SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The new Hope Village homeless housing community in Santa Maria is proving to be a success after opening earlier this year.
Located on Santa Barbara County-owned land next to the Betteravia Government Center, Hope Village is a temporary small fenced-in community that has been created through an innovative public-private collaboration to provide interim supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness.
“It’s a very unique non-congregate shelter,” said Kirsten Cahoon, Good Samaritan Director of Homeless Services. “It’s the first of its kind in Santa Maria. It was really meant to target the unsheltered population within about a two-mile radius of this facility. Downtown Santa Maria started to really feel an impact of the unsheltered community didn’t have enough shelter beds. It’s a really non-traditional model. Everyone gets their own room and we really knocked down all those barriers to entry, like bringing your partners and your pets in and having the privacy and just the dignity of being able to lock a door.”