Dignitaries and political big shots donned white ceremonial hard hats under a blazing Monday morning sky, picked up 20 gold-plated ceremonial shovels, and dug up 20 spades of ceremonial sand hauled to the site just for the occasion. The actual ground is way too hard for anything less than jackhammers. If all goes according to plan, the site — a triangular parcel of nearly two acres, located on Hope Avenue along the backside of La Cumbre Plaza — will soon be occupied by 90 new low-income rental units affordable to tenants with incomes ranging between $17,000 and $35,000 a year.
Studio units at what the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara has dubbed “The Gardens on Hope” will be small — about 330 square feet — but rents will be decidedly low, ranging from $474 to $938. The project, developed by the Housing Authority, will target low-income senior citizens. Residents can be provided three meals a day, transportation, and housekeeping services, though they will cost extra.
To hear Housing Authority czar Rob Fredericks tell it, The Gardens on Hope managed to dodge a few serious bullets along the way. Other affordable housing projects might not be so lucky. First there are Santa Barbara’s escalating land costs to contend with. Fredericks said the Housing Authority managed to buy the land for $2.5 million in 2013. Just a few months ago, Fredericks said the same chunk of rock-hard dirt was appraised at $5 million. Partially responsible for this manic market is City Hall’s AUD — Average Unit-Size Density — program, which rewards rental-housing developers with sky-high densities. This in turn has sparked such a frenzy for AUD-eligible parcels that the Housing Authority now finds itself priced out.