The Santa Barbara Unified School District took an important step in securing affordable housing for its teachers and staff last week.
At the school board’s June 9 meeting, trustees unanimously approved the lease of the district’s Tatum property near San Marcos High School to developer Red Tail Multifamily Land Development, to build 106 units of income-restricted housing.
That includes one-, two-, and three-bedroom units primarily for staff and their families. Applicants’ income must be at or below 80 percent of the area median income — about $122,000 in Goleta — to apply.
It marks the first affordable housing project the board has approved for district staff. According to a district survey, only 11 percent of staff consider their housing affordable. Additionally, about 57 percent of employees are considered very-low-income or low-income.
It was a late-night agenda item, but that did not dampen boardmembers’ excitement. Boardmember Rose Muñoz called the project the “culmination of something huge.”
“This is what we wanted from the beginning,” Muñoz continued. “It’s for our employees to be able to have housing and to prioritize them so that we could have employees that are not commuting — that are able to live with their families here.”
The Tatum property encompasses 24 acres in the Eastern Goleta Valley. The district has eyed it for workforce housing for years, and with this final step, development can actually begin.
Affordable units at Tatum will be managed by the Santa Barbara County Housing Authority. Of the 106 units, 97 will be prioritized for non-management district employees. Eight will be set aside for unhoused U.S. veterans, and one will be for a property manager. Second priority will be given to other local school districts, charter schools, and nonprofit organizations. Units will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
“We all know the cost of living in our area is one of the hardest challenges facing public education,” said Joanna Powell, the district’s legal counsel, who presented the agreement to the board. “Our teachers, classified staff, and other employees deserve to live in the community they serve, and this is opening the door for that.”
The process began in 2021, when the district entered into an agreement to sell the 24-acre Tatum property to Red Tail — a highly active firm on the Central Coast that has partnered with the Housing Authority on other projects in the county — for $17 million.
The district will now buy back a nearly four-acre parcel of the land for $7.4 million and lease it back to Red Tail to build the housing. It is a complicated arrangement, but for the affordable units to be dedicated to district staff — and to qualify for the federal tax credits that will pay for the development — the district is required by law to own the land.
The district will not pay for the development out of pocket, instead relying on tax credits and other funding sources. That includes a $1.1 million loan granted by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors last year . Additionally, Red Tail will provide approximately $60 million to build the project, which will likely break ground in July. It is expected to take 18 to 24 months to build.
On the neighboring 20 acres, Red Tail plans to build 385 separate market-rate and 26 moderate-rate units for a total of 517 units.
In response to boardmembers’ questions, Bob Havlicek, executive director of the county’s Housing Authority, said that once affordable housing applicants are selected, they can stay in their unit even if their income rises and puts them above the income-restriction. Applicants are also entitled to stay in the unit even if they retire or find a new job. The Housing Authority cannot evict them, but Havlicek said they can encourage those tenants to apply for housing at a different site to open up the space for a district employee.
According to the district, it is expected that the 106 units of affordable housing for district staff will be one of the largest such developments in the state.
“I better get an invite to the ribbon cutting when this thing opens,” joked boardmember Gabe Escobedo, a persistent advocate for affordable housing in the district. The district created an ad hoc housing committee three years ago to begin exploring options for staff housing , responding to needs among staff who have spoken out about the exorbitant costs of living in Santa Barbara.
“This has been on our radar for some time,” noted board president Bill Banning. “It’s a really landmark moment for us.”
The district is also working on a housing project planned for the former Parma school site on the Eastside, which will offer approximately 30 units. It is also still pursuing a 7.7-acre potential project — thanks to a land donation — across the street from Dos Pueblos High School.