FARO'S BRIGHT IDEA: MORE HOMELESSNESS, MORE FUNDING!

It's a banner week for Santa Barbara's compassionate industrial complex as the FARO Center grandly announced two years of 'supporting' the 'unhoused.' Noozhawk, ever vigilant in its role as official stenographer to the progressive elite, dutifully reported the milestone, reminding us all that if you throw enough public money at a problem, you can at least ensure a steady supply of well-paid administrators to manage it.

Two years on, and the 'unhoused community' (which, of course, isn't a community but a symptom) is still very much with us, perhaps even more visible. One has to wonder at what point 'supporting' tips over into 'perpetuating,' especially when every new center, coordinator, and 'pathway forward' seems to pave the way for more funding requests, not fewer vagrants on State Street. It's almost as if the goal isn't to get people off the streets permanently, but to keep them in a state of perpetually almost-housed, thus securing the endless grant cycle.

Here’s the angle nobody else printed: Check the campaign finance reports for the Supervisors who enthusiastically greenlit the initial funding for FARO and its brethren.

Follow the line-items back through committees and subcommittees, past the feel-good mission statements, and you’ll find a tangled web of 'community partners' and 'service providers' whose primary service, it seems, is to themselves. While taxpayers foot the bill for what amounts to an increasingly elaborate outdoor living exhibition, the well-meaning but ultimately ineffective bureaucracy expands, its success measured not by fewer tents, but by more 'engagements' and 'referrals.' It's a real California success story – turning a social ill into a growth industry.