Santa Barbara City Council hears inclusionary housing progress report

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) The Santa Barbara City Council heard a progress report about inclusionary housing.

City staff studied the "Regional Housing Needs Allocation" mandated by the state.

Out of 863 permitted units this year, they found 38 very low income units, 93 low income units, 69 moderate and 663 above moderate.

That means low and very low income housing units make up 8.5 percent of the total.

Santa Barbara Community Development Director Allison Debusk called it a balancing act.

"We are trying to balance providing new residential units which will ultimately help the housing supply, but also providing affordable housing for some many community residents that need it," said Debusk.

The Santa Barbara City Council also talked about the monthly cost of new studios.

"The study did show that new studios are averaging about $3500, but that doesn't take into account older units that were built before 2017 that are also part of the market," said Debusk.

Some new units are now leasing on Haley Street or under construction of Garden Street.

City staff gave the council 10 recommendations including applying inclusionary housing requirements to all rental projects with more than five units, implementing automatic annual In-Lieu Fee rate adjustments, and counting rental inclusionary units as bonus density.

Mayor Randy Rowse said the recommendations are flexible enough to start conversations when developers come to town.

Councilmembers said they know that there is a need to build more units especially downtown.

They are expected to vote on the recommendations today.