Rob Fredericks, executive director of the Santa Barbara Housing Authority, wants the Paseo Nuevo housing development to include up to 40% below-market-rate units.
Fredericks talked about the Paseo Nuevo development in the most recent episode of Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina.
“Developers, they don’t want to hassle with the affordable housing component,” Fredericks said. “The wait list, the eligibility criteria, getting people moved in, managing those units. They know market rate. A lot of the developers don’t know the affordability component.”
Fredericks said the Housing Authority is happy to do that: “That is what we do.”
The city of Santa Barbara is working the leaseholders of the mall to build up to 500 units of housing at Paseo Nuevo, and so far the debate has centered largely on how many of the units would be below market-rate.
In addition, Fredericks said he is also talking to Matthew and Jim Taylor, the developers behind La Cumbre Plaza, who want to build 650 units of housing at the site.
“We’re trying to work through some details of how do we actually make this work,” Fredericks said.
Fredericks said the idea of below-market-rate housing at the site is exciting. Currently, the Taylors have proposed 8% affordability, but Fredericks thinks he can increase that amount significantly.
In this podcast, he also talks about the workforce housing project at the corner of Carrillo and Castillo, the affordable housing project at 220 N. La Cumbre, which will replace a commercial office area, and the plan to renovate the Quality Inn hotel on De la Vina to build a housing project for formerly homeless individuals.
Joshua Molina is journalist who currently writes for Noozhawk and teaches journalism at Santa Barbara City College. He formerly covered politics and land use for the San Jose Mercury News. Santa Barbara Talks is an independently owned podcast where Molina looks to bring together voices from all perspectives to discuss and provide solutions to the challenges related to housing, education, transportation and other community issues. Subscribe to his podcast here and consider a contribution here.
