Edhat Staff
Activists protesting the no-cause evictions at the Ventura City Council Meeting in December (Photo: CAUSE)
By edhat staff
A local advocacy group released a report on the housing crisis and found the cost of renting is rising faster than income in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
The Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) surveyed 590 renters in both counties with an emphasis on working-class and immigrant neighborhoods where people are dealing with the most severe impacts of the housing crisis. Renters make up 51% of the population in Santa Barbara County overall and nearly 60% in the City of Santa Barbara.
Of those surveyed, 43% had experienced a drastic rent increase, 15% had been evicted, and 39% had experienced unsafe or unhealthy living conditions in the past five years.
The report states that between 2014 and 2019, rents increased by 27% and wages only increased by 8%. “This crisis is particularly acute in the Central Coast, which has not benefited from the growth of high-wage jobs in California’s major urban areas, but has still experienced the ballooning price of land along the California coast. Working families in our low-wage industries like agriculture and hospitality are unable to afford million-dollar home prices at poverty wages,” the report reads.
In 2017, 55% of renters in both Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties were considered rent-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their incomes in rent.
Based on the survey, many families have had to move out of their neighborhoods, take on additional jobs, or cut down on expenses such as food and healthcare to cover the cost of rising rent.
“When families face this imbalance and are foregoing basic necessities, rent eats before them,” said Rob Fredericks, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Housing Authority.
The report also covers the local homelessness issue and states there are far more vacant housing units in our region than the number of people without homes. In 2017, the US Census estimated over 26,000 empty units, approximately ten times the number of people in the 2017 homeless counts for Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.
Those surveyed stated lower and more stable rent as well as responsiveness from property managers to make repairs would improve their lives as renters. The report suggests a “Mandatory Lease Law” that requires landlords to offer tenants the option of a long-term lease as well as a “Rental Mediation Program” and the right to legal counsel.
Rent stabilization is also suggested as the strongest type of tenant protection as new state law limits rent increase to 5% per year plus the annual rate of inflation, which is typically around 2-3%.
Specifically for local governments, the report urges leaders to make investments with a housing bond or donating land, offer no-cost options by streamlining permitting and approval for affordable housing projects, and work on alternative housing models such as community land trusts and limited equity cooperatives.
The full report can be viewed here.
This has been the case for ages; how is this news?
We are experiencing a repeat of the ‘roaring” 1920’s when the rich were buying up mansions, homeless camps were called “Hoovervilles” after Republican president Hoover, the middle class were squeezed in between with wages that didn’t compete with the buying power of the elites who run the country, owned all the newspapers, and controlled the government. (Sound familiar?) Don’t know if we’re headed for recession, but with the rate the U.S. is borrowing, who knows? How can homes average 1 million in this area, with average wages not even close to paying for mortgages or rent. Unsustainable fiscal management by government at all levels.
This has been the case at least since the 1970’s. The hard fact is that supply and demand dictate that not everyone who wants to live on the South Coast will be able to afford it. Government can tinker around the edges but never take care of everyone who aspires to live here.
Just a few years ago 2009 to 2012, during the “great recession” caused by failed monetary and regulatory policy by the federal government and malfeasance by the mortgage/credit/ banking industry, local housing prices dipped considerably due to massive foreclosures, from over 1 million average home price to the low $ 500,000’s. Condos dipped to $350,000, vacancies and employment also dipped, lowering rents. Financial policy by the fed (borrowing and spending above income) have resulted in unsustainable inflation and prices and rents have since soared. None of this is necessary or beneficial to the poor and middle class. All the policies help one group, the rich, who have received huge tax decreases while taxes on the 99% have increased. proportionately. The rich used their financial windfall to buy up much of the formerly middle class housing and turn it into tax sheltered income.
Exactly what I was going to say. It’s news because the situation in the state and in the nation has gotten even worse. I’ve been a renter, and I’ve been an owner. We made good money when our rents were below SB market rate! Had to sell due to changes after deaths in family. I know we screwed our last tenants — everyone moved out when building changed hands. I also know we housed many over several decades, including Section 8. —————————————————————————- Any and all who want to rail against low income people here; want to tell them to leave: You’re wrong. And who is going to run most of the businesses you patronize? Every restaurant, dry cleaner, gas station, grocery store, mini-mart? Who is going to do your gardening, clean your house, clear your brush, empty your hospital bedpan, clean your wood-burning chimney, install your solar panels, drive the street cleaner, deliver your mail, and, a BIG ONE, care for you in your old age?
