Edhat Staff
Update by the edhat staff
April 6, 2023
Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted to amend the county’s tenant protection ordinance to include “renovictions” on Thursday.
The ordinance passed 4-1 and is effective immediately for all future evictions served. Landlords claiming substantial renovations as the cause for tenant evictions must now obtain permits for the scope of the renovation and provide the tenant with copies of the permits, written notice, scope of work, and explanation of why tenant vacancy must be 30 days or more.
Examples of substantial renovations would include the electrial, plumbing, or structural changes as well as anything requiring a permit or the handling of hazardous materials such as mold or asbestos.
“Today we act in support of humans who deserve the dignity and the right to not live in the chaos of uncertain housing. We stand and continue the work to not exacerbate our housing crisis,” Supervisor Laura Capps said in a statement on Thursday.
(Photo: Santa Barbara County)
Supervisors to Hold Special Meeting Over Isla Vista “Renovictions”
By the edhat staff
April 5, 2023
Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting Thursday to consider adopting an urgency ordinance regarding a mass rental eviction in Isla Vista.
The CBC & Sweeps Complex apartment buildings, a collective of 264 units with a total as many as 1,000 residents, were purchased by the multi-billion dollar real estate firm Core Spaces.
Core Spaces sent out 60 day eviction notices to every tenant last month stating plans for an extensive remodel, also known as a “renoviction.” Occupants include multi-generational families, students, seniors, and pet owners. The County Community Services Department believes tenants in about 20 units are receiving emergency housing vouchers, as part of the County’s strategy to address homelessness. This is occurring at a time where there is a scarcity of rental inventory and the vacancy rate is below 2% on the south coast.
County Supervisor Laura Capps stated this event is a “Code Red for me and my staff” and is perhaps the largest mass eviction in California, during Tuesday’s meeting.
“I am outraged and appalled at the recent eviction notices affecting Isla Vista families and students – yet another warning signal of the housing crisis our county is experiencing,” said Capps in a statement last month. “This travesty is happening to families who have lived in this complex for decades, diligently paying their rent each month so that they may provide a secure space for their children. It is happening to students, who struggle each year to find housing due to UCSB’s failure to provide housing for its students.”
County Ordinance Chapter 44 states in some instances tenants can be paid a relocation fee equal to three months rent or $7,000, whichever is greater.
A special meeting is planned for 9:00 a.m. Thursday to consider recommendations regarding an Urgency Ordinance to Chapter 44 to add Article IV, Just Cause for Residential Evictions.
Last month, the Santa Barbara City Council unanimously approved clarifying amendments to the City’s Just Cause Eviction Ordinance. Clarifications of the ordinance state that if landlords use the “substantial remodel” reason to evict, they must explain good faith reasons and provide acquired permits alongside the eviction notice.
The Santa Barbara Tenants Union explains the purpose of the clarifying ordinance: “If we are required to vacate our home for a health and safety issue, the notice to vacate should include why we’re being evicted – complete with all the necessary permits and paperwork to prove they are not evicting us just to go around the law. This would ensure those of us that need to vacate the premises understand why. Evictions should only happen in good faith, for legitimate reasons, and not as a way to circumvent any local, state or federal laws.”
The City Council’s clarifying amendment to the Just Cause Ordinance states that if a landlord uses the “substantial remodel” no-fault eviction, they must serve tenants with a copy of the permits along with a notice stating the reason for the termination; the type and scope of work to be performed; why the work cannot be reasonably accomplished in a safe manner with the tenant in place; and why the work requires the tenant to vacate the residential real property for at least 30 days.
The copy and notice shall be contained in or served concurrently with the notice of termination, and must be filed with the Community Development Department.
If evictions are not allowed, how can extensive improvements and renovations be completed? Is it going to become illegal or prohibitively expensive and burdensome to buy an old apartment building and upgrade it? Will those who invest large amounts of money in building, maintaining, and improving rental property give up and invest their money elsewhere? What impact might that have on the availability and quality of rental housing?
