorney Andrew Campanelli He has written protective ordinances throughout the United States.

In the letter accompanying this, I have sent you a link showing Campanella explaining to the Development Board of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, explaining the authority granted to local government through the interplay of the Telecommunications Act subparagraph 332C7A and ruling of the United States First Court Circuit of Appeals on what cities can do to ensure they retain their authority regarding placement of cell antennas in neighborhoods.

Article 332C7A gives local government the authority to enact protections in their code, including spatial distancing from residences unless no other feasible alternative exists and requiring applicants to prove a gap in service We look forward to your meeting with Mr. Campanelli to discuss the legal analysis and answer questions regarding how your hands are not tied.

Thank you, Katie McKee, Director of the Santa Barbara Body Therapy Institute.

Thank you, Ms. McKee. Are there any other public commenters?

Chair Nelson and members of the board, unfortunately that was our only request to speak on general public comment. I am seeing a raised hand which is not a feature that we use for this board from Gina Sawaya she had requested to speak on departmental item number one but perhaps we can hear from her if she wanted to speak on general public comment.

What was last name?

I'm sorry if I mispronounced this but Gina Sawaya

Gina, are you here to speak on the homelessness issue or is there other items that you'd like to address the board about?

The homelessness issue. So I can wait if that's more appropriate.

It is. Thank you. We look forward to hearing from you later. Okay we'll go ahead and close public comment general public comment and next item is department item number one Madam Clerk will you please read that item into the record

Chair Nelson and members of the board, departmental item number one is from Community Services. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding phase two of the community action plan to address homelessness.

Alright thank you before we get started I just wanted to kick it off. You know today's meeting is a special meeting in the first one of the year first one as supervisor and chair for myself. Homelessness is a public health crisis that existed prior to the pandemic and will be here afterwards And there's no vaccination on the horizon, but there is a lot of work hard work. In 2018 as a staffer I worked with the city of Lompoc and county department heads to work on a project to clean the San Ysidro Riverbed and help those homeless in that community move on from that environment.

It was a very sobering experience. It was an opportunity for me to see people at their worst An opportunity to see society hit rock bottom and keep digging. But it was also an experience where I got a chance to see victories, was able to see case management interdisciplinary collaboration and it became real to me that if we put our collective heads together and work together that there are some real solutions on the horizon. So today's meeting is to focus on the issue of homelessness, we have a few presentations from various departments my plan is to hear each presentation others actually three of them in sections And then open it up to my colleagues for questions.

Also after each speaker from the various departments, open up for questions then we'll hear from the public and we'll take a small break and they will come back for hopefully a very robust discussion about my colleagues about some of the solutions and how we can as a county work better together to address these needs. So with that I believe I turn over to George Shaption, the department head for community services.

Good morning, Chair Nelson and members of the board. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present on the current state of homelessness in today's special workshop community services, the fire chief be well public defender and county council will be taking us through an update on the current state of homelessness efforts to address encampments The multidisciplinary teams, legal considerations and then moving into presenting the system level goals and strategies of the phase two community action plan for consideration of it and adoption.

Kimberly Albers will be starting today's presentation off with an update on current trends and funding around homelessness. Donna Lockhart will be presenting a phase two plan later in the presentation and she'll lead the discussion. So with that I'd like to turn it over to Kimberly We'll start with the current state of homelessness.

Thank you, Ms.

Alberts. Yes, is the slide presentation available?

It's up and ready for you. OK,

so I would be starting at slide three, I believe Mr.. There we go. Chair Nelson and members of the board, the current state of homelessness demands are bold action to provide housing shelter and services Many community-based partners, county departments, community members and other local government entities have been building a system of care that strives to provide the housing intervention and services that each individual or family experiencing homelessness needs to make it home.

It is a work in progress. And I'm encouraged today to be here to share about recent investments and trends so that we can work together toward the longterm solutions. The most devastating impact of homelessness is for the person experiencing it. COVID-19 has further limited access to food, restrooms and shelter yet as we will see on the next slide, the unsheltered population is increasing.

The number of encampments, the amount of... Oh sorry I'm gonna stay on that slide just for a moment. The number of encampments, the amount of belongings in encampments, the risks and negative impacts of the person living in an encampment and the surrounding community are growing And the recent increases in resources are one-time resources, often with quick expenditure deadlines and prescribed requirements. There's a critical need for reliable ongoing funding to address the housing crisis. So

I think- I have

a question Mr. Drew?

