City leaders discuss housing in Santa Maria

SANTA MARIA, Calif.- The goal of this workshop is for the community to share their thoughts on what they want to see in future housing in Santa Maria.

“We're asking folks what they think are the most important housing issues for the city right now. We're also asking what their experiences are in terms of finding housing that affordable to them. We also asked where they'd like to see housing and what types of housing they would like to see. Does the city need more single-family housing for instance, or do we need smaller homes for starter homes," said Frank Albro City of Santa Maria Principal Planner.

Thanks to a survey city administrators say they are able to get an idea of what kind of homes the community wants to see.

“So we have conducted a few surveys on housing and some of the responses that we've received so far. Is housing for starter homes, housing for younger folks that are just starting in their careers and may need more affordable level housing, housing for seniors which many of the projects that we have in process right now are for exclusively senior housing," said Frank Albro.

People in the meeting say starter homes is something they want to see. Others were saying they would like to see more of dorm style living.

Some of the housing challenges discussed were lack of affordable housing and over crowding.

People in the community say housing right now is difficult for some.

“There's a big concern about low income housing, especially because I do work with a lot of farm workers I have seen a lot of expression, a lot of farm workers calling me to say they've been evicted from their housing. That they can't afford the housing or they can't afford apartments. For example, studios go for about $1500 two bedrooms going for about to $2500. So those are like very, very high prices, especially for farm workers who are working on a minimum wage basis. $15 an hour. So it's very very hard to make for farm workers to make ends meet,” said Fernando Martinez, Community Organizer at Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project.

The next workshops are:

Friday October 28, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m at Grogan Community Center, 1155 West Rancho Verde.

Thursday, November 3, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m at Santa Maria Public Library, Shepard Hall, 421 South McClelland Street.