The Santa Barbara Foundation released a 39-page report on Wednesday detailing philanthropic opportunities to increase the amount of affordable housing within Santa Barbara County.
Along with a 40-person advisory committee, the Santa Barbara Foundation held focus groups, interviews and listening sessions and conducted extensive research to put together opportunities for grants and investments focusing on housing innovations, land use, public will and financing sources.
Cassandra Benjamin, who wrote the report and is the founder and principal of CSB Consulting, spoke at a press conference on Wednesday unveiling the report and said she hopes the report will open people’s eyes to the number of ways to tackle the county’s housing crisis.
“There are so many ingredients to make change here,” Benjamin said. “I want people to take away, not that this is a crisis and that it’s unsolvable and we’re stuck, but a real sense of hope and that if we come together, we really could make an impact.”
Sen. Monique Limón spoke at Wednesday’s press conference about the importance of having affordable housing in the county.
“When I think about our community, I think about the counties that I represent, and the fact that we have about 30,000 people commuting every day to and from this county,” Limón said. “What that means is that for a great portion of those folks who have to commute to work, they were not able to find housing in the community where they work.”
Limón also spoke about the importance of maintaining partnerships to work on the issues together.
“I want us to be aware that this is not going to be solved alone,” Limón said on Wednesday. “Only in partnership, and it’s going to take local partners, both public and private, to be able to push these conversations and convert them from dialogue conversations into policy and even better into implementation.”
Benjamin said that the first half of the report looks at ways multiple organizations and groups can come together to make solutions happen. Benjamin said aligning public and political will is key to making change happen throughout the community.
“We have to have an aligned approach of what our asks are and what changes you need to get there,” Benjamin said.
She noted that while other communities have a single coalition or nonprofit organization that has worked to get housing bonds for their community, Santa Barbara County lacks such a coalition.
She pointed to San Luis Opispo and Ventura counties, noting that they already have a unified voice advocating for housing.
“I found that this county is not getting its fair share of some of the state work because it hasn’t coalesced around asks and focus,” Benjamin told Noozhawk. “We have housing voices here. They just need to come together.”
The second half of the report focuses on philanthropic solutions to the housing crisis. Benjamin said that philanthropy can bring together stakeholders, publish reports, and use their voices and leadership to speak out about the issues that matter.
“Philanthropy has a lot of space to help bring either ideas locally or other new ideas in and get them going,” Benjamin told Noozhawk.
Jackie Carrera, Santa Barbara Foundation president and CEO, said Wednesday that the foundation is committed to continuing to address Santa Barbara County’s housing crisis.
Carrera announced that the foundation is exploring the idea of hiring a program director to specifically focus on housing. She also said the foundation aims to mobilize $10 million in the next five years for affordable housing.
The philanthropic solutions for affordable housing in Santa Barbara County report can be read here.
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