I wonder what percentage of the rent increases are due to landlords being greedy, and how many are simply due to the extremely high cost the landlords have to cover for their own expenses—mortgage, insurance, taxes, maintenance. If someone bought a rental property many years ago, they should be able to keep the rent low. But if they bought it recently, it will have cost them a bundle and they will have to charge ridiculous rents just to cover their costs. Real estate in this area is crazy expensive. Not all landlords are making major bucks off their properties.
Thank you for pointing that out, a point I glossed over. Our building was bought decades ago, thus the low rents. But I do believe, with some experience, that greed also plays a part. It was only 4 units, but I wish we could’ve kept the building.
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
We aren’t just headed for a recession – we’re headed for full-out Grapes of Wrath.
This trend to low wage jobs supporting the tourism industry started a while ago. In the 70’s each beach, where the “Fess Parker” project was put, was originally planned for light industrial “think tanks” which were going into Goleta at the time. The City Council changed the zoning to accomodate the hoteliers, switching out good high paying job potential for low wage workers. Most of us locals haven’t benefited from selling our waterfront to the highest (out of town) bidders.
But, Dario Pini doesn’t raise his rents, and he rarely evicts…… Oh ya….forgot….. Dario is the bad guy
But where will the water come from for your new building boom? Will the sewage treatment keep up? Sure, it is possible to accommodate many more people with the current water supplies, but most of us don’t want to cut back any more than we already have. And water is just one concern.
Yo! I’ve got a Dario property ya’ – 4 bedroom, near DP High, corner of Alameda and Cathedral Oaks! Been vacant and falling down for 5 years, but, hey, make him an offer!
I heard all of these exact same arguments in the 60’s and the seniors at that time would tell the same stories from earlier times. The facts are Santa Barbara has never been considered “affordable”.
As long as UCSB & CC bring in students who live off campus and are willing to pay $500-1000/mo to rent half of a room, the rents will stay ridiculous.
This has been the case for a LONG time. Santa Barbara is a special place, in fact it is the best place to live in the entire United States and maybe the world. Get over it, it is expensive. Work hard, start a business, save money, buy a home because it will NOT get cheaper. Legislation or subsidization is NOT the answer!!
1. THERE IS NO HOUSING CRISIS! (Yes I’m shouting, sorry.)
2. The birth rate in California is below replacement. (Google it, it’s true.)
3. With an effective vacancy rate of 0%, by definition, every dwelling in Santa Barbara is affordable to those living there.
4. When our elected officials use the term ‘Affordable Housing’, they are speaking in code. What they mean is that in every community in California there should be an equal distribution of income levels living there. This is a ridiculous and ultimately destructive concept. (See 5.)
5. Each one of us is competing with the other 8 billion people for resources including housing (Now more than ever because of the internet). We may not like it, but that’s like saying you don’t like the tides or the sun coming up. It’s just the way it is.
6. Santa Barbara is a desirable place to live. Many of those 8 billion people would like to live here. There is effectively infinite demand for housing in Santa Barbara. High demand creates high prices as those people compete for available housing. (Econ101).
7. In a market with infinite demand, increasing supply (Building more housing) has absolutely no effect on pricing. I’ve lived here for 45 years and have yet to see increasing housing supply lowering prices.
8. Our elected officials are bought and paid for by the real estate and development industry.
9. Most of the government intervention in the the housing market has the opposite effect of the stated purpose. When the government mandates affordable units be built, a lucky few win the lottery for under market prices, but by removing those units from the open market you lower supply and increase prices. When the state interferes with local zoning ordinances and mandates ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) in all zones, the market now prices in the potential income from the ADU. The more services we provide for the homeless, the more homeless we have.
10. The one sure way to lower housing prices in Santa Barbara is to make it less desirable and our elected officials are doing all they can to make that happen.