@Chip, this doesn’t state anything about evictions or upgrades not being allowed. It requires that permits are already filed and copies provided to the tenants at the time of the eviction notice. This assures that the evictions are legitimate and timely. I see no problem with that. Improvement work cannot begin until necessary permits are issued anyway, so no need to displace hundreds of families/individuals prior to obtaining them or even beginning the application processes.
Chip – did you even read the article? Or are you spreading misinformation as usual?
Since the health and safety code drives the building codes specifically title 24 and our county has adopted the international property maintenance code therein standards for habitation landlords are required to meet these requirements. Tenants are required by the civil codes to maintain compliance to the code as well. Years ago the board working with the university housing department created an inspection program to cause a conduit , the program met immediate friction from certain landlords the Kamaps of isla vista in other words those of integrity aggressively supported the program using it to swiftly establish a standard of care. Many of the buildings have outlived their assembly life span , these should come down be replaced with state of the art engineering for human safety. The current vehicles of politicians media whipping cream are tired, the cast iron waste failing the infestation claimed by those interviewed by the wing spreading supervisor could be held to the standards of care requirements. The Ferrari driving vineyard owning investors of isla vista wealth has been earned by risk and the county and university inability to contain bureaucratic burdensome requirements, an example one structure was facing over 400k in sanctioning costs to replace 100k in five structural beams. With study of the county policy and ordinance it eas discovered since the building was created prior to the coastal permit clause it was not subjected the permit process. This process for simple repairs can take months to obtain the county staff talented but overwhelmed by applications and short staffing and four day work weeks and now another layer for fees well done more fuel for the rent increase fire.
Supply and demand has and shall forever attract investment. These structures designed for captivity when UCSB had a football team.
Most all have been cosmetically painted to attract affluent families , origin does not matter it is all about dead presidents. As for a death trap diatribe egress engineering requirements by title 24 would limit life safety issue. Land divided by units one limits the other by regulations recent policies have been established to create densities that will change the area traffic patterns not only in the surface infrastructure but the tired subterranean waste and supply conduits cause in cost to rise . This recent knight to queen four is merely a wind balloon adrift since the initial spade turned soil back when the old bridge at the end of Fairview was the path to a bright future. This county has become oz the green pastures for affluence seventy year old tract homes selling in hours for 2 million or more , senate bills SB9 will create hamster cage dwellings crammed into tiny spaces and the politicians will cheer look what we accomplished as they did by spending a ludicrous sum per square foot to drop plywood boxes into a parking lot to save humans. Supply and demand like balls in your bag once the sleeves are gone you hit range balls IV mostly now badly torn polished range balls .
Sorry, but this post of Farleesemo’s spooked me.
Farleesmo: WHAT?! tl; dr.
What IS this:
“The current vehicles of politicians media whipping cream are tired, the cast iron waste failing the infestation claimed by those interviewed by the wing spreading supervisor could be held to the standards of care requirements.”
Please edit and use paragraph breaks!
Look at me trying to be nice and telling someone who is writing gibberish to “edit and use paragraph breaks”!! I’m a screw up for trying to smooth things over; some things don’t deserve an attempt to understand them.
How about Sears being divided up into work force housing? Macy’s?
My landlord lets us have dogs and is really good. There are some great landlords out there. I recommend posting on “Housing Wanted” on Craigslist. Be well-written and speak about your employment and ability to pay rent. Talk about being respectful and clean. DON’T say you are 420 friendly if you want a nice place! Use good grammar and good spelling. That is how we got our place. Good luck to all looking.
I seem to recall that these buildings were in need of seismic retrofit and other structural work even back in the late seventies. I wonder if that work was ever done? These were originally some of the most slapdash construction in Isla Vista. These are now sixty year old buildings that were not built to last in the first place. They were designed to barely meet code while in the design phase and by the time they were completed the codes had moved on but the building integrity had not. These days such business strategy might not even lead to an occupancy certificate.
