PATH, a nonprofit organization that helps house and support the homeless community, launched its inaugural Making It Home Tour in Santa Barbara on Saturday. Mixing the message of the importance of home, gratitude for one’s own home and having fun was the order of the day.

Nearly 200 attendees celebrated the meaning of home while raising funds to ensure that homeless neighbors have the opportunity to make it home themselves. All of proceeds will go directly to helping those in need.

The tour started at Cabana Home on Santa Barbara Street in the Funk Zone. Guests gathered, left their cars with valets for parking, and then hopped on chartered trollies that transported them in small groups for guided tours of four exclusive yet distinct private homes and estates in Santa Barbara and Montecito, including the Top of the Granada penthouse.

At each stop, local vintners offered wine and refreshments along with delectable hors d’oeuvres. After an afternoon of enjoying beauty and architecture, everyone convened back at the party/reception on the patio at the Cabana Home.

PATH Santa Barbara addresses homelessness for individuals and the community. Its interim housing facility is dedicated to helping homeless individuals access the services they need to improve their health, increase their income and transition to stable housing — all under one roof. PATH Santa Barbara was formerly Casa Esperanza Homeless Shelter. Casa merged with PATH in July 2015.

The home owners who graciously opened their homes and their hearts to support PATH were Meg and Dan Burnham, Jodi and Johnny Goldberg, Anne and Alan Sides, and Nina Terzian.

Event sponsors included Cabana Home, Boone Graphics, MarBorg Industries and others. Contributing sponsors were Babcock Winery, Bitsy and Denny Bacon, David Borgatello , Meg and Dan Burnham, Beth Ginsberg Desserts, Burnham Winery, Jacqueline Cohn, Creative Services Catering, Cutler’s Artisan Spirits, Dianne Dodds and David Reichert, The Good Lion, Grassini Family Vineyards, Helena Avenue Bakery, Jaffurs Wine Cellars, Kaleidoscope Flowers, Little Kitchen, Margerum Wine Co., Pascucci, Sama Sama Kitchen, the Santa Barbara Wine Collective, Summerland Winery and Sunstone Winery.

The Making It Home Tour Event Committee was made up of Dennis Barringer, Carley Berkowitz, John “JB” Bowlin, Nancy Fiore, Rob Grayson, Juliana Minsky, Jenny Roberts, Edie Robertson and Tessa Madden.

The Graholm Estate was one of the home stops. After ascending a quarter-mile driveway to the main entrance, guests viewed the Spanish Revival colonial-style property that measures 18,000 square feet on 7.4 acres.

Amenities include huge beam ceilings and stone and iron work from the last century’s great craftsmen. There are eight bedrooms, nine bathrooms, three powder rooms, a gourmet kitchen and Batchelder Spanish-tile floors.

The Graholm Estate was formerly home to the Brooks Institute of Photography. The estate was built in 1920 and was originally designed by architect Roland Sauter for David Gray, who was one of the original shareholders in Ford Motor Co.

Another home was the Sandcastle Property, a relaxing Miramar Beach home. In 1924, architect James Mayo Macari built this home that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. The property includes three bedrooms in the main home, a guest living area and two terraced bedrooms overlooking the beach.

The homeowner has adorned the luxurious home with a butterfly preserve and coral reef succulent garden. It previously was owned by the Larsen family, known for their creation of the Magic Castle in Hollywood. Originally, the property belonged to George Owen Knapp and was used for the Edge Cliff Lane Beach Club.

The Shangri-La home is a 2,236-square-foot property built in 1952 and currently owned the Goldbergs. Johnny Goldberg is a celebrity trainer and endurance cyclist who invented the global fitness phenomenon Spinning.

His wife, Jodi, owns Jodi G Designs that creates transformative interior design and landscape design from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles. The Goldbergs transformed an ordinary house into a Balinese-style retreat. The property is used as a location for their companies’ advertising photography.

The “Top of the G” penthouse is in the tallest building in Santa Barbara — the Granada Theatre. The Granada Tower was built in 1924 by Charles Urton. It was the first “skyscraper” he had built, and it survived the 1925 earthquake that shattered most of downtown Santa Barbara.

The Burnhams purchased the eighth and ninth floors and the rooftop of the Granada Tower in 2011 and since have created a 4,000-square-foot penthouse with a 360-degree view overlooking Santa Barbara.

One of the best parts of the tour was the knowledgeable PATH staff who served as tour docents. They not only provided background information on the historic homes on the tour, they also offered dialogue on the issue of homelessness.

“In the last 18 months, nearly 1,500 clients have received shelter thanks to PATH, 120 of whom have made it home into permanent housing,” PATH Development Director Georgeanne Barrett said.

She also told Noozhawk, “The most recent surveys show that homelessness has increased by 23 percent and veteran homeless, after a period of decline, has increased over 5 percent. A lot of attention and funds have been allocated to veterans housing, which has helped a lot, but we are starting to see a slow increase in homelessness in our veteran population.”

The PATH Administrative Board of Directors includes Harreld Adams, Ellen Evans Agee, David Alden, Willie Bailey, Terry Bird, Jane Blumenfeld, Eileen Dardick, Laura Diamond, Julie Downey, Ron Fox, Michael Goldberg, Shane Goldsmith, Myrna Hant, Kaaren Kurtzman, Sal Mendoza, Donald Morrison, Marsha Moutrie, Alison Myers (ex officio), Stanley Schneider, Julie Summers, Brian Tucker, Cathy Watts, Claire West Orr (ex officio), Jim White, Lindsay Wiggins and Michael Wolper.

The PATH Santa Barbara Advisory Board includes Sue Adams, Barbara Allen, Mark Asman, Don Bushnell, Julie Downey, Nancy Fiore, Ron Fox, Anne Ready Gersh, Geoff Green, Brian McTeague, Juliana Minsky, Robert Pearson, Dave Peri and Dylan Ward.

PATH was founded in Los Angeles in 1984 by a community that was concerned about their homeless neighbors. What started out as an organized effort handing out clothes and food has grown into a Housing First organization that is meeting the needs of the homeless population throughout California.

For the past decade, PATH has practiced the Housing First model, which means that it strives to move its clients into housing as quickly as possible, even if they still have challenges to work through. Once moved into their own home, PATH continues to provide services and work with individuals to make sure they remain in their home and never have to resort to living on the streets again.

PATH Santa Barbara offers:

» A customized approach for reducing homelessness in Santa Barbara

» A deeper level of client-centered programs and operational expertise

» Best practices that have proven successful in other communities

» A focus on measurable, achievable outcomes

» A priority on improving local neighborhoods

On-site programs at the interim housing facility, formerly Casa Esperanza, embody a "one-stop shop" model of integrated housing and resources, designed to reduce barriers for people experiencing homelessness so they can access the support they need.

Click here for more information about PATH.

— Noozhawk contributing writer Rochelle Rose can be reached at [email protected]. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkSociety, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.