To help keep homeless people dry during the predicted El Niño storms, the Santa Barbara County Supervisors voted to tap into contingency funds set aside for rainy days to the tune of $128,000. Of that, $91,000 will be used to lease two large spaces — one in Santa Maria, the other in Santa Barbara — during daytime hours. In Santa Barbara, it still remains up in the air whether Earl Warren Showgrounds will provide the daytime shelter, or if the downtown armory will.
While the armory is closer to where the homeless are, the process of getting the lease approved and activated is more bureaucratically cumbersome. Both cost $400 for every 12 hours. The plan, according to 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr, is to accommodate up to 150 individuals — in two locations — for up to 35 days of El Niño rains. The supervisors also authorized spending an additional $37,000 to keep the five pop-up warming centers operating out of churches activated for 50 nights.
Those centers, which open only when the temperature drops below 35 degrees or the chance of rain exceeds 50 percent for two consecutive nights, have seen three times as many guests this year than last. Already this year, warming centers have been activated 27 nights. This time last year, it was half that many. The one warming center run in Santa Maria has seen its guest list jump from 15-20 a night to 55-60. That center has only one bathroom. South Coast locations report a similar rate of increase.