The Santa Barbara City Council voted to give $500,000 to organizations supporting immigrant communities amid the recent deportation efforts by the federal government.
“The moment is now; the moment is past now,” said Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon. “On a personal level, on a national level, I am sorry. Families are being separated. The aggressive detainment without due process is tearing apart our community.”
The vote was 5-1-1. Mayor Randy Rowse said he supports the immigrant communities but disagrees on the source of the funding. Councilwoman Wendy Santamaria abstained because the money is going out of a housing fund.
While everyone on the council said they disagreed with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation efforts, they bickered over the source of funding.
Councilmembers Meagan Harmon, left, and Wendy Santamaria talk with City Administrator Kelly McAdoo about ways to fund the immigrant community. Credit: Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo
Councilwoman Meagan Harmon brokered a deal to take the money from the city’s Flexible Housing and Homelessness Fund. Other councilmembers, including Santamaria and Sneddon, initially suggested other sources of funding, such as Measure C, a general sales tax measure intended for infrastructure.
Harmon wanted to take the money from the city’s reserves, but in order to do that the city would have to amend its reserves policy, which would take several weeks. By allocating the money from the Flexible Housing and Homelessness Fund, the money can be delivered as early as Aug. 12, she said.
“I am very cognizant of the urgency of the allocation of this money,” Harmon said. “I would like to get to the fastest path to allocation.”
The City Council will meet on Aug. 12 to officially approve the money and then later in the year meet to find a way to replenish the Flexible Housing and Homelessness Fund.
The money is set to go to 805UndocuFund and other immigrant-serving communities.
Councilmember Santamaria stressed that the council’s action was not intended to obstruct justice or prevent law enforcement from doing its jobs. The money is intended to help people.
“Making sure we have funding for rent, for food, for clothing, that is not obstructing justice,” Santamaria said. “It is not an obstruction to keep people housed, fed or clothed. No one here is asking for money to circumvent ICE activities. That’s not what we are doing here. We are literally just trying to respond to the crisis. There are literally children being unattended because their parents got picked up.”
More than 100 people packed Santa Barbara City Hall for a special meeting Thursday on ways to help immigrant communities. Credit: Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo
Santamaria during the meeting was looking for sources of funding other than from housing funds. At one point she asked if money that had been set aside to fund three police officer positions could be re-allocated, but Police Chief Kelly Gordon opposed that idea, requesting funding the immigrant groups “not be done on the backs of the men and women who are in fact serving this community every day.”
She also suggested that the city add a measure on the ballot for a vacancy tax on residential and commercial buildings.
“We have a lot of families that need to be housed, and we need to make sure we have more funding coming into our city,” Santamaria said.
Mayor Rowse talked about being a business owner and having employees that had to show their citizenship documents to federal authorities. It was different then, though.
“They didn’t do the stormtrooper activity they are doing now,” Rowse said. “This is over the top.”
Rowse said the bigger problem needs to be solved at the federal level.
“Neither political party ever had the courage, guts or wherewithal to make a cogent immigration policy,” Rowse said.