Santa Barbara's plan for spending $2 million in state funding to help the city's homeless people includes outreach and program case managers but no housing.

The city received the money as part of a Homeless Emergency Aid Program grant, and has partnered with Cottage Health, City Net and PATH.

The City Council last week agreed to pay Cottage Health $717,000 for a street outreach nurse and a site navigator position to create care plans, coordinate outreach efforts, and help people transition to housing.

Nonprofit group City Net will receive $873,000 to provide case managers, peer engagement specialists, housing navigators and data management employees.

Santa Barbara will keep $410,00 to serve as the project lead, fiscal agent that passes through the money and add a full-time police officer focused on restorative policing.

The funding will stretch over 27 months, beginning in April. Any money not spent by the end of June 2021 will go back to the state.

“It's really a creative use of the funds,” Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon said. “I am happy this will be address the most pressing needs. This is an example of the community coming together in partnership.”

Santa Barbara had originally applied for $6.5 million in funding from the state with plans to build tiny homes, coupled with services, at the city's commuter lot on the corner of Carrillo and Castillo streets.

Residents in the area vigorously opposed the proposed location, cooling the city's enthusiasm for the tiny homes projects. The city was spared the decision of whether to use that site because in the end, the state granted only $2 million, which was not enough to build the tiny homes.

Like many communities across California and the state, Santa Barbara is wrestling with how to care for its substantial homeless population. Whether it's State Street, the waterfront area or city parks, the presence of chronic homeless people, some of them who are mentally ill, has created tension among residents, the business community and local government over how to best deal with the problem.

According to the latest point-in-time homeless count conducted in January, there were 1,803 homeless people countywide. Santa Barbara had 887 homeless people, Santa Maria followed with 464, Lompoc with 249 and Goleta with 119.

Separate from the HEAP grant, Rob Fredericks, executive director of the Santa Barbara Housing Authority, plans to contribute $856,000 in rental housing vouchers to the program, to help house the homeless.

“Unfortunately, we didn't get the full funding that we originally looked at in the grant because what we need in this community is more housing, more permanent housing units built,” Fredericks said.

City Administrator Paul Casey said even though the city didn't receive $6.5 million, the HEAP money will be well spent.

“I don't want to diminish that it's $2 million,” Casey said. “It's $2 million in an area of great need in the community that we have been looking for assistance with.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) . Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.