The Women’s Fund’s 2023–24 grant of $125,000 is helping bring a new Child Care Center to life at the DignityMoves Family Village on the County’s Calle Real campus. The village is being constructed on County-owned land currently used as an overflow parking lot. The grant funded the modular components needed to build the child-care facility, a core feature of a new community designed for unsheltered south County families with children—including those currently living in cars, encampments, and other unstable situations.
The Family Village will provide 30 small, multi-room modular homes, a garden, playground, and the on-site Child Care Center. Families will also receive wraparound services—including case management, financial literacy, employment support, and medical and behavioral health services—to help them stabilize and move toward long-term housing.
At a July 8 community meeting, County leaders emphasized that Santa Barbara County has one of the highest child poverty rates in California, and that this project will offer children a safe, nurturing place to grow while parents pursue education and employment. Lucille Boss, Housing Programs Manager for the County of Santa Barbara, said that this is a targeted, permanent, service‑rich solution for a small but critical share of the 700 homeless families in the County, and a model for turning underused public land into dignified housing for children and their parents.
Construction plans are being finalized now, with project approvals expected later this summer. Groundbreaking is targeted for late 2026, with families beginning to move in around early 2028.