WE DEMAND AN EMERGENCY MEETING OF IVRPD TO KEEP PEOPLE’S PARK OPEN!

Starting on On June 1, 2021, Isla Vista Recreation and Park District (IVRPD) is planning to evict the houseless people living in People’s Park. This is the third eviction of houseless residents during the pandemic, approved by the Board of Directors last Thursday, May 20th. We can stop this! Join us in demanding that Director Pegeen Soutar, the Board Chair of IVRPD, call an emergency meeting for the Board to reconsider their vote and call off the eviction at the park. 

IVRPD is forcing people to move under threat of arrest. While Kimberly Kiefer, the General Manager of IVRPD, has stated that “we do not want to have any type of cites or arrests during this process, that is not something the District would like to pursue, that is not something we are looking to do,” the IVRPD document advertises that if anyone refuses to leave the park, “IVRPD initiates removal in coordination with IVFP.” IVFP (Isla Vista Foot Patrol) are the local cops in IV. 

So if IVRPD does not intend to threaten people with arrest, then why are cops being brought in to “initiate removal”? And as one opponent of the eviction insightfully remarked during the May 20th meeting: “Having the police interact with vulnerable populations [...] leads to violence and is violence in itself.”

But even without police involvement, what does eviction mean for those community members finding refuge in People’s Park? Here are a few voices from the park:

“This is the only place we can be safe and free from constant police harassment. We are unfairly targeted for enforcement quotas in Goleta. There is also no homeless shelter or many services in Goleta.” 

“Before I found this park, I was sleeping behind signs, in bushes, and in a lot of unsafe situations. And I just happened to be walking down the street in Isla Vista and I found this park, and it’s been a great place, there’s a lot of resources that have been helping me get back on my feet, ...and it’s a safe environment where I don’t feel like I’m in danger.” 

“You guys have made it illegal for us to camp in our RVs, in our cars, in parks, at the railroad tracks, alongside the freeway. Where else are we going to go?” 

IVRPD is offering no legitimate alternative location.The People’s Park transitional plan states that IVRPD is offering alternate shelter, but many houseless people in IV have heard no word of such shelter. When asked for specifics about where people are expected to go, Kimberly Kiefer said: “We’re not privy to information that’s confidential between client and resource provider, but essentially, a range of different shelters, programs, and alternative housing pathways have been offered to the community and will continue to be offered.” This is a vague and misleading answer. And many people in the park state that they have not been offered any other place to go. 

IVRPD states that housing initiatives are in the hands of their community partners such as Good Samaritan, Behavioral Wellness, and the Public Defender’s Office, and IVRPD is not personally responsible for providing housing. But in the words of those resource providers, adequate housing simply isn’t available. Vanda Epstein, Santa Barbara Police Department’s Restorative Policing Specialist, stated during the meeting:

“The only alternate shelter are placements in our shelters throughout the county. [...] You haven't even begun the process yet of notification and shelter. And from my understanding, the only options are shelter beds.”

Yet shelters are not an adequate alternative. According to Helen, an outreach worker for AmeriCorps:

“I’m [...] very concerned about the idea that people in the park have already been offered shelter spots. They have not. It’s very, very hard to get into shelters in Santa Barbara, for multiple reasons [...] It’s just not feasible for us to be able to give every single person a long term stay at a shelter. That’s not how it works in Santa Barbara County.”

This is not to mention the myriad reasons individuals might resist shelter placement, from curfews which restrict their autonomy, to policies on sobriety which makes them inaccessible and unsustainable to people still struggling with addiction. There may also be restrictions on storage of personal belongings in homeless shelters. All this is outlined in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s report, Understanding Encampments. 

IVRPD chose People’s Park. Let us also not forget that IVRPD is the organization that coerced all of the houseless residents of IV to establish their camps in People’s Park. IVRPD chose the location of the encampment and also how close people must live together, as can be seen on the agenda for the March 25th board meeting. People – against their own intuitions – have again and again been compliant again and again with IVRPD decisions, only now to be permanently kicked out of all of the parks in IV for good.

It is the job of the IVRPD Board of Directors to represent the wishes of the public. Pegeen Soutar, alongside other IVRPD board and staff, claims that human services are not their mandate – their role is to maintain parks. However, the Board of Directors are elected public servants. Their role is to represent the wishes of their constituents. At the May 20th Board meeting, nearly two thirds of public commenters were urging IVRPD to keep the sanctioned encampment open (22 in favor of the parks staying open, 12 in opposition). We are demanding they listen to the widespread calls to keep the sanctioned encampments opened. This closure is arbitrary and only serves the purpose of making the houseless folks someone else’s problem. If IVRPD really cared about making sure people had adequate housing alternatives, they would not create such a hard deadline with only 10 days notice. Instead, the Board would listen to the public and continue to allow houseless people to remain in the park and receive services. IVRPD claims that they need to restore day use and programmed activities to the park. However there are many other parks that can host activities, including  “56.44 acres of IVRPD, County and RDA park property” in Isla Vista.

A sanctioned encampment space in People’s Park is the best option right now. We have a chance to create new ways for unhoused people in our communities to be safer and have more stable access to the resources they need. A sanctioned encampment space is undoubtedly a benefit to our entire community that ensures people won’t need to face constant criminalization for being unhoused. Sign this petition to demand the IVRPD Board of Directors to reconsider their vote to close the parks.