Our 164th Year
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A youth movement High school students lead hundreds in protest of police violence, racism By PAUL GONZALEZ NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Cabrillo Boulevard ground to a halt on Sunday afternoon, as local high school students led hundreds through the streets in protest of police violence and institutional racism. San Marcos High School students Talia Hamilton and Shakir Ahmad organized the protest on the street in front of Stearns Wharf. Santa Barbara Police Department officers blocked off the area around the intersection of Cabrillo Boulevard and State Street. Event organizers made sure that student voices were at the center of the protest and students used that platform to tell the crowd about their experiences of racism and how George Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests affected them.
“It’s time for change. As young students we are hopeful for the world. We must educate ourselves because as Nelson Mandela once said, ‘education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,’” Dos Pueblos Junior Cole Collins said. Cole asked the crowd to let peace begin with each of them. “America was built on tradition and some of them are weakening the foundation of the nation, so we must end this 400-year-old tradition which is racism and we can do our part by educating ourselves, by informing others and by yes, protesting,” Cole said. He recognized that Mr. Floyd was the most recent victim of police violence, but not the first. “This (protest) is also for Trayvon Martin, 17 years old, unarmed and killed. Breonna Please see protest on A8
RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Benches provide a bed for homeless individuals in Santa Barbara. Local organizations have continued to serve the homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Helping the homeless
Homeless services altered during pandemic to continue serving those without shelter By MITCHELL WHITE NEWS-PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR
While many businesses and services were forced to shut down for several months during the coronavirus pandemic, officials throughout the county have continued providing services for homeless individuals. Emily Allen, director of homeless and veterans impact initiatives with Home For Good Santa Barbara County, told the NewsPress that during the mid-March shutdowns that food insecurity was one of the first obvious impacts on people experiencing homelessness locally. Home For Good partnered with several different restaurants who provided prepared food for distribution, working with the Rosewood Miramar Beach, Lunchbox delivery and catering and more recently McDonald’s. In addition to food, the group distributed hygiene kits and public health information to those in need. “It was a little bit different than what we normally do, which is very focused on trying to move people from homelessness to housing, make sure they have all their documents for Social Security and the DMV and putting things like that together,” she said. “A lot of that couldn’t happen in the same way. Kind of a shift to address more of people’s basic needs, during these few months, I would say.” Several handwashing stations were installed throughout the county a few months ago, while Home For Good and other groups have been distributing cloth masks. In addition, they partnered with Unite to Light, a local nonprofit that manufactures and distributes solar lamps and solar chargers, and have been providing local residents with chargers for their cell phones or computers, which are now being used to obtain counseling and mental health services. “When libraries and day centers closed, people didn’t necessarily have access to electricity to charge their phones and other devices. We’ve been able to distribute a couple hundred of these solar chargers,” Ms. Allen said. With so many services being offered through teleservice, Ms. Allen explained that the group wants to ensure those who need care have the necessary means to connect with healthcare providers. During a recent webinar hosted by the UCSB Economic Forecast Project, City Administrator Paul Casey and Downtown Santa Barbara President Bob Stout talked about the reopening process for the downtown corridor, while also discussing the city’s homelessness issue. Mr. Stout said he has been downtown more
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PAUL GONZALEZ / NEWS-PRESS
Dos Pueblos junior Cole Collins asked protesters to let peace begin with them at a demonstration held on Cabrillo Boulevard on Sunday.
