Housing solutions conference focuses on collaboration and various levels of new projects
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The affordable housing focus has been one path for cities and counties to work on the housing crisis in front of them. There's also been a suggestion to look at all levels of housing for solutions.
At the Santa Barbara Housing Conference presented by the Coastal Housing Coalition, the message discussed was our communities know there is a housing crisis, but solutions will require collaboration and housing options at all levels.
That will allow lower level renters to move up if they can, and the mid level renters to find a larger place to live once they can meet the financial obligations if that fits their lifestyle. This concept opens up rooms at various levels instead of just building new units.
Planners, financial institutions, architects and elected officials filled the room to hear experts update them them on solutions and also legislation that could help speed up the process.
Chis Guillen an attorney with Brownstein said creating more workforce housing will create a better quality of life. "We need to build in order to keep our community integrated and here and not commuting long distances."
A keynote speaker, Shane Phillips with UCLA Regional Policy Studies said, "housing is the most important issues for residents and voters and that is a relatively recent development."
He said the supply of homes needs to meet the current and future demands.
The concept of housing subsidies was also discussed as well as employer assisted plans for employees, as a way to offset their housing costs.
Without some solutions, there will be more impacts on outside communities, more traffic and having workers live so far away a bus is not always an option to get to and from work.
This comes at a time when the state is requiring cities and counties to increase their housing stock.
That's been uncomfortable for jurisdictions that did not want to sacrifice some land for these projects, or did not want to allow for an increase in density.
 "There are projects today that are benefiting from state housing laws that are allowing those projects to move forward. There's also more action that can be done at the state level that will allow over the long term, to ease the housing crisis," said Guillen.
The conference stressed the need for local workforce housing for the health of the local communities and to sustain long term employees who want to live where they work.
One of the planning discussions involved the three S's for all levels of housing. It was the supply, stability and subsidy approach to future housing decisions.
