The 3D-printed affordable home project proposed by the Housing Trust Fund of Santa Barbara County has collapsed.

The Housing Trust Fund has terminated the project, citing a variety of factors, including cost overruns, seismic requirements and challenges finding a printer.

The idea was to print a one-story home intended as an affordable housing prototype in Goleta.

“Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to move forward,” said Jon Peterson, CEO of the Housing Trust Fund. “This really was an exciting project. We really hoped we could do that.”

The Santa Barbara County Association of Governments in 2023 awarded the Housing Trust Fund $372,414 for the project, of which it spent about $126,837. Those funds were spent on the first stages of the project and cannot be returned. The remaining amount, about $245,000, will be returned to SBCAG and re-allocated to other projects.

The funding came from the Regional Early Action Planning Grants Program, which funded seven county projects.

Peterson explained at a recent SBCAG meeting that it was a difficult decision to drop the project, which was intended to help affordable housing providers.

He said all developers are feeling the impacts of rising costs. Further complicating matters were California laws to protect people during earthquakes, as well as mechanical problems.

“They weren’t quite prepared for California’s seismic rules, so we had to redevelop some of their printing methods,” Peterson said.

The original company that the Housing Trust Fund was going to work with, Apis Cor, could not complete the job, Peterson said at the meeting.

“Ultimately, what happened with Apis Cor, they are a smaller startup. Their printer broke, and they found that they couldn’t repair it and they weren’t going to have a new printer until 2027,” Peterson said.

Editor’s note: A representative of Apis Cor contacted Noozhawk and said Peterson mischaracterized the situation.

“Negotiations stopped because of pricing,” said Nikita Cheniuntai, founder and CTO of Apis Cor. “We are located in Florida, and the cost of delivering materials and equipment to California was very high. We simply could not perform this project without losing money, so we were unable to move forward. We never signed any contract with them and never received any payment from them.”

Peterson said at the meeting that the Housing Trust Fund also reached out to ICON, the largest 3D-printing company in the nation.

“They are working on a project in San Luis Obispo, but they aren’t quite ready to go either,” Peterson said, “but they had some methods that were a little bit closer to California’s seismic rules.”

He said the Housing Trust Fund will create a white paper that explains what happened in detail, including lessons learned.

Bob Nelson, SBCAG’s chair and Santa Barbara County’s Fourth District supervisor, expressed concern about the project falling through and the expenditure of funds.

“I am sympathetic that this wasn’t able to move forward,” Nelson said.

However, he added that the Board of Supervisors is a watchdog and steward of public dollars and that SBCAG is supposed to get “deliverables” for the money it provides.

“When a grant applicant can’t meet those deliverables, is that a loan, is that forgivable and is that a liability for SBCAG?” Nelson said.

Mike Becker, director of planning for SBCAG, said the contract does not require the Housing Trust Fund to pay back any of the spent money. He added that the money went to pre-construction activities.

“The work that was done was consistent with the scope of work,” Becker said. “Essentially, we are drawing the line. After the pre-construction, before the construction, the project stops here.

“They did deliver, according to the scope of work. They just didn’t deliver it.”

Nelson said he wants an accounting of funds to show the California Department of Housing and Community Development, which funded the REAP program, in case it asks where the money went.

“Hopefully no one’s pockets were padded, and we still have a responsibility to daylight that appropriately,” Nelson said.

Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann, a member of SBCAG, said she is looking forward to understanding what lessons can be learned.

“I think all of us were really excited about the project,” Hartmann said. “We have to reach further than we can actually achieve sometimes to learn.”