In the online publication of The Independent on November 4, readers were treated to an opinion from Randy Rowse, our current mayor , on the topic of housing affordability. In it he posits that enacting any form of "rent control" would ultimately hurt renters and the housing market, and thus should not be entertained.
Somehow rent control for Santa Barbara is cost prohibitive, but a housing voucher program that would funnel public money to those who already own million dollar properties just needs "financing mechanisms realized." At one point "wage floors" are labeled as a maligned remedy for "socio-economic issues."
The opinion piece reads more as a conceptual exercise — free from the context of the limited geographical space, historic lack of home building, etc. — in free market economics than any sort of pragmatic approach toward keeping working people housed in one of the most expensive areas in the country.