As gifts go, Grace Lutheran's was amazingly large, and it benefits a portion of society that is both vulnerable and growing. Last February, the church's congregation assembled for worship one last time in the A-frame building at 3869 State Street, having decided over the previous year to donate the property to the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara for an affordable senior housing complex. The groundbreaking for the property, which is valued at $5.4 million, took place January 5, attended by a phalanx of city officials and members of Grace Lutheran Church.
The church was founded in 1903, and as has happened to so many churches, its congregation has dwindled to about 50 over the past decade from "aging in place," as the church's Pat Wheatley described it. The congregation also decided to donate its land under Vons at La Cumbre and the space in between, currently occupied by AC4 Fitness, to California Lutheran Homes. "The revenue from those leases will go into two funds," she said, for "future subsidized senior housing in our community and to basic needs," including Transition House — which Grace Lutheran helped found — Habitat for Humanity, and Doctors Without Walls.
"It was nothing short of extraordinary," Wheatley said. "This congregation never waivered in their faith and belief in service … and in social ministry." During the year church members spent looking into options — discussions that Lois Capps took a great interest in, having been a member for more than 40 years — they soon realized that the funding for low-income housing was incredibly intricate. They began to work with the Housing Authority for the City of Santa Barbara, which has built about a dozen senior complexes.