I know a Latina woman who has a business over on Milpas (Eastside) and she told me that this year for her has been very bad. She told me that last year was just a little better for her. I remember back in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000 her business did very well with the Latino community. Lucky for her she owns the building, but even still, no business still makes very difficult for her. I saw this coming back in 2016. Now the Latino families who reside at 219 E. Haley St. will have to move out because the owner(s) of the property already have the approval to build a massive AUD complex, and AUD’s start off well over for $1,000 per month for a studio, 1 bedrooms over in the $2,000 range, 2 bedrooms well over $2,500 and 3 bedrooms over $3,000. Some home rentals and 2 or 3 apt. units are over $4,000 per month. Working, middle class, and our first responders just cannot afford to reside here in SB.
A semester of economics is something that is now required in high school, thank goodness! Unfortunately, those who missed out on this opportunity imagine basic economic concepts as forces caused by greed and evil (visualize the caveman’s discovery of fire). For those who are unclear on the concepts of supply, demand, market value and market rate, I urge you to research the basic concepts of macro and micro economics (better yet, take classes). We all have Google!
If “not all landlords are making major bucks off their properties” why invest in housing? Good tax shelter and hedge on inflation. Landlords profit handsomely or they wouldn’t buy up to 1/3 of residential properties. Often middle class families lose the opportunity to buy homes when they can’t compete with all cash offers from wealthy landlords.
News Flash! It is expensive to live in Santa Barbara. In other news, today the Sun rose in the East.
Thats not the point of this, and thats such a cope out dodging response. so you are ok with raising cost of living to the moon, but yet not personal income? I bet you change your tune when you run out of money. So many people here think they are high above the rest, you’re not. get off the high horse and realize this is a NATIONWIDE issue also, this isnt people complaining for a handout. I will for one continue to berate people that say this, today, tomorrow, and the day after. You are an asshole to say peoples plight and struggle is “just how it is”. its not.
All the energy put into posts to say ” its just how it is, get over it” yet no constructive comments to discuss ways of stemming this issue? I have worked my ass off since I was 12, yes 12. I worked with a special work permit, I have worked since then. I still dont own a home, The banking collapse, the home mortgage fiasco. all things I personally did not get involved with luckily. All those issues influenced our job market, and income levels. it is still affecting us. Income levels are still stagnant and have been for years, there is no “make more money” here, there is no “get another job” the jobs dont have the money to spend. So some of you are lucky, and bravo to you for getting in early, or getting a foot in the door somehow. but honestly the constant “judging” and shaming of people that cant seem to make ends meet its sickening. this is what community says? this is what community feels like? toxic community more like it.
Basic supply and demand, not difficult to figure out. Bakersfield is cheap, Santa Barbara is expensive. Duh.
Yay to OAITW. Spot on with every point. “There is effectively infinite demand for housing in Santa Barbara”. I grew up in SoCal, have lived in SB as a renter for almost 3 decades and I don’t understand why our govt officials say that people have a RIGHT to live here no matter what!?! RE #8, add to that the TECH INDUSTRY. We will be owned by it soon, if we aren’t already. The tech industry was wooed into coming here, they are HERE now in huge numbers (tons of app-controlled, sun-challenged, man-bun, man-beard, pencil-necked, tatooed, trendy, techie urbanites flooding our town) and so rental and housing prices will rise to crazy prices exactly like the bay area. I never thought I would say this, but SB is getting claustrophobic and daily decreasing in attractiveness and noise levels with all the high-density housing, horrible traffic, new blinding street lights and ugly telephone poles & telecommunication devices and spiderwebs of cables above our heads. This all saddens me, and I will probably vacate my rental soon for bluer oceans, less crowded streets and gang-free living, no matter how small my living area has to be.