Bottom line is that in a non-insane regulatory climate these would never be renovated, they would be bulldozed and rebuilt. Probably should have happened decades ago.
I predict the county will come up with some kind of “tenant protection” plan that will prevent the owner from renovating, upgrading, or replacing the buildings in order to prevent evictions. Then, if ever a tragedy strikes they will blame the owner for failing to upgrade or replace the unsafe building.
Chip, I agree with you.
I would opine that the Isla Vista that we see today is the natural result of half a century of poor planning on the part of state and local governments. The buildings in question were cute and cheap but rather substandard student housing back in the seventies when I lived in IV. Today? They are shabby, outlandishly expensive, and still substandard.
Tell the County they will need to sign a document that they take full responsibly corporately and personally if someone is injured or dies due to substandard conditions that pre-existed their purchase of the property. That would clear the room
Any chance there is a Zoom link (or comparable) to provide public comment at the Board meeting?
If the County was serious about addressing the shortage of housing, it would rezone Isla Vista to allow 80′ building heights and minimal parking requirements (and require permits for overnight parking).
They gave notice to everyone, many if not all are on month to month agreements, but the law says that if the tenant has been there over one year, that notice is 60 days.
If it was me, I’s start looking hard now. I’m not going to milk it until the 60 days run out, but if I can’t find anything, I’m sending the owner and the county a letter every week telling them I am not vacating until I find a replacement unit. The other thing that will happen is that students will naturally leave at the end of the school year and the landlord knows they are not leaving until late June, and the landlord is going to leave those empty. Anyway you slice it, eventually people need to leave and I’d try to be out and into a newly vacant place (at a different complex obviously) at end of June, 1st of July.
Another landlord strategy might be to do renovations block by block, moving tenants within the complex
You’re missing the part about there being a 2% vacancy and if you have 1,000 people all searching for apartments at the same time, no one will get housed.
There’s nothing to “milk,” and refusing to vacate is a recipe for an eviction record that will make it impossible for you to rent for SEVEN YEARS, except through a needle-in-a-haystack, sympathetic private landlord.
I feel horrible for these people but refusing to vacate creates a much larger, longer lasting issue.
Clearly noted that in IV vacancies happen every year in late June because seniors graduate
On NextDoor last week, one of the tenants shared this information. The eviction date is the day before finals week. The students that are being evicted will have no place to live while taking their finals. Finals week is stressful enough for the students without the added stress of being homeless and having to move while preparing for finals.
I understand that overall, this is a problem larger than that, many of the students leave for the summer anyway. The main problem is the year-round tenants being evicted. But the property owners could have at least waited for the UCSB school year to conclude.
Another tactic that local landlords use is “my family member is moving into the unit.” I’ve seen it happen to friends of mine, in one instance it was after the landlord got into a disagreement with a tenant almost immediately after. We later found the apartment on craigslist. In my neighborhood too, the landlord kicked out a family that had been there for 15 years claiming his daughter and her little kids were going to live there. We watched the family pack up and say goodbye and the next day there were construction crews over there giving it a minor facelift and it was listed for nearly 10x the rent and six college age kids moved in less than a month later.
Many IV landlords are evil
Just greedy bad case of trump
Maybe we can limit the UCSB degree factory enrollment so the city isn’t flooded with non native college students. This way people who actually live and work here long term can find and afford housing.
Though I suppose we can also let UCSB build a giant Orwellian death trap for those non native students.
ERICL – There are over 24,000 students enrolled at UCSB. You think there are that many “native” students that would be able to succeed at that academic level? How many “non native” students are too much? I agree we should give priority to local students, but only if they’re qualified. UCSB is one of the top research schools in the country. We shouldn’t be turning away brilliant minds just because they’re “non native.”
Not even going to touch the “death trap” remark.
Maybe Dario was ahead of his time.. He knows how help the housing shortage. Stack and pack tenants. Don’t evict and don’t fix!!