Yeah let's go ahead and ask that question but i think we want to try to get to the end of this portion of the presentation then we'll go back through these slides but at this point Supervisor Williams please proceed

Just going back to slide, I think for it was which is the stats on sheltered and unsheltered. You know, we've seen and we've encouraged you and you guys have successfully open two and a half new facilities in the last year. So how is the capacity of beds going down? In the last year, what facilities are terminating?

Yeah. So supervisor Williams through the chair, we're really seeing that those year-round shelter were so impacted by capacity from either outbreaks or the need for physical distancing that their capacity was reduced so much that even though Attempting through temporary emergency shelter right to close that gap. It did not, it did not occur at least on January 27th most of our shelters were at reduced capacity throughout most of December and January some continue to be at severely reduced capacity I'm not accepting new guests so even though we we absolutely have been able to raise the temporary emergency shelters. We have not been able to keep pace with the loss Our normal shelter beds which we certainly hope post pandemic will come back online to those capacities, but we all know that I think congregate shelter will be viewed differently in the future.

Well it seems to me that if if we're not sure that they're going to come back. We need to make sure that they're going to come back. I mean, I don't think we should be letting folks off the hook. You know otherwise we open up potentially hundreds of new beds while nonprofits close hundreds of beds and no progress is made. I

agree it's critical for us to sustain shelter capacity

right Thank you Supervisor Williams. I think what we're going to try to do is hit slide eight, nine, 10 and 11 then open up for questions among other board members. So Ms. Albers are you done with your section there?

No, I think I'm on slide seven.

Yep sorry please proceed.

This slide shares some of the initial impact of the one-time investments by new state and COVID related funding to address homelessness This includes the Homeless Emergency Aid Program, the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program and some of the Coronavirus Relief Funds. Some projects funded by the one-time investments were either just contracted by your board in early February or are still ramping up.

One time investments have resulted in 585 permanent housing placements. Many of these placements are in private market units with short term or longterm rent subsidies. Placements also include assistance with move-ins into projects like Gardens on Hope in Santa Barbara and the residence at Depot Street in Santa Maria. While those projects are not part of the funding mentioned, there are 55 new permanent housing units funded by the one time state funding sources mentioned that have recently been completed or nearing completion. 18 units have been occupied so far and additional units are still in the pre development phase. Keith House in downtown Santa Barbara opened this week Which is a partnership with People Self Help Housing, the City of Santa Barbara Behavioral Wellness and the housing authority of the city in Santa Barbara.

And it will serve seven formerly homeless women in this permanent supportive housing over 20,000 shelter bed nights have been provided through room key veteran non congregate shelter initiatives and the shelter at Santa Maria High School. Room Key South and the COVID-19 unit continue to offer a place for isolation and quarantine for persons that are COVID positive or at increased risk of medical complications from COVID-19.

Our medically fragile seniors are served at Roomkey South and we've transitioned over 70 of our guests into permanent housing in the first 10 months of operation. Transitions to housing are ongoing, and we had a veteran that was part of the Isla Vista encampment move into housing last week. Even as funding has increased there are still 1,124 persons In the coordinated entry system that are actively working with a provider and have been prioritized for housing intervention, this includes 449 persons experiencing chronic homelessness slide eight.

So our reliable resources coming we don't know for sure yet we do know that the funding sources before you the governor's proposed budget. Assembly Bill 71 and a federal legislation being proposed by Senator Feinstein all propose to give us more ongoing sources for services and housing so there is hope, but none of these these funding sources have been passed by the relevant legislative body.

At the onset of California's stay at home order, a task force assembled to address pressing issues related to homelessness and meet these four objectives. To prevent and mitigate COVID-19 impacts for persons who remain unsheltered through support centers outreach, reestablishing access to showers device charging food and hygiene supplies. To establish non congregate sheltering for persons at high risk of COVID- 19 complications and persons with or exposed to COVID- And then to sustain shelter capacity, which we talked about quite a bit already and enhance homelessness prevention and housing activities through increased funding for rental assistance in support of services. The task force continues to meet bi-weekly and much has been accomplished in each of these objectives slide 10.