Make no mistake. There has been a fundamental failure on the part of our so-called “leaders” over the last 40+ years. Their short term thinking has led to an unnecessary reliance on the service and tourist industries for the city’s own tax and revenue needs and desires. The results are a city heavily dependent on the ToT, business and sales taxes from the tourist and service industries for their own survival. Our leaders have ignored the impacts of promoting these low wage, high demand sectors whose business rely on our resources both natural (beauty, location, weather) and man made (water, sewer, roads, emergency, etc ). Most of these businesses are not owned by locals, they are mostly owned by corporate interests and outside investors. Their profits, built off our city’s natural attractions and generous incentives, are taken away from the city and spent elsewhere. The labor required to run these businesses are mostly low skilled, low wage that causes either a) increased reliance upon social services or b) heavenly increased traffic due to long commutes. The later takes even more money away from our town. These are necessary roles but are not good for the community when they make up the bulk of the jobs. To make matters worse: The leaders have ignored the promise of small business and start-ups and the incredibly rich talent pool that comes from UCSB, and have made it as difficult and expensive as possible to start and build a new, high wage, high value business here. Instead choosing to pursue short term bumps like cruise ships and marketing campaigns to attract national chains… All the while, our city’s leaders are increasing headcount, annually increasing their own pay and benefits and enjoying an increasing tax pool from which to pay themselves. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| So the issue is not in the lack of affordable housing, its the abject failure of our leaders to build a stable economy and community instead opting for the easy, short term fixes. So it is not the cost of housing, it’s the jobs that we have in this city and most importantly, why we have those jobs. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| The reasons are clear, the solution is close by but the control over the decision is in the hands of the very people who will lose if we shift away from the service / low wage economy to a more sustainable and equitable one. It will come at a loss of growth and a need to have a city workforce more than twice the size and payroll of any comparable town. Time to ask your “leaders” why instead of accepting and demand that they change. We as a town of 100k are not capable of supporting the social services of 20-25K people. Its fundamentally impossible. Please vote with your children’s children in mind or things are going to get a lot worse…
Mattyboy, It’s not that their willing – like everyone else they have no choice.
Yin Yan, and 7:16 p.m. , 7:58 pm Commenters, Well said – you hit the nail on the head. We’re not heading for a recession though – we’re heading for a full on Depression. Unfortunately the only affordable places left in this country for average wage earners (twice minimum wage!), have no jobs!!
When you grew up driving 100 miles each day to work, gas was cheap. I spent $400-500 a month commuting to my job 35 mi. away 10 years ago. When rents are $500 more a month here than nearby towns, and the cost to commute isn’t feasible, there’s not much of a choice for employees other than to stop working here. Santa Barbara is eventually going to price itself out of being a viable place to live when the Service Industries close due to lack of workers…. or businesses like the Hotel Industries are just going to have to start housing their employees.
DEC 14, 2019 11:30 AM ——The Population Crisis is the source and cause of all these other crises and should not be lumped in as though it’s only part of the problem.
It’s ridiculous to think that rents will decrease substantially without a corresponding economic calamity. Same with housing prices in general. If rents or prices went down 25%, there would be large numbers of housing units (both owner-occupied or rentals) underwater or foreclosed upon or otherwise distressed. This would bring about a severe reduction in available credit, lending, and a corresponding economic slowdown with mass layoffs and the whole works (2008 anyone?)
It’s often to easy to make landlords out to be evil greedy people. Another way of looking at it is, for a return on their investment, they are providing homes to 60% of the people of Santa Barbara, who otherwise could not afford to live here. If those rentals were to all appear on the market, how many of the current renters would be ready to buy. How many would have the savings for the down payment, the steady employment record with earnings sufficient to cover the monthly payment, the 800+ credit rating. Living in Santa Barbara is hard. We all know this. Please stop demonizing the people who have, through luck, opportunity, skill, and hard work, managed to successfully create a life for themselves in Santa Barbara. And by the way, I am not a landlord, just a retired homeowner saddened by the wrong headed decisions of our local elected officials that are destroying my community.
Why is everything a “crisis”? Housing crisis. Immigration crisis. Climate crisis. Water crisis. Population crisis. Refugee crisis. Opioid crisis. Homeless crisis. Food safety crisis. Drought crisis. Health care crisis. Some places have a high cost of living. Santa Barbara is one of these places. This is not a crisis. No one is being forced to live here. I would like to live in Beverly Hills, but I do not have enough money for this. Maybe if I declare the “I want to live in Beverly Hills crisis” someone will buy me a house there.
