SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Santa Barbara city leaders are looking to strengthen partnerships with faith-based organizations and community groups as they work to address homelessness.
The 2026 City and Faith Leader Summit brought together community partners to discuss updated strategies, recognize progress and explore ways to expand the community's response to homelessness.
Santa Barbara City Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez said the gathering was an opportunity to bring different faith communities and government leaders together around a shared goal.
“Multi-faith organizations, they all have a belief of helping the poor and the needy and the homeless, and so do we as government officials. So I figured we should come together at least once,” Gutierrez said.
For faith-based organizations, the summit also provided an opportunity to discuss how congregations can play a larger role through community outreach and connecting people experiencing homelessness with available resources.
One potential solution discussed was expanding safe parking opportunities for people living in vehicles and recreational vehicles.
Rich Applebaum, a board member of the Community Liberation Organization (CLUE), said faith-based organizations could help provide space for additional safe parking locations.
“I think the most actionable thing right now is to find more places for safe parking, since such a high percentage of the homeless are living in cars and recreational vehicles,” Applebaum said. “Faith organizations have land, they have parking lots which are often unused at night.”
Gutierrez also pointed to the amount of property owned by faith-based organizations throughout the community, saying some of that land could potentially help address homelessness.
“The faith-based organizations in our community own a lot of land. So we're talking about thousands of acres that could be potentially sites where we can help treat the homelessness issue,” Gutierrez said.
Organizers say bringing together different parts of the community is an important step toward developing long-term solutions.
Reverend Jeannette Love said the effort reflects a shared responsibility to help others.
“Well, religion, that's what religion teaches us — that we are all one,” Love said.
The goal is to build on existing partnerships and identify more opportunities for faith-based organizations and community members to be part of the response to homelessness in Santa Barbara.
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