We've been asked several times over the last few months, really what have we learned from some of the surge funding and especially the COVID-19 pandemic? And so I attempt here to give kind of a brief summary of things that I think have really stood out during the response and the surge in funding. Shelter expansion must be matched with housing resources including supportive services This truly does wind up being sort of the secret sauce of whether it's street outreach or shelter that when we have the housing resources to move someone forward, we're much more successful.

Maintaining your growing service provider staffing capacity has been challenging posted jobs have gone unfilled or rapid turner has rapid turnover has occurred when providers are hiring. Outbreaks and distancing measures have significantly impacted congregate shelter capacity, as we mentioned. And it is often taking multiple sources braided together to result in a single housing placement.

And last I think we're really seeing an anticipate this continuing that the funding application and expenditure deadlines really make it critical to have impactful projects ready to launch. We are often only given mere weeks To to birth even a permanent project so it's been very challenging to keep up with the pace of the applications and my last slide slide 11.

In a chain transition, a little bit to the encampment response and then be moving on to that my colleagues in other departments responding to encampments has been increasingly. Challenging and the conditions people are living in are distressing, as mentioned by Chair Nelson. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and California Department of Public Health released considerations for encampments early in the pandemic. Guidance encouraged communities to allow persons unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are. And other legal considerations will be covered by Mr. Gazzone in a few moments.

Through one-time funding, there have been investments in street outreach through Coronavirus Relief Emergency Solutions Grant and the Homeless Emergency Aid Program Funding. Organizations funded for outreach include Home For Good, Behavioral Wellness, Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley, The City of Santa Barbara, New Beginnings Counseling Center and others. The county contracted with CityNet in the fall of 2020 specifically to target encampments that are directly adjacent to homes impacting water quality or causing other more extreme risks such as fire.

On the slide you'll see the percentage of successful exits both temporary and permanent housing placements from street outreach has increased from nine to 57% in the last four years, while serving an additional 200 people so I was asked what changed consistent engagement by trained providers Emphasizing case management in the field, focusing on a housing and services plan for each individual. And employing best practices like progressive engagement and more accountability in the coordinated entry system for housing navigation.

We also engaged in trying to make sure that there was access to sanitation services when possible which is another recommendation of the Center for Disease Control. Restrooms hand washing stations and debris removal have All been deployed outreach providers are also testing a mapping mobile application software that is used by the fire department to increase efficiency and locating persons.

And departments are at the table weekly to coordinate outreach efforts with Community based organizations and in both with community based organizations and internally rapidly growing encampments and Isla Vista within the Community parks resulted resulted in a new strategy being deployed 20 pallet structures are providing temporary shelter to persons formerly inhabiting Anascoyo Park operated by Good Samaritan Shelter. Good Sam has been able to assist residents getting into substance abuse programs, one resident has been able to successfully move into a transitional program for women and many of the guests are gathering the vital documents to establish eligibility for permanent housing and some of the guests have even been able to have much needed So with that, I'll conclude my comments and I believe we'll move to Chief Hartwig.

All right before we get the Chief Hartwig, I want to open up Ms. Albers please hang on. We want to have a few questions from my colleagues start off with Supervisor Hart. Thank you Chair Nelson.

Um, I have a question on slide 6 and 7 and 8 and 11 so let's start with slide six. I see that only 1% of the funding on these charts, both countywide and the County of Santa Barbara is for homelessness prevention. But I don't think that includes the CDBG money that we used this year for rental assistance and it certainly doesn't include state and federal funding that we have now coming to meet that need. And I think that is a really significant piece of this story. And so, you know for future reference and inclusion in this discussion going forward it'd be great to include that. That would dramatically change these charts including all that funding.

And then slide number seven there are 585 new permanent housing units excuse me permanent housing placements that have occurred Can you talk more about who those folks are, what are the demographics of those people? Where were they placed and obviously it's hard to do that here in this context but I think it would be helpful for us to understand with a lot more detail about who those folks are because these are success stories. This is the finish line. of what we're trying to accomplish with this entire system. So understanding why, you know, we've been successful with these people.

What is it that, you know, have we provided 585 new units of housing? That is a unique one-time opportunity. What is it that's making that happen? It also relates I think to slide 11, I think, that shows the dramatic increase over the last four years. You know from 9% of successful exits to 57% of successful exits, you know and 246 placements to 437. That's the story that I'd love to know more about and just could you help us understand that?

