Keeping Santa Barbara County’sToughest Cases Housed

Joan was a 78-year-old woman in Santa Barbara County living on the street. Joan’s medical condition made unsupported independent living impossible. She had been hospitalized and discharged and hospitalized again. In between, she cycled from an apartment, to the ER, and back to the street. Until New Beginnings and their specialized multidisciplinary team began working on Joan’s case. 

“Some people said to me, you need to just let it go. She’ll have to go to the street,” says Kristine Schwarz, the organization’s executive director. “She’s 78 years old! I can’t do that. Ethically and as a human being, I can’t do that and we can’t do that.”

This is the kind of life-changing work the Santa Barbara-based nonprofit New Beginnings has been doing for more than 50 years. Keeping those most at risk housed and healthy. Their core programs include the county’s only safe parking program, opened in 2004 for people sleeping in their cars; supportive services for veteran families; mental health counseling; and providing life skills and parenting education for society’s most vulnerable members.      

In addition to their core programs, New Beginnings can also now deploy their highly trained multidisciplinary team that includes a nurse, a psychologist, a behavioral health clinician, an addiction professional, a senior aging specialist, and an employment and benefits specialist to handle the toughest cases in the county for optimum results. Cases like Joan’s. 

When the System Runs Short

As Medicaid funding narrows and HUD grants dry up, the demand for New Beginnings’ services continues to rise. Last year alone, the organization served 2,174 residents, housed 277 of them, provided $3.4 million in direct financial assistance, and still maintained a housing retention rate above 90%.

But Schwarz knows it will take even more resources to solve the widening houseless crisis for seniors and other vulnerable populations. While 17 California counties allow housing vouchers to be used towards helping seniors like Joan with assisted living, Santa Barbara is not one of them. To change that, New Beginnings and Schwarz have spent the last year advocating at every political level seeking crucial systems change.

Until that change is achieved, what’s left is often an insurmountable gap in funding for those who need New Beginnings to step in and help them with housing and life-saving supportive services. A flexible support fund can help New Beginnings close that gap. A much-needed bed. A walker that doesn’t break. A motel room for the night. A reconnected phone line for the client whose Lifeline service was cut off during a paperwork delay. The critical funding that bridges a senior’s ability to stay in an assisted-living bed that a voucher would otherwise cover. 

New Beginnings excels at being that safety net and stepping forward to help those most vulnerable lead healthy, productive lives.

As Schwarz says, “We have to try.”