Ask Crystal Frausto what it was like to live on the street and she’ll reply in a single word: “Horrible.”
That’s why she said she so appreciates having a bed at the People Assisting the Homeless emergency shelter at 816 Cacique St.
“It’s a safe place to live, and you get three meals a day,” Frausto, 49, explained after negotiating the entryway with her walker.
Soon the shelter will be under new ownership. The Santa Barbara City Council unanimously voted last week to buy the 100-bed shelter for $3.75 million.
It plans to spend an additional $300,000 to fix up the PATH shelter and place it under a new interim operator, Mercy House Living Centers. The city will seek a permanent operator in the spring.
PATH had told the city it planned to end services by the end of the year and offered to sell the half-acre site.
City staff expressed enthusiasm about the purchase.
“We think this is good news,” said City Administrator Kelly McAdoo. The shelter certainly needs renovation, but “there is a lot of potential at this site.” She added that the transition from PATH to Mercy should be “seamless.”
The shelter is surrounded by commercial and industrial buildings on Santa Barbara’s Eastside — small manufacturers and warehouses, auto shops and MarBorg.
The shelter offers a temporary home to both men and women ; it has dormitories, showers and a commercial kitchen. But city inspectors found problems like exposed wiring, kitchen equipment in disrepair, inadequate fire sprinklers and other deficiencies. Plus, the roof and air conditioning/heating system need work.
The condition of the building is “below average,” with many years of deferred maintenance, said Barbara Andersen, assistant to the city administrator. But at the same time, there’s an opportunity to add more privacy for residents, take advantage of the center’s courtyard and utilize family suites and other areas that are currently closed off.
City Councilmember Mike Jordan said he would like to see more private spaces created, rather than large open dormitories, to make the shelter more appealing to unhoused persons.
The city will beef up security to help allay concerns of those who live nearby, Andersen said. A meeting is planned to introduce neighbors to the Mercy House staff.
Frausto, disabled after having suffered a stroke, said she’s lived at the shelter for about a year. She said it’s a lot more appealing than living at the Rescue Mission because the hours in which residents can come and go are less restrictive.
“Thank God for this place,” she said.
