“Do you give change to homeless people on the streets?”
To signal “no,” the vast majority of the nearly 160 individuals seated in the Santa Barbara Woman’s Club in Mission Canyon knocked on their tables or tapped their glasses. “Why? Why is being homeless so stigmatized?”
Dr. Michele Wakin, sociologist and former UCSB graduate, asked the tough questions to attendees of the Safe Parking Program 20th Anniversary Celebration last Thursday, June 20, inspiring discussion on the state of homelessness in Santa Barbara County and beyond. Serving as a sort of myth-buster for the afternoon, Wakin put widely believed stereotypes about homeless people on the table — just to rip off the tablecloth, revealing the realities behind them.