Edhat StaffBy Ernie Salomon
No city, including SB can build itself into affordable housing and into prosperity. The more housing that is built, the more people will come here and the more demand for housing, city services, welfare and more congestion too, even as our idiot planners ordain that new housing units will bring less cars.
The AUD program is a fraud! The recent article in the independent shows a picture of the AUD program Mark complex at State and La Cumbre. Here, a one bedroom apartment goes for $2,900 a month. To afford this one bedroom, an income of about $120,000 a year is required. How many single people or couples in Santa Barbara who even want to live in this building, which resembles an institution inside, make $120,000 a year?
Just for whom are these AUD units and any other “affordable” units being built? The only way that an affordable housing program could work would be to reserve any new such housing for local residents who have lived here x number of years, but gosh oh gee whiz, they already live here!
In the long run, building these new “affordable” units serves only one purpose; to bring even more people into Santa Barbara, many who cannot afford to live here!
The actions that the mayors, boards of supervisors and councils can do to control the loss of affordable housing by local workers, they have not! Thousands of foreign and out of state students at SBCC who have no legal right to be there and even UCSB have robbed local workers of the ability to live here by forcing their evictions. Kaplan, EF and the other language schools who bring in thousands of foreigners take local’s housing as well. So do vacation rentals!
The bitter fact is that if you cannot afford to live where you live or want to live, then you have to move to a second choice or even third choice city. Most people cannot afford a $20,000,000 home and a private 747 and a 300 foot yacht. People have to adjust to their means. Those who commute to work here or have moved out of the coastal high rent area have adjusted to their financial realities. It is not their choicest way to live, but this is the system we have. It has absolutely nothing to do with race or ethnic origin, it has everything to do with housing demand versus supply. The demand is great to live here and the supply of housing cannot keep up and never will. This will continue to force rents up.
Too many people want to live in California’s coast with its extremely high rents. The only answer for the California Coast is the San Joaquin Valley Bullet Train. This would begin a new land and job rush and prosperity for those who cannot afford to live on the coast to the valley.
This same cynical and deplorable hatred of others is trickling down straight from the garbage in the White House.
Bourgeois: A person whose political, economic, and social opinions are believed to be determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability.dominated or characterized by materialistic pursuits or concerns.
“Thousands of foreign and out of state students at SBCC who have no legal right to be there and even UCSB have robbed local workers of the ability to live here by forcing their evictions. ”
I have lived here for 30 years. Employment has always been at the ready. I have never competed with a student or a foreign worker. Sounds like fear mongering spread by 45.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with race or ethnic origin”
So please tell me the percentage of blacks in positions paying over $60,000 per year on the central coast.
“The demand is great to live here and the supply of housing cannot keep up and never will. This will continue to force rents up.”
Bologna – it’s actually the greed of the property owner.
Ernie,
You are correct about supply vs. demand – the south coast will always have more demand than can ever be met due to our geographic constraints and our self-imposed height-of-buildings constraint. And that tension will always drive up the cost of the item in short supply.
But consider two points.
1. The mayors, supervisors and councils can not legally prohibit foreign and out of state students at SBCC, UCSB, Kaplan, EF and the other language schools as you suggest. SBCC and UCSB could but have no interest in doing so as those students pay a lot more to attend.
2. Is it possible that long-time residents on the south coast will move up to new places like the Mark freeing up their current rentals for other renters to move up and so on down the chain of rental properties.
At least this AUD program has finally gotten new rentals in the pipeline after decades with no new rentals and many existing rentals being turned into condominiums.
Great job turning this into something about Trump. Really, A+, bang up job. Unfortunately, the OP’s comments are not as xenophobic as you think. Foreign and out of state students do indeed drive evictions and high rent, because, surprise, they are willing/able to pay outrageous prices per room/bed to be here temporarily, rates that locals cannot sustain, especially families with children who cannot afford to pay $800-1200/person for a rental. e.g. 4 college students can easily pay $500-800/mo each for a 2 bedroom ($2000-3200) total and the landlords gobble it up. How do you suppose a traditional family can afford $2000-3200/mo rent? I’ll tell you: they can’t. Don’t tell me paying half your gross income in rent is “affordable”.
I can’t afford to downsize!!
I have kids and I use family lawyers to satisfy all of their legal whims too.
