The 33 apartments at Arlington Village ― the new housing development built on Chapala Street directly behind the Arlington Theatre ― are now for rent at prices that are likely to give Santa Barbara housing advocates serious whiplash. Studios start at $1,850 a month; one-bedroom units, $2,300; and two-bedrooms, $3,300.
For a studio tenant to afford these rates ― or to avoid spending more than 30 percent of their annual income on rent ― he or she would have to earn at least $72,000 a year. One-bedroom tenants would need to make $92,000, and two-bedroom dwellers, $132,000. According to a representative with Arlington Village, which is owned by the Corwin family, who operate the Metropolitan Theatres Corporation, the studios and one-bedrooms have all been leased, and only a handful of the larger units remain available.
Arlington Village is the latest project to come online under the city’s controversial AUD (Average Unit-size Density) program, which is meant to add incentives for the construction of workforce rental housing that targets couples making up to $127,000 a year. Critics of the program say its target demographic overlooks Santa Barbara’s “missing middle,” or those who make 80-120 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). For a couple, that translates to anywhere from $64,000 to $76,000 a year. “All [Arlington Village units] are way out of reach for those households in the missing middle,” confirmed Rob Fredericks, executive director of the city’s Housing Authority.