Homeless people are often seen walking down Santa Barbara streets.
often in recent weeks “walking the street with my tape measure and my mask” and said he has witnessed a lot of transients. With businesses now reopened and storefronts beginning to welcome in customers again, more activity downtown would take people’s focus off the homeless, Mr. Stout said. “When we have a bunch of people coming to town or just a busy Friday night in the bars or a busy night in the 1200 block in the restaurants or whatever, we don’t notice the homeless and the transients so much,” he said. “People feel safer because at the end of the day, homelessness is part of our modern world. I mean, we have a real inequity in people’s income, and there’s a lot of people that are struggling.” He praised the city for its outreach to try and find people shelter, but acknowledged that many of them don’t want to be housed. “Those folks, you can’t make them go into shelters,” he said. “We have a Mediterranean climate, which is great for outdoor dining, and it’s also great for sleeping outside, so I think it’s a challenge. But I think the more we activate it and we get people on the streets — especially if they’re outdoors eating and drinking -— then I really think that people won’t notice so much. They’ll feel safer, and it won’t be like it has been the last few months. It’s really been unusually bad, but I realize that it’s been that way because it didn’t really matter, nobody was downtown anyway.” Though it is unclear if there was an actual increase in numbers when it comes to the local homeless population in recent months, Ms. Allen said the visibility factor was
significant. “When everybody else disappears and you’re seeing people experiencing homelessness, it’s very impactful,” she said. Mr. Casey said the city is “terribly aware and sensitive” to the local homelessness issue, but explained that federal government and CDC guidelines prevented the city from disrupting homeless encampments. “Part of that was so that they weren’t moving around, in case they were infected they’re not spreading it; also (it’s) a way if they happen to get tested, you know where to go back and deal with that,” Mr. Casey said. “That was hard, but we know State Street is starting to reopen up. “We have a really good outreach team in City Net that has been very effective at reaching people, so they are hitting State Street really hard right now. Our police are going to be out there as well, so we’re going to try to get people to where they need to be and get State Street ready to roll and come back.” Mr. Casey added that the state and federal government continue to give funds to address homelessness, which means the city will be able to fund outreach teams more aggressively to get people the services that they need. To that end, Santa Barbara County was able to obtain nearly 70 hotel units in South County and has been working with other providers to add capacity and get the most vulnerable off the streets. There have also been discussions about expanding the New Beginning’s Safe Parking Program to ensure those who reside in their vehicles can do so in a safe manner. Please see HOMELESS on A2
SB to consider statement against police brutality City Council to discuss resolution By MITCHELL WHITE NEWS-PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR
The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday will discuss adopting a resolution that would condemn national police brutality and declare racism a public health crisis. In addition, the council will vote on establishing an independent review of police misconduct. The vote will come one week after many members of the public spoke out on the need for the council to ensure local residents feel “protected to, listened to, and served by their public servants,” read the staff report. The resolution is viewed as the first step in a continued effort to address the comments and concerns of the public, according to officials. “As public officials, this tragedy makes us reflect on our own policies, practices, behaviors, and attitudes. The questions of whether we are doing enough, are we vigilant enough, have we fostered a true culture of respect and honesty are questions that need to be asked and answered,” the staff report reads. If the council votes to move
forward, city staff will return following input from members of Black Lives Matter Santa Barbara with a resolution. In addition, if the council approves the recommendation, the City Attorney’s Office will return to council July 14 with a presentation on options to establish an independent police oversight system. The reviews would include an assessment of “the objectivity, thoroughness, and appropriateness of a police department responses to complaints against police misconduct,” according to the staff report. The council will also discuss protecting black landmarks and will consider directing staff to work with the city’s Historic Landmark Commission to identify and preserve landmarks of historical importance to members of the African American Community. Additionally, the city will discuss appropriating $35,000 to the library to support annual events that celebrate the city’s cultural and racial diversity, Please see council on A8
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LOTTERY
Comics................. A6 Local................. A 2-8 Obituaries............. A8
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 5-21-22-34-39 Meganumber: 8
Sunday’s DAILY 4: 3-8-1-5
Friday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 32-35-37-47-55 Meganumber: 22
Sunday’s FANTASY 5: 2-22-27-32-33
Sunday’s DAILY DERBY: 08-05-01 Time: 1:47.33
Saturday’s POWERBALL: 1-17-38-68-69 Meganumber: 18
Soduku................. A5 Weather................ A8
Sunday’s DAILY 3: 8-8-5 / Midday 9-2-6
