As Goleta works on its Homelessness Strategic Plan, which will be drafted by next April, the City Council heard a report a few weeks back in which the city’s homeless population was more clearly separated from Isla Vista’s.
The 2019 Point-in-Time count located 119 homeless people living unsheltered in the city, 41 on the street and 78 in vehicles. The count found that the Safe Parking program in Goleta hosted mostly disabled seniors, though in the past six months, more younger, employed people were using Safe Parking spots for overnight parking. More women lived in their cars than on the street — 44 percent compared to 15 percent, according to Kim Albers with Santa Barbara County’s Homeless Assistance Program.
The age of the people who lived without shelter was between 22 and 74 years, with 52 years the average. Goleta’s unsheltered were somewhat older than in the rest of the county: 65 percent were more than 50 years old, as opposed to 49 percent in other parts of the county. Rather than mental illness or substance abuse, the people stated that trauma — either emotional, physical, or sexual — was one cause of their loss of housing.