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Santa Barbara County and non-profits team up on new plan to tackle part of homelessness problem

Santa Barbara County is looking at a proposal to set up temporary housing for the homeless in the northern part of the county.
Anja Bauermann
/
Unsplash
Santa Barbara County is looking at a proposal to set up temporary housing for the homeless in the northern part of the county.

Proposal calls for temporarily putting 90 small cabins on county land across from the county government center in Santa Maria.

Santa Barbara County and some non-profit groups are working on a new initiative to help ease homelessness in the northern part of the county.

They are looking at creating a temporary village on county-owned property across from the county government center on Betteravia Road in Santa Maria.

What’s being called Hope Village would have about 90 cabins.

The idea is to get people out of campsites, and into a safe space. The site is also adjacent to county offices where people could easily access social services, behavioral health, and other programs.

The county is holding an informational meeting on the proposal Wednesday night. The 6 p.m. meeting is in the Board of Supervisors hearing room at the government center in Santa Maria.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.