Personally, I’d like a Ferrari Crisis. Then maybe Das Williams will buy me a nice new Roma…
I believe very strongly that people should get paid more to work, a lot more. I think employers should be forced to compete with each other to attract talent, offering higher wages and more benefits. However, I think that issue is separate and distinct from housing. For the housing issue, I see three fundamental approaches. The first is the traditional free market approach that prevailed until the later part of the 20th century. Property owners were free to build what they pleased on their property and landlords were free to set rents without any restrictions. Under this system, the free market increased housing supply to meet demand and a person with a working class job could afford to buy a home in Santa Barbara. The free market approach also transformed the landscape. Ranches and lemon groves were replaced with the neighborhoods and apartment buildings we live in today. The second approach to housing started in the later part of the 20th century and largely continues today, an all out effort to resist development and change. New construction is heavily restricted, while pricing is left to the free market. The restricted supply has caused a dramatic increase in home prices and rents. However, you can still have whatever housing you want if you are willing and able to pay the market price. We are now starting to flirt with the third approach, price controls. In this system, the government regulates prices and rents, forcing them below the free market rate. While price controls may seem appealing as rents continue to increase faster than wages, this approach is disastrous. Yes, price controls will mean new homes are cheap and rents are low. However, what good are cheap homes and low rent if nothing is available? Imagine going on craigslist and finding the apartments / housing section empty. That is what true price controls will look like. If builders and landlords are not allowed to make a profit, there will be no housing supply. The only way to make housing affordable is to return to a free market. Simplify the building code to make new construction cheaper, allow property owners to build what they want on their land. Streamline the permitting process to make it fast, objective, and accessible to everyone. If we do that, we will see a boom in construction like never before. The city of Santa Barbara will build up and the surrounding suburbs will sprawl. A new equilibrium will be established where builders and landlords must compete to attract home buyers and tenants. The construction does not have to go on forever. There are 8 billion people in the world and that is increasing. However, there are only 330 million people in the USA and our birth rate is below the replacement level. We need to build a lot of housing to accommodate those who are already here, but we do not have to house the whole world.
Stated well, thank you. There’ll never be sufficient housing for those wanting to live here unless we spoil what makes Santa Barbara special.
It all seems like a basic economics supply and demand course. Subsidies and public assistance and ignorant politicians simply muck it all up. I tried to get my child to take an accounting, economics or finance course in high school and in college. I lost the battle. My child is smart, but not educated in macro/micro economics… just like most everybody under a certain age. There are no mandated high school economics courses teaching reality. So people vote with their emotions… or don’t vote at all. Rent control, subsidies and high density housing aren’t the answer. It just makes for a less desirable place to live. If you can’t afford it, move, get a better job, sell drugs, or become a politician who is bought and paid for. That’s reality.
And those of you who are fortunate enough to own here and hire service people to work on your stuff, and police to keep your stuff safe, it’s fine to have them live 70 miles away and spend a significant portion of their lives burning fossil fuels to help you out. Really it is a very precarious system that is one day bound to go bad; you got a little taste of that during the Montecito disaster with the 101 closed for a relatively short while. 6 hours to drive from Ventura to SB via Sta Maria.
STOP ENTITLEMENTS NOW! Good tenants are not evicted, they are valued. Their rents are rarely increased beyond the landlords expense increase for water, taxes, fees, repairs, and labor costs for maintenance. PRIVATE SMALL LANDLORDShave empty rentals all over Santa Barbara refusing to rent to demanding, militant, sue-crazed folks. Approached by reasonable prospective tenants, we will rent. Demanding people protest while others succeed in getting and keeping quality housing from responsive landlords.
Teaching financial literacy is anti-California’s Socialist Manifesto. The CA Government leaders want dependent kids to vote for free and subsidized living rather than delay gratification by working smart for higher life satisfaction.
Rents are less for some because Elected SB City Council will require you to pay more to directly subsidize lucky me. Our elected officials decided you have too much so you should pay for me. No need for me to thank you: I’m entitled to whatever you have. Inclusionary Santa Barbara. Watch Jerry Robert’s’ interview w Rep Oscar Gutierrez?!! GzeeUs. I hope you don’t own a 4-bedroom house with an empty bedroom.
