The Giving List PATH: People Assisting the Homeless

by Steven Libowitz

Homelessness has been growing in Santa Barbara, where last year nearly 2,000 people were living without shelter, a situation that has been very visible as evidenced by the number of encampments encroaching along railroad paths, roadsides, and waterfronts throughout the county. The same story exists in virtually every corner of California in what increasingly seems an intractable problem. So, the concept of an organization having a mission to end homelessness in California might seem like a quixotic pursuit.

But PATH has both a purpose and a plan.

“Absolutely we can end homelessness,” said Katie Tell, the Chief External Affairs Officer for PATH – an acronym for People Assisting the Homeless – which operates 60 locations across five regions, from San Diego to the Bay Area, including a major center in Santa Barbara. “We’re doing it every day. We end homelessness for thousands of people every year, so we know exactly what it takes.”

That means everything from the most obvious solution – providing an affordable place to call home – to a wide variety of services geared toward making that happen and sustaining the support people need to stay housed.

“Affordable housing is the answer, but we also know that supportive services are critical,” Tell said. “Whether that’s financial assistance, healthcare, mental healthcare, job skills, we have a way to address it.”

Here in Santa Barbara, the most visible part of the organization’s approach is PATH Santa Barbara’s 100-bed interim housing site, which has been in operation since 2015. The facility is a far cry from the typical homeless shelter, where folks have to line up for entry at the end of a day, scramble for a bed, grab a warm meal, and a night’s sleep before being required to leave the next morning.

“What we operate is interim housing,” Tell explained. “People are there as much as they need to be, and know that they’ve got their bed, a storage space, showers, support services, three meals a day, all right there on site – a safe home for as long as they need it.”

Last year, 65 people transitioned from the Cacique Street site into permanent housing, taking advantage of PATH’s programs to find ways to increase their income, sign up for benefits that they need, and to eventually start to navigate the housing search process.

“People need specialized care in all sorts of ways,” Tell shared. “So we partner with a whole host of other nonprofits that are doing really good work from healthcare providers, domestic violence service providers, substance use specialists, and more.

We make sure that our clients get whatever support they might need to help them on that path toward stability.”

But PATH’s efforts to manifest its mission don’t end at the shelter’s door. To address those who are living unsheltered on the streets, the organization has a full-time outreach worker meeting people where they are, Tell mentioned.

“They’re walking through neighborhoods, parks, and the beaches, connecting with folks living outdoors, providing food and clothing, with the ultimate goal of helping them sign up to receive services – and either come into interim housing or transition directly into a permanent housing unit. Some folks that do come into our center just need some short, time-limited financial assistance with the security deposit, and we can help with what we call rapid rehousing.”

“When someone contacts PATH, they are met with housing navigation staff members whose sole purpose is to help them from wherever they are, through navigating the housing search process, right up until lease signing,” Tell said, “and even beyond that. When they move into a new home, we provide a Welcome Home kit, with sheets and towels and pots and pans and detergents and linens. It’s all about making sure they have whatever they need to remain happy, healthy, and stable in their new home.”

To help fund those efforts, PATH is hosting its second annual “A Toast to Home” benefit event on June 3 at Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez. All are invited to enjoy an evening of local wine, dinner, music, and a live auction in the vineyard in support of PATH’s work to end homelessness in Santa Barbara. All proceeds from the festival go toward supportive services for Santa Barbara community members, increasing the organization’s capacity. General Admission tickets are $150 and include wine tasting, music, and dinner. VIP tickets start at $300 and include a special VIP reception an hour in advance as well as transportation to and from the site. Additional VIP grape stomping tickets – so you can channel your inner Lucille Ball – are also available.

“It’s a beautiful outdoor evening where our supporters get to enjoy great food, wine, and music, and also hear stories of the folks that we’re helping move home,” Tell expressed. “It’s just a really impactful night.”

PATH provides a plethora of other ways to help financially – with ideas ranging from $1,000 to furnish a home to $25 for a hygiene kit – and volunteering opportunities. Donors of dollars and time can rest assured their efforts are efficiently paying off as PATH has evidence that its formula works, Tell said. The proof is in the pudding provided by the pandemic.

“The more these programs are funded, the more results we see,” Tell said. “COVID was a perfect example: The emergency funding that came from the federal government allowed us to scale up all the work that we were already doing, and we saw even greater results.”

So, yes, homelessness is solvable. It just takes will.

PATH (805) 979-8710 www.pathsantabarbara.org

Public Art Projection Woman. Life. Freedom.

ArtRise Collective, in Collaboration with Mozaik Philanthropy

Tue, May 9 / Projection will run from 8 PM-11 PM UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum / FREE

“The solace, the strength, and the sense of solidarity we all need right now.”

– Jay Xu, Asian Art Museum Director, San Francisco

Featuring 30 artworks by anonymous international artists, this large-scale public art projection responds to systemic gender inequity and discrimination in Iran.