Yes, Chair Nelson or Chair Hart. I'm sorry Supervisor Hart to the chair. You know the 500 and permanent housing placements are really a combination The system and what these new one-time investments were able to add, whether it was covering the services to be able to utilize a housing choice voucher with one of our local housing authorities. As I mentioned, it could have been the security deposit and services in order to transition to someone with the larger new projects that opened like Gardens on Hope in Santa Barbara and residents at Depot Street in Santa Maria but primarily These are the rapid rehousing intervention. So that's the short term and medium term assistance that we use to transition someone back into housing, and largely into private market units so.

So this can be a rapid rehousing you know many of these were rapid rehousing paired with a voucher for long term affordability and the rapid rehousing is the services component and the placement piece. But quite a few of them too, would do just that rapid rehousing where they're getting the short and medium term assistance to transition back into the private rental market.

And so the who is pretty diverse actually. So we really used rapid rehousing at Roomkey South for our medically fragile seniors but paired it again with additional supportive services dollars And at Good Samaritan, they have significant rapid rehousing dollars flowing to serve their families. Which resulted in increased shelter flow so it really is all of these this is you know largely the homeless emergency aid program that you're seeing here because that's the program that's been in process for over a year now Those dollars really getting to the community and resulting now months into that program in those permanent housing placements.

So it is very exciting so I really appreciate you noting that, and I think that again that homeless emergency aid program is also sort of the secret sauce for the street outreach efforts right we were able to use those HEAP dollars to make street outreach more robust to where it could move to this caseload oriented model rather than sort of meeting someone and then just completing an assessment. And maybe they're not being that consistent contact through a housing plan and placement. So I think we're really, really excited for some progress. I think we're concerned right? That all of the funding that I've talked about is one time the Homeless Emergency Aid Program will end already on June 30th of this year And while we have some emergency solutions funding to extend one more year for a couple of those providers without additional resources, we you know some of those outreach efforts will end and and some of these permanent housing efforts.

Well, thank you Miss Albers. That's really helpful and I think that this portion of the report deserves more space and time and description because you know the money that you're speaking about generally You know it'd be really helpful to know specifically you know which of those programs was most effective How what is the scale of the investment that has been required to make this kind of progress? Because in looking ahead you know to continue that success We need to make sure that we're scaling the resources appropriately, you know and the expectations of what we're going to be able to accomplish with the resources. Going forward and I note on slide 11 that she referenced the new.

The proposed funding at the federal level, the Fighting Homelessness Services and Housing Act. A billion dollar investment at the federal level and that's always great and wonderful to hear only a good thing if it were to pass but to put it in perspective that probably translates into a million dollars for our county. Billion at the federal level you know rolls down to a million in Santa Barbara County And I suspect, you know that is a tiny portion of all the funding that you have just talked about being necessary to make the progress to get from 9% successful exits to 57%.

And that's sobering and a challenge for us.

Supervisor Hart through the chair, I was just going to comment that I think if AB 71 were to pass which like you mentioned we're not there it would be a much more significant inflow than the federal legislation mentioned.

Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Hart and Miss Alvarez. Next is Supervisor Lavagnino.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Yeah Cam I want to focus on, I appreciate all of the presentation but I want to focus mostly on slide 11. Can you just kind of walk me through what a when you approach an encampment? Just kind of give me a feel How do, why are, I mean 57% is awesome. What about the other 43%, what happens? Do we just, I'm really curious about cuz I gotta be honest with you that's probably the biggest impact I'm hearing from residents right now is and maybe it's because of the fact that we've got less space in the shelters more and more people are finding these encampments right next to either Where they live, or where they recreate and there you know it's much more visible.

And I'm kind of curious if you could just break down how that works and what doesn't work.

Yeah. Supervisor Lavinia through the chair. The, you know the street outreach efforts are coming in briefly on the 43% so sort of the good news of that is that most of those individuals are still enrolled Right, that they're still part of street outreach programs attempting to get them to the point of a positive exit whether it's to a temporary or permanent destination. So I think that's the positive news as far as what happens when we're approaching encampment. I think because CityNet was funded with through the city of Santa Barbara's homeless emergency aid program, they actually did quite a comprehensive look at sort of what it was taking And it was about 14, they averaged 14 visits or contacts prior to even enrolling someone officially as a client.

