In
the course of my business, I had the opportunity a few years back to go into a
significant percentage of the apartment units in Santa Barbara. My crews were
replacing lighting through an SoCal Edison-subsidized program. I was surprised
at the time by how many units had several bunk beds in the bedroom, or even the
living room, and had other indications of large numbers of people living there —
probably far more than the lease agreements stated. Some of these apartments
were those of Dario Pini, but others belonged to many other owners. This amount
of people was often hard on the units, which showed signs of wear and tear and
general lack of care by both residents and owners. I gradually realized that that
is where a lot of the lower-paid workers lived and how they could afford to
live here.
As
time passed, I saw a lot of these units taken out by corporations that evicted
everyone and raised rents but also made the places look very nice and
gentrified. When the Pini controversy erupted, I had a feeling that if the city
got involved, somehow these people would end up losing their housing. There is
a general unstated policy that it's better for you to have no housing at all
than slightly substandard housing.
Some
of these units showed a Zen-like neatness, but many were a disaster with stacks
of dishes breeding cockroaches and many other things needing attention. I
learned that some of Pini's rents were up to $500 a month below market, but
those savings didn’t seem to go into any minor repairs that might be ignored by
landlords. These landlords chose to look the other way. They seemingly let
their properties go downhill but were providing very low-cost housing,
especially considering the number of people splitting the rent.