The only day center for homeless people in Santa Barbara reopened late this July and is once again providing “quiet, peace, and a nice place to rest” for those with no place to go.
Located in a strip mall on Calle Real by Highway 154, the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center has reopened its doors in the face of a COVID-19 pandemic surge and is offering reduced services to a reduced number. The upper limit now is no more than 11 guests at any given time; prior to COVID, the center would see up to 40 visitors a day, said Father John Hardin with the Franciscan Friars of the Old Mission Santa Barbara, who, along with the Daughters of Charity at St. Vincent’s, quietly got the center up and running a couple of years ago.
Open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., the center provides a place to sit, clean up, enjoy a meal, get one’s mail, and clean one’s laundry.