Even better, people that use “family lawyers” to solve million dollar disputes. Good deal, hope they serve you well. My neighbor did the same thing once. He lost his home.
Your neighbor didn’t have enough money to tie up the courts for 20 years. I do.
And your neighbor is an idiot.
The sad fact of the matter is that Mr. Solomon is correct. “General Tree” should take an economics class to understand the laws of supply and demand. We cannot all afford to live where we would like and that is simply an unfortunate fact of life. Do you really want Santa Barbara to become like Los Angeles or do you want to protect the beauty we came here to enjoy?
You are correct! Local elected officials have no legal right to ban foreign and out of state students from SBCC or UCSB. But..I have said this before: They are mostly Democrats and the State is a one-party state at present. I have suggested that they go to Sacramento and talk to top Democrats, including Brown and tell them to curtail the influx of outside students, especially to SBCC. The SBCC Board of Trustees CAN BAN outsiders, but they want the money that they bring! It is doable!
General tree. The only effect the Whitehouse has on our local housing market is your irrational accusation that people are hateful because they paid into a real estate market that some people (you) have now decided needs to be rigged in their favor. You are obviously not a home owner because if you were you would be pulling your hair out knowing that the WHITEHOUSE is about to sign a tax bill that is going to put a cap of 500k on interest your can write off from your mortgage. Oh But thats just coming form a guy who is in his mid 30s and just purchased a home for under 800k in SB… So yeah lets blame the Whitehouse for why housing is not affordable. The idiotic thing is this tax bill in theory will soften up the market so someone (not like you) may be able to squeeze into a home in santa barbara for less than what they would have if this bill was not passed. You need to see a counselor if you are still aching from an election that happened over a year ago and you think your are being edgy by blaming a guy that is about to make California’s, NY and NJ’s housing market soften up some cities more than others. And for me his choices are actually effecting me as I will be paying more taxes and potentially watching my investment soften up. Keep complaining.
Ernie I completely agree that the only thing that will change our current market supply and demand gridlock is a major project that would create new demand in different locations that are not already completely at capacity. Water will always be an issue for us but if we could make living in the central valley an economic and logistic option things would certainly stabilize here too. I consult with a couple of startups in the fresno area. They are smart to have created a software business in a place they can pay people to live like kings. Silicone valley is going to be a victim of its own success by basically creating virtually no reason anyone has to be in a specific location all day to work for a company. They can work from home and decide where they live. Of course there are places that people will gather naturally because of weather or local attractions and community but the idea that cities need to manipulate the local market is reminiscent of the coal mine company store mentality. WE don’t need people designing our city to accommodate people who they think should be able to afford to live here. We need people to realize that like Mark Twain said “buy land they are not making that any more” and plan their lives accordingly. If you are reading this and you are upset you can’t afford to live in SB then stop blaming me and everyone else who owns a home here and do something about it like buy a home or invest in something so that someday you can afford to live here. No one gave me anything (statistically I should be in jail) and I have managed just fine in life. Sure its sucks when you can’t afford something. If you have a hard time with envy you probably should move to a place there is not so much wealth disparity… I bet it bothers you to see all the corporate jets and yacht in the harbor too.
SBPaul sounds a little butt hurt. Guess I touched a nerve in your cranium. I’m worried about your literacy – please provide quotes of where I attributed anything correlating between the White House and the I own 3 properties here, I don’t have a mortgage, they were payed off years ago – so try again. I receive an egregious amount of royalties each month and could really care what little trinkets you shop-owners peddle to the tourists. I guess if you’re ok with racism and sexism then you are ok with Trump. Good for you sonny, now move along.
“Do you really want Santa Barbara to become like Los Angeles or do you want to protect the beauty we came here to enjoy?”
What an elitist and cosmopolitan thing to say.
And guess what Einstein – local students do the same to the housing market and always have. How do the foreign students affect the greedy State Street property owners who would rather keep shops empty than lower the price so a business could actually succeed there. You’re living under the booted foot of the lifeguard state.
thanks for the laugh hope you get the help you need. Maybe you should convert your property to an AUD? LOL
Hope your kids are happy to see their inheritance will be spent on Lawyers fees. LOL. My favorite, people who quickly you get attorneys. You employ a group of crooks to facilitate your emotional whims with no legal standing. Very smart. Oh wait you don’t have kids I am sorry I made another assumption.