Maria Ressa How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Thu, May 18 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall

Celebrated for her commitment to free expression and democratic government, journalist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa tells the story of how democracy dies and offers an urgent cry for us to recognize the danger before it is too late.

Major Sponsor: Dorothy Largay & Wayne Rosing

Additional support provided by the Beth Chamberlin Endowment for Cultural Understanding

CEO of the Anti-Defamation League

Jonathan Greenblatt

Fighting Hate for Good

Mon, May 22 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall

FREE (registration required) committee member Kacey Drescher , Lauren Bianchi Klemann, WOA chair, and Lisa Osborn, AWC-SB president.

Drawing on the Anti-Defamation League’s decades of experience in fighting hate through investigative research, education programs and legislative victories, as well as his own personal story and his background in business and government, Jonathan Greenblatt offers a bracing primer on how we can strike back against hate.

Guests included Gretchen Lieff, Jerry Roberts, Harry Rabin, former mayor Helene Schneider, Starshine Roshell, Judith Smith-Meyer , Joan Tapper , Mayor Randy Rowse, Maria McCall, Jennifer LeMay, Das Williams, C.J. Ward, Erin Graffy, Tracy Lehr, Anne Luther, and Teresa Kuskey

A Wild Night of Ballet

It was all too beastly for words when State Street Ballet staged The Jungle Book at the Lobero under the artistic direction of founder Rodney Gustafson and co-artistic director William Soleau

The company, which leaves this month for a two-city tour of Japan – Tokyo and Osaka – after just finishing a southwestern U.S. tour, was in fine form with the colorful, energized work based on British author Rudyard Kipling’s stories.

The score for the show, which I have now seen three times since it premiered in 2009, was specially written by Czech composer Milan Svoboda and recorded in Prague by the Symphonic Orchestra of the National Theatre and Milan Svoboda Jazz Orchestra.

Kudos go to Christina Giannini

Coastal Hideaways

for the elaborate, creative, and colorful animal costumes, including monkeys, snakes, wolves and panthers, and Costume Shop Manager and Designer Nicole Thompson.

The scenic design by Jean-Francois Revon, including clever digital projections, was of particular note with new updated choreography making the show more entertaining than ever.

“It’s a fun ride,” says Gustafson. Indeed it is!

An Opera of Mythical Proportions

The first opera I ever saw was Wagner’s Die Walküre on a school trip to the Sadler’s Wells Opera at London’s Coliseum in

1970, a three-act production lasting nearly five hours, which almost put me off the art form for life.

Thankfully Puccini and Verdi enticed me back, so it was particularly interesting attending Opera Santa Barbara’s performance of The Valkyrie at the Lobero, concluding its 2022-23 season.

The opera from the German composer’s epic saga, The Ring of the Nibelung, was presented as an abridged version lasting two hours and 50 minutes, and was created by composer Jonathan Dove and stage director Graham Vick.

It followed the success of Das Rheingold in 2021.

Greek American soprano Alexandra Loutsion was absolutely glorious as Brünhilde, the titular Valkyrie, with bass-baritone Wayne Tigges playing the conflicted father and leader of the gods, Wotan.

The roles of the star-crossed lovers, Siegmund and Sieglinde, were taken by tenor Robert Stahley and soprano Julie Davis in her OSB debut. Company favorites Nina Yoshida Nelsen, mezzo soprano, and Colin Ramsey , bass, returned with Chrisman Studio Artists’ Sunwoo Park – and mezzo sopranos Christina Pezzarossi and Georgia Jacobson rounded out the cast as the maiden warrior Valkyries. Company artistic director and general manager Kostis Protopapas conducted the production.

Happening Hadelich

Italian violin genius and Grammy Awardwinner Augustin Hadelich, making his fifth CAMA appearance since 2015, played a rapturous performance at the Lobero as part of the organization’s Masterseries. Bach featured prominently in the delightful program, launching with “Partita for Unaccompanied Violin No. 3 in E major” and ending with “No. 2 in D minor,” with even a Bach encore.

Playing a 1744 violin Leduc, Ex-Szeryng – one of the last instruments to be made by master luthier Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù – Hadelich’s program also included works by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and Eugène Ysaÿe.

An extraordinarily rousing occasion...

Kings Onstage

Granada chairman Palmer Jackson, who regularly plays guitar with the local band the Doublewide Kings, couldn’t resist the urge to perform when the Alpha Rhythm Kings from the Bay Area performed in the cavernous auditorium for Onstage at the G, the second of a threepart series sponsored by Roger and Sarah Chrisman, and Kyle and Sarah Ryland

As guests noshed on food from the Catering Connection and quaffed local wine, the band played music from the ‘30s and ‘40s, including Cole Porter.

Among those checking out the fun Miscellany Page 344

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Beautifully renovated Structure of Merit, circa 1903, w/ 4-bed/3-bath main residence and 2 guest units.

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Custom designed and built 4-bed/2.5bath Craftsman home on 1 acre with incredible ocean & city views.

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