Don’t work here if you can’t afford it. Employers pay what we must. Local government overpays workers by taxing the rest of us the money we in the private sector would pay valued, essential workers. Limit government. Hey- why do City workers and SBCC get Fridays off with no salary reduction? Why? Because taxpayers don’t scream ‘Enough!’.
No one is stopping you from earning more money. There is infinite opportunity and money to be had in the USA. You just have to go out and make it happen. Stop complaining. Work smarter, not harder.
02:42 AM: If your son is making $21K / mo, he is well inside “the top 1%” (starts at $12.5K/mo+). Did he perhaps have have opportunities or privileges not accessible to all? You need to seriously ask yourself that if you cannot understand the difficulties had by others. While your advise is not wrong, what if their parents are already working two jobs, or they live in a single parent home, or a hundred other situations? Not everyone has the bootstraps to pull themselves up by.
Those landlords are few and far between, I think. Heck, I remember being a model renter 20 years ago or so, and my landlord raised the rent $330 in the first year, from $995 to $1325 a month. It’s even worse now than it was then.
According to rent cafe, the average rent in Santa Barbara is about $2200. In a beautiful Salt Lake City, for example, the average rent is about $1200. Taking into account average salaries (according to payscale.com), this means about 20% goes to rent in Salt Lake City and 35% goes to rent in Santa Barbara. There are plentiful jobs available in both cities. This is just one example of another nice city where someone could rent for less.
Sooo, someone could choose to live much more easily in another city if they didn’t want to struggle with rent in Santa Barbara. It is a choice.
If rents were dropped to average $1200 here in Santa Barbara, then guess what? We would have so many more people trying to rent here and even more housing advocates demanding that there is not enough housing and we need to build more.
Those of fortunate enough to own a piece of paradise we are indeed blessed. For those who cannot and probably never will be able to afford owning it’s probably time to consider moving to a more affordable community where home ownership is still possible if you have a decent job.
FACTOTUM, actually no – a review of actual market rent history shows that the $995/month was market rate at the time. However, the rental being in Goleta was the issue. Our theory is that we took over the rental in late May (a relatively good time to get a place), and the owner’s son took care of the renting while the owners were on vacation. The owners had planned on raising the rents between tenants, and were accustomed to renting to students (2 per bedroom), figuring that an extra $325 comes out to approx $80 each. The son did not get the memo and rented it to us at the prior rate. The $330 rental increase came over the space of 11 months, the final increase of $150 coming JUST before the fall semester the following year (funny thing that). Awesome time to be looking for a new place, let me tell you. Ah, the landlord is fairly well known for owning a LOT of property in town. We’d have been happy to stay for years and years. But unlike some, who find the “unicorn” landlords who only raise rents occasionally, and by reasonable amounts (perhaps my spouse’s first landlord fit that bill), we had difficulties again after that, as we rented a condo that was suddenly sold 9 months into our renting of it. After that we gave up and moved to student housing for a couple of years. For sure saving up over many years to get ourselves a mortgage was the best long term strategy. STILL though, at current market rental rates we could rent our house for the mortgage payment, but it would not cover the property tax. That is the case for a fair % of the smaller landlords, who perhaps bought and then had to move out of town. It is still far cheaper to rent than buy in this town.
right Fred…right, so people like you can control the market and push out the middle class and lower class? Think again. That won’t happen. If you’re a landbaron and charge obnoxious rent to the locals that work and support this city and county, then you are just part of the bigger problem.
Yes, I see your point 7170. I look at the pictures in news stories of tenants rights groups and their angry hate-filled faces, and all I can think is what landlord in their right mind would rent to that? These groups are trying to make an adversarial relationship between them and landlords, with the absurd presumption that ALL landlords are greedy and all of them are rich. Not only is the “rent too damn high” as these groups chant, but everything, including food, clothing, cars, gas etc. is too high. The expenses landlords pay for property taxes, maintenance costs, city fees, insurance, etc also are too high. When I can no longer afford to live in SB I will move, not try to force someone else to subsidize me. If you are a landlord look out though. The next thing these groups, which include the Aids Initiative group, are planning to force into law is removing a landlord’s ability to choose their tenants.