Santa Barbara County Second District Supervisor Laura Capps said she is “outraged” over the recent tenant eviction notices given to several hundred people in Isla Vista.
“These are real people,” Capps said, in the latest episode of Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina. “These are families that have lived in the building for over a decade raising kids. These are people’s homes.
Capps spoke with Molina about the Isla Vista tenant eviction notices, the Santa Barbara County housing crisis, poverty, cannabis revenue shortfalls, and her personal story.
“Housing, I would say, is the most vexing challenge my office and a lot of us in local government are going to be dealing with,” Capps said.
Capps, who was born in Goleta, has pushed back against the county’s decision to include agriculture sites in its housing element on the edges of Goleta.
“I didn’t think that the county was leading enough by example by having enough of the county’s own sites,” Capps said.
The supervisor also talked about her passion for eliminating poverty in the county. She said it was her office’s top priority.
“I think it’s a travesty that we are close to the top of the worst poverty rate in the state,” Capps said. “And California has the worst poverty rate in the country.”
Capps urged people to take advantage of the earned income tax credit for low-income families. It offers $2,500 cash-back for the lowest-income, minimum-wage earners.
Capps said she’s disappointed with the cannabis revenue shortfall.
“With cannabis, my main concern is really on the fact that revenue’s down so low, yet year after year a lot of the operators aren’t paying taxes,” Capps said.
Cannabis revenues would double if the county would find ways to collect all the tax revenue it is owed through cannabis cultivation.
Joshua Molina is journalist who currently writes for Noozhawk and teaches journalism at Santa Barbara City College and Cal State University, Northridge. 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.
