It was a knock-down, drag-out fight for the ages, pitting one exceptionally vulnerable group of people against another in front of Santa Barbara’s City Council early this Tuesday afternoon. Making matters so volatile, the two groups happen to operate out of properties right next door to each other on the 600 block of Chapala Street. Complicating matters further still, this dispute was engineered — with nothing but the best of intentions — by City Hall itself. The question before the council, City Hall, and, really, the community at large, is how to fix this mess.
On one hand, there were the S.B. ACT advocates — ardent, urgent, and eloquent — for a drop-in navigation center on the 600 block of Chapala Street, where it was hoped that people on the streets could connect with the on-site service providers that would eventually help bring them back indoors. They spoke movingly of the redemption, rehabilitation, and transformation they experienced at the center because of the trust and acceptance extended by center staff, many of whom had lived on the streets themselves.
The FARO Center, as it’s called, first opened its doors last June amid much celebration and fanfare that such an impossible dream could be accomplished. It was celebrated by everyone, except its immediate neighbors…