This week, Santa Barbara had its quarter-hour of disgrace when S Cash, an Australian-based cash trade service, ranked the town because the “most costly metropolis to be blissful within the U.S.,” claiming that — in accordance with a “value of happiness” index based mostly on a 2018 Purdue College research on the connection between happiness and revenue — it prices about $162,000 a yr to be blissful in Santa Barbara.
The rankings, which positioned Sant Barbara within the doubtful high spot above Honolulu, New York Metropolis, and San Francisco, went viral and sparked a wave of on-line criticism, however the report additionally highlighted a bigger drawback underlying Santa Barbara’s extraordinarily excessive price of residing: If it prices that a lot to be blissful in Santa Barbara, how a lot does it price simply to exist?
In response to the not too long ago up to date revenue limits from the California Division of Housing and Group Growth, the Space Median Earnings (AMI) for Santa Barbara County jumped up from $101,000 per yr to $107,300 for a four-person family.
Beneath the brand new limits, any individual incomes below $31,050 a yr (the typical wage for an entry-level place with the Metropolis of Santa Barbara is $25,000-$30,000) can be thought-about “extraordinarily low revenue.” These incomes as much as $51,800 a yr, across the beginning wage of a schoolteacher or police officer, can be “very low revenue,” and anyone making lower than $82,650 a yr may qualify as a low-income renter.
These adjustments have squeezed the already dwindling provide of inexpensive housing in Santa Barbara, forcing longtime low-income renters to compete towards those that can be thought-about center class in different areas. That is compounded by the truth that the town has had an issue getting personal builders to construct any extra inexpensive housing than the ten % of items mandated for giant residential initiatives.
Making issues worse, the town is dragging far behind its earlier objectives for inexpensive housing. Within the newest 2023 Housing Aspect — which outlines how the town will accommodate 8,001 extra items of housing within the upcoming 2023-2031 cycle — statistics present that simply 1,824 items of housing have been constructed in the course of the earlier cycle, or about 44 % of the state’s allocation of 4,100 items.
However the statistics present a surprising discrepancy when separated into market-rate and lower-income housing. Whereas 97.5 % of the market-rate housing objectives have been met, with practically 1,600 items of above-moderate-income housing constructed from 2015 to 2022, there was a extreme lack of very-low-, low-, and moderate-income housing constructed over that very same interval. Altogether, solely 247 items have been constructed for all lower-income brackets mixed, simply greater than 8 % of the state’s allocation of two,834 items.
The Housing Authority of the Metropolis of Santa Barbara is one native company preventing for what’s often known as “capital A” inexpensive housing — or residential initiatives created in partnership with state and regional governments to fill the necessity for every type of inexpensive housing.
When personal builders submit purposes with 40 items of housing boasting 4 “inexpensive items,” these items can check with something obtainable to tenants with “reasonable revenue” or beneath, together with these making anyplace from 80 to 120 % of the AMI (as much as $128,60 per yr). However initiatives completed by the Housing Authority are capable of leverage metropolis and federal funding to construct initiatives that may promise one hundred pc of items to all lower-income brackets, with rents which are restricted by state and regional tips.
In August, the Housing Authority had two affordable-housing initiatives authorized by the town that can present 111 items of below-market housing within the downtown space. The primary is a 63-unit growth at 400 West Carrillo Avenue, which can be one hundred pc rent-restricted to low- and moderate-income renters and was unanimously authorized by the town’s Planning Fee on August 10. The second, a 48-unit mission at 220 North La Cumbre Street that can be obtainable solely to very-low- and low-income households, obtained remaining approval from the town’s Architectural Board of Overview on August 21.
Housing Authority Director Rob Fredericks mentioned that the rents for all inexpensive housing initiatives are set by federal tips based mostly on the revenue of the tenants. For renters, this implies paying not more than 30 % of your revenue on lease, factoring within the dimension of the family.
For a single individual making $82,950 a yr, the brand new revenue restrict for low-income renters, this interprets to $2,074 a month, or round $1,450 a month for a studio condo. For a two-person family bringing in $94,800 a yr, additionally thought-about low-income, the lease for a one-bedroom can be $1,896.
On the similar time, the speed of renters paying greater than a 3rd of their revenue on lease is rising. In response to the state’s newest figures, greater than half of the town’s 20,000-plus renters are paying greater than 30 % of their revenue on lease, with 1 / 4 of the town’s renters paying greater than 50 % of their cash on lease alone.
For housing advocates in Santa Barbara, the necessity for inexpensive housing and drastic inflation of lease costs are at emergency ranges, and a few are urging metropolis and county leaders to do extra to sort out the issue, whether or not that be supporting businesses just like the Housing Authority with extra assets to proceed constructing for low-income households or drafting rental protections within the meantime.
“Our skyrocketing rents and our dismal emptiness fee are pushing individuals out at an alarming fee — it’s unrelenting and unjust,” mentioned Stanley Tzankov, cofounder of the Santa Barbara Tenants Union and housing advocate with the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Financial system (CAUSE). “It’s unraveling the social material that makes our metropolis and area vibrant, numerous, wholesome, and sustainable.”
“And but there are completely issues we will do on the native and regional stage to meaningfully deal with it,” he continued. “Town can and completely ought to cease dragging its toes and eventually move long-overdue, daring, and broadly common tenant protections like lease stabilization and a rental registry; they need to cease approving costly inns and luxurious second properties and as an alternative zone, assist finance, and fund housing that’s really inexpensive, close to jobs, and in transit corridors.”
