Low-Cost Housing Opens, but Far More Is Needed

SANTA BARBARA —  This is a city where even a small two-bedroom home can sell for $1 million or more. It’s a city not only worried about losing low-income service workers, but even its middle class. Already there are 30,000 cars a day bringing in a commuting workforce that can’t afford to actually live here.

And that’s why much was made Tuesday about the city’s latest affordable housing project. More than 100 people turned out for the official unveiling of a 42-unit, Spanish-style apartment complex at Carrillo and Castillo streets, within walking distance of downtown stores and restaurants.

In a month or so, the new residents will move into studio apartments that rent for as low as $481 a month and one-bedroom apartments that go for $815. That’s between a third or a half of what other people pay in this particular neighborhood, officials said.

There already is a list of 200 or so applicants. The units come with a few strings: Tenants will have to have jobs in downtown Santa Barbara. There can be only two people to an apartment. Single tenants can’t earn more than $31,000 a year. A working couple could earn up to $54,500 and still qualify.

And, with an eye on growing traffic congestion as well as the housing crisis, preference will be given to applicants who don’t own cars. One car is allowed. But that’s the limit.

Robert G. Pearson, executive director of the city’s housing authority, presided over Tuesday’s ceremony. There are already about 4,500 houses and apartments in Santa Barbara under some kind of affordable housing restriction, he said. That is 12% of the city’s housing stock, he said.

Santa Barbara could use 5,000 to 10,000 more units, Pearson said. There are other projects in the works, but nowhere near the number actually needed.

“This is a start,” he said. “We are trying to cobble together what it takes in probably one of the toughest housing markets in the nation. We should be proud of what we are doing here. But it’s going to take a continuing effort.”

U.S. Rep. Lois Capps and Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, both Santa Barbara Democrats, spoke during the ceremony. Both promised support for more affordable housing, calling the Spanish-tiled Casa de Las Fuentes complex a model for affordable housing projects.

Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum said the city is having better luck holding on to lower-income workers than the middle-class. With the median price of houses approaching $700,000, she said, much of the middle-class is being priced out of the city.