Some Isla Vista residents have to deal with mold, exposed wiring, rickety balconies and other poor housing conditions, but a new program allows the county to proactively inspect rentals and ensure issues are fixed.
On Tuesday the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to establish a pilot rental inspection program in Isla Vista. The goal is to hold landlords accountable for doing required maintenance and making sure rentals meet basic health and safety standards.
“Just because it’s Isla Vista doesn’t mean it needs to be substandard,” said Second District County Supervisor Laura Capps. “Those two things don’t need to be synonymous. Isla Vista should be synonymous with an awesome place for tenants to live, not a challenging place for tenants to live.”
The program will only apply to certain properties in Isla Vista, which has a large population of UC Santa Barbara college students who are living on their own for the first time. About 87% of Isla Vista residents are renters, according to the county.
Capps said the idea for this program came from her efforts to address cliff safety.
“This all is really a product of the cliff safety, the eight point plan, and really understanding how through that tragedy, how many more minor tragedies exist of people living with a toilet that doesn’t work, or a bedroom that’s illegal and doesn’t have heat,” Capps told Noozhawk.
The hope is that landlords will make necessary changes and there won’t be a need for the program to go on beyond a year, according to the county.
“I wish property owners in Isla Vista just did the right thing, period,” Capps said. “But this is necessary because many of them don’t, and I believe are used to a population that isn’t empowered to advocate for themselves the way that older, more wealthy tenants would.”
The ordinance gives Lisa Plowman, the Planning and Development Director, the authority to have housing inspectors proactively inspect units periodically or after receiving complaints.
Property owners or an agent will be notified 15 days prior to the scheduled inspection. They will be responsible for notifying tenants and will have to be present during the inspection. If a property owner or agent is not present, the inspection can proceed with the tenant’s consent.
Minor code violations could result in a correction notice to abate the violation or could be referred to code enforcement staff for investigation and enforcement, according to the staff report.
Fourth District County Supervisor Bob Nelson said he was initially weary of the program but after observing housing conditions himself, he saw why it was needed.
“Those landlords out there who might not be happy about this, they’ve really brought this on themselves,” Nelson said.
During public comment Owen Meyers, external vice president of local affairs for the UCSB Associated Student Senate, said intervention is necessary in Isla Vista.
“Even I have experienced as a student many hazardous conditions in my housing situation that needed repair and experienced delays of repairs, and I’ve had countless students approach me regarding the issues they have had so I think the intentions of the program are great,” Meyers said.
Inspections will begin on Del Playa Drive and will be conducted throughout Isla Vista this summer before the UCSB fall quarter begins.
The inspection program will last for one year, after which county staff will return to the board to report on the results.
The board will do a second reading of the ordinance on May 13. After that, property property owners in affected areas will have 45 days to register their rental units with the Planning and Development Department. Failure to register or comply with the program could result in fines.
The program will cost the county $600,000 and funding will come from a $3.7-million settlement from UC Santa Barbara. The county and city of Goleta filed a lawsuit alleging the university failed to create enough housing for students, and reached a settlement last year.
