If Santa Barbara truly wants to solve its housing shortage, we have to be honest about one thing: people respond far better to incentives than to punishment.
Adding more ordinances, mandates and restrictions may feel decisive and play well for political campaigns, but they rarely produce more housing.
Incentives, on the other hand, encourage participation, unlock supply and, properly structured, create lasting solutions.
If we want different outcomes, we need a different approach.
Santa Barbara is one of the best places in the world to live, yet it is increasingly out of reach for the very people we depend on to make this community function.
Teachers, firefighters, police officers, health care workers and skilled tradespeople are essential to a healthy city, but many are being priced out.
Almost everyone I speak with can name a friend, colleague or family member who has left Santa Barbara simply because they could no longer afford to stay. Many families hoped to raise their children here and watch them build their own lives locally.
There are ways to address this challenge, but we must focus on root causes rather than symptoms.
Treating the effects without addressing the underlying problem is like taking medicine to reduce a fever while ignoring the infection causing it. The fever may go down for a while, but the real issue continues to spread.
Housing policy is no different. We can respond with punitive measures that impose new regulations, or we can design incentives that encourage the right behavior and expand housing supply in a durable, lawful way.
San Diego has been a good model of what can happen with a good housing policy and incentives.
As reported Jan. 20 in the Los Angeles Times, the number of new apartments under construction in San Diego County rose 10% from three years earlier and it is expanding its multifamily pool at nearly twice the rate of Los Angeles.
We need to focus on how to expedite and incentivize new housing, rather than imposing caps or restricting rents.
Santa Barbara does not need another rent mandate layered onto an already complex, highly discretionary housing system.
What we need are incentives, carrots rather than sticks, that work with the market, not against it.
One example concept could be a voluntary property tax rebate program for existing rentals.
Under this approach, landlords who choose to rent units at below-market rates to local workers — such as teachers, nurses, service employees and young families — would receive a modest rebate on their property taxes.
Participation would be voluntary, rents would not be controlled, and the program would operate squarely within state law.
While coordination with Santa Barbara County would be required and guidelines on which job roles qualify would be needed, similar incentive-based approaches have shown promise elsewhere.
Regardless of how you may feel about developers, the reality is we can’t solve this issue without more housing inventory.
With that in mind, another practical tool could be expedited, “fast-track” permitting with objective guidelines and reduced fees to encourage the construction of new housing and accessory units, as San Diego has implemented.
Simple supply-and-demand economics are one of the root causes of the housing shortage.
We need to focus on how to expedite and incentivize new housing, rather than imposing caps or restricting rents.
The City of Santa Barbara made a solid first step last year with the new objective design standards, so let’s take that to the next level with expansion to include adaptive reuse projects that don’t currently fit the recent ordinance, ADUs and focus on reduced discretionary reviews that eat up time.
We need housing now.
Finally, the city should evaluate every realistic opportunity to support housing development.
Infrastructure projects, such as the widening of Highway 101, can sometimes create small, constrained parcels of land, as seen at the Los Patos Way exit closure. When the exit ramp is closed, it will create an unused parcel of land that could be used for housing.
Even Planning Commissioner Brian Barnwell criticized the city for failing to take advantage of this opportunity for additional housing. Unfortunately, the current plan is simply to landscape it.
While sites like these will not solve Santa Barbara’s housing shortage on their own, they should be evaluated for housing feasibility before defaulting to nonhousing uses like landscaping.
Even modest additions to the housing stock can help move the city toward a more balanced and sustainable housing market.
These are practical solutions that align public benefit with private action. They encourage landlords and developers who help provide affordable workforce housing and increase rental supply.
Most important, they respect property rights while delivering housing affordability. If Santa Barbara is serious about results, not political rhetoric, we should start by encouraging the behavior we want to see, not punishing the people who provide housing supply in the first place.
Carrots always work better than sticks.