Santa Barbara and National Homeless Statistics

We are counting the homeless in SB.                        For the first time in five years Santa Barbara is        counting the  homeless in SB?

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                                   Common Ground Santa Barbara

Statistics on homeless have not been complied since 2007. Since January of 2011, the faces homeless, facing death has risen to 13 people – a sobering statistic considering 18 people died last year. Because of the increase of homeless, public forums and committees have been formed to provide answers to helping the homeless. On February 27 thru March 4, 2011, Common Ground Santa Barbara (collaborative effort of community) canvased the County in search of the homeless.  On February 28th - March 4th, 2011, community volunteers and dedicated experts used a Common Ground's Vulnerability Index to survey persons experiencing street homelessness who are at the greatest risk of premature death.  These statistics are not yet available. According to Alice Villarreal Redit, updates will be posted in two weeks.

National Homeless Statistics:

How Many People Experience Homelessness? Many people ask about the number of homeless people in the United States. There is no easy answer to this question and, in fact, the question itself is misleading. Because of the different methods and financial constraints, most studies are limited to counting people whose utilize the services of County and State providers.  The question is do all homeless people utilize the services provided by their County. NO!!!  As you can see, studies are quite partial to counting people who live on the streets. Let’s start counting the homeless people on the streets.  In 2007, the National Alliance to End Homelessness reported at one point-in-time that 3.5 million people were homeless, and 39% of those are children.  In 2008, U.S. Conference of Mayors surveyed 23 cities, and found that 94 percent of people living on the streets were single adults, 29 percent were families, and 1 percent was minors.

Casa Esperanza Homeless Center

Who are the chronically homeless in Santa Barbara? Upon speaking with Ken Williams, homeless advocate who works for the Department of Social Services, I found that those who are homeless are: 1) persons continuously homeless for a year or have had been home on several occasions 2) been sleeping in a place not meant for human habitation (e.g., sleeping on the street) or in emergency shelters. Uon speaking with David Qiuentoros, R Each year more than 6,300 people experience homelessness, and on a given night 4000 are homeless. Since these statistics are outdated, a non-profit collaborative effort of community members (Santa Barbara Common Ground) have joined  hands with the National  Common Ground Non-Profit organization and has conducted its own survey of those currently homeless in Santa Barbara. http://www.commongroundsb.org/commongroundsb/Welcome.html