Once again, the Santa Barbara Tenants Union (SBTU) and CAUSE have joined together to propagate their self-serving narratives about how all landlords are bad, gouge tenants, don’t maintain their properties, and don’t want tenants to know their rights, just to mention a few key takeaways from their latest Halloween rally. As small S.B. landlords who have been in the business for years, it’s becoming more difficult to remain silent in the face of such lies.
“The rents are too damn high!” they proclaim, but so is everything! Food, gasoline, insurance, utilities, labor costs, construction materials, taxes — and nothing is exempt! Inflation is at an over 40 year high! For some reason, these groups seem to believe that property owners are exempt from the rising costs everyone is experiencing.
Nick Welsh just reported in his article titled “ Santa Barbara’s Housing Crisis: How Bad Is Bad? Economic Report Reveals 93 Percent of South Coast Renters Can’t Afford a Median-Priced Home." I’m sure that CAUSE and the SBTU would say that rent control will solve this problem, but the story about the Association of Realtors' report ends: “Not surprisingly, the report also concludes that rent control and inclusionary housing requirements would make a bad situation only worse.”