Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Santa Barbara County has spent an estimated $46 million on programs intended to address homelessness. Yet despite this significant public investment, homelessness has continued to rise year after year.
According to the 2025 Point-in-Time Count, homelessness in Santa Barbara County increased by 15.9 percent. These numbers raise serious questions about the effectiveness of current strategies and whether our policies are aligned with the stated goal of reducing homelessness rather than managing it indefinitely.
In this context, the continued resistance by Randy Rowse, Eric Friedman, and Mike Jordan to voting for a rent freeze is deeply troubling. Rising rents are one of the primary drivers of housing instability. Opposing even temporary rent stabilization measures while claiming to prioritize solutions to homelessness is a contradiction the public should not ignore.