So while not all folks are that difficult to reach we certainly know that it's taking you know, it's really taking consistent interaction. I think what we're hearing from providers is even when they're offering These new rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing resources we have. People are resistant, they don't believe it. They feel very failed by the system multiple times or their own failures in the systems. And so it really is taking a trust building like I kind of talked about that progressive engagement. So starting with hey things are looking pretty rough do you realize you're on a creek bed? And that has impact you know how, how can we help you get your stuff. You know away from the water those type of conversations to eventually like hey I'd really like to help you.

You know move forward with placement so sometimes that can happen in one meeting but most often right it takes multiple visits and to build enough trust.

I'm sorry but maybe this is more for Mr gazoni but During those 14 visits, the neighbors are still impacted. And they don't want to hear that it's taking us 14 times to go out there and meet with these individuals. So I guess every good program has a carrot and a stick. And we're hearing a lot about the carrot. And I don't want to focus primarily on the stick but what other options do we have? What other tools are in the tool chest

Super loud when you have your chair I think we, you know the the, you know with encampments, it will have to likely be because of the legal considerations that we have those alternative locations. To offer and you know meaningful offers assistance whether it's into you know room key project is that at least goes for the next few months if someone is elderly and medically fragile.

for finding an alternative location, hopefully as our congregate shelters regain some of their capacity. But we are in a very difficult position unless we have an offer of a place for them to go and as we saw it's a dramatic drop in our shelter capacity right now.

Okay so I'm sure Chair Nielsen, I spoke with him previous this but We'll hear more about that, you know what our constraints are and what we plan on doing with that as we move through the meeting.

All right thank you Supervisor Lavinio. Supervisor Hartman or Williams?

Well I guess a question of is one it seems that one of the reasons why last year's numbers were good was increased outreach And then one of the reasons, the other reason was because at least in Isla Vista. There was a stick as well as the carrot is I mean is that a true statement of those statistics.

I don't think that we're seeing in the street outreach numbers, the effects of the Isla Vista. interventions yet. I think that, you know in our system even at Rimkey where we had an actively engaged guest with us 24 hours a day it was taking us 90 to 120 days to house so we're not really seeing impacts yet of the Island Vista intervention and it'll be interesting to see how many permanent housing placements result from there But I think we're absolutely seeing, right. That when we have that consistent engagement that there's a worker whether they're oftentimes right city net was moving into a sheltered environment or another outreach was moving them into Room Q South so that they did have them in a space where they could be found easier certainly what's happening.

So it isn't the shelter wasn't part of some of these street outreach successes, right? It certainly was, but it's pairing the appropriate services with the housing resources and then building that trust to get someone there. So I think in most of the exits you're seeing, I don't think we were seeing any kind of stick.

And then this is a topic of discussion with members of the public. They see Uh success of Isla Vista and they go well, okay. How come how come we can't get that? And I think it's important for us to let them know the ingredients we would need to because they'll say well there's health and safety and fire issues you know say in Summerland or in Montecito or in other encampments and the other ingredient that made for temporary shelter, right?

And so is that the missing ingredient in other areas for us to replicate the success of Isla Vista or is there another missing

ingredient? Supervisor William through the chair. Absolutely right. So I still kind of hats off for...I've raised a lot of shelters and programs in my career in different communities and the support that we received in Isla Vista across whether it was the Recreation and Parks District, the Community Services District. Other stakeholders that said yes you know we want to offer a solution were committed to solutions and so even when the site was right at the top of the loop people were willing and stood by that and are largely still very supportive of the project. And so I think that's very different right when we've been trying to place In other areas of the county, it's been extremely difficult to site and gain that kind of community support.

So I think that's definitely part of it. And then uniquely and I think this is really important right if we were to replicate the Isla Vista model one of the reasons they could be raised as quickly as possible as it was because we were under a public health emergency right? It was in response to the public health crisis and so You know, have waivers for some of the zoning restrictions and because it's less than 180 days we were able to not be have some of the building ordinances impacted. So there's actually you know kind of a lot of things that if we were to do this in a longer term model say if we want to do it for a year that would be triggered so we need that site but we would also need to make sure that we have the right ordinances etc and changes potentially to the building code To make that type of project when we're talking about the pallet shelters work so there's and funding, of course.