Billey Richardson shows me into his room at Dignity Moves village in Santa Barbara.
"It helped me a lot, I've been going through Cancer treatment right now, it's stage 4...it's not good," he said.
It’s one of 34 similar rooms or cabins in a community providing temporary housing for those, like Billey, experiencing unsheltered homelessness across the County of Santa Barbara.
"I don't know what I do without these people. It's a safe place to lay my head and wash my clothes and keep myself clean," he said.
He’s been living here for about four months and for Billey – it’s the first time in around 40 years that he’s had a stable environment
"I haven't had a stable environment since 1983, until now, really," he told KCLU.
He says he can't put into words what it mean to him to have the safety and support of the shelter.
"I'll start tearing up," he said.
Billey’s room has a single bed, some storage space, and most importantly, a lock on the door for privacy and security. There are shared facilities like showers and restrooms, a kitchen and laundry. It’s a world removed from a traditional shelter. There’s outside communal space with patio tables, and the atmosphere is tranquil and calm — an oasis that you could easily walk past without knowing what’s behind the large wooden door to the street in downtown Santa Barbara.
"It's very quiet, it's very peaceful," explained Aaron Edelheit, from Dignity Moves.
He says that is deliberately designed to give residents a calm environment to help them recover from the trauma of living on the streets and get them to a "safe quiet place where they can lock their own door."
He says that this style of interim supportive housing is the future for tackling homelessness.
"How do you address the crisis of homelessness? Santa Barbara is the perfect microcosm for all of California," said Edelheit.
He says a village like this offers a quick and cost effective solution to the crisis.
"In nine months we went from this being a parking lot to people living here, for $50,000 a unit," he said.
The aim is for residents to live at the community for the short term, as a bridge to getting themselves into a position where they can move into their own long-term housing. The housing is paired with social services and – says Edelheit, enables residents to get out of survival mode and be able to take active steps to improve their lives to find permanent housing and employment.
"Our idea is to flow people through the system. You get them off the streets, you stabilize them and treat them individually and figure out a path to get them into more permanent stable housing," said Edelheit.
Since opening last July, 15 of the residents have moved to stable housing, that’s nearly half of the residents — opening the cabins to new residents.
For Billey – he’s optimistic about his future, but in reality, this might be the last place he gets to call home.
"I'm going through a lot right now, but that's no excuse to be whining," said Billey.
"This is not forever. It's a stepping stone to my own place, as soon as I get through the chemo and beat the cancer. I'm going to beat it. I don't give up," he said.
Plans for a similar community – which would be a larger site with 94 rooms - are already underway in Santa Maria.
