Dear
Friends, Partners and Supporters of Affordable Housing,
The
Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara is in jeopardy of losing an
opportunity to develop a new affordable housing complex and we need your
support at next week’s Planning Commission Meeting, scheduled for Thursday,
July 15th, 2010 at 1:00PM.
If you are
receiving this email, you are well aware that the Housing Authority has always
provided for, and continues to respond to, our Community’s critical affordable
housing needs for all of its citizens. We are committed to developing
high quality rental units that anyone would be proud to live in – developments
that fit within the surrounding uses and enhance the neighborhood. But now
we need your help.
Bradley
Studios will be a new affordable housing development located at 512 Bath Street
in Santa Barbara across from the Athletic Club. It will consist of 54
total units, 53 of which will be affordable studio apartments serving
low-income downtown workers, special needs populations and those that are
homeless or are transitioning out of homelessness. We see this development
as a win/win for the community as it not only provides for the creation of
additional homes for the most underserved in our community, but will also
enhance the neighborhood. It will improve the Mission Creek habitat by
removing the existing swimming pool and a 10 unit apartment building that
severely encroaches upon Mission Creek. The development of this project will
also remove a large amount of non-native plants and garbage that litter Mission
Creek, allowing us to restore the Creeks’ riparian habitat.
The project
received City approval at the Staff Hearing Officer level, which would have
been deemed final approval, but a Planning Commissioner, who has concerns about
the project’s setback and proximity to Mission Creek, has suspended the project
for further review at next week’s Planning Commission Meeting. This
action severely jeopardizes our funding application for Low-Income Housing Tax
Credits needed to finance the construction. If we do not get positive
approval from the Commission at next week’s meeting, we will not be able to
meet the appeal deadline with the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee
and as a consequence will not receive the nearly $9 million dollars in Federal
Tax Credits to make this much needed development a reality. This funding
will go to another community instead of ours and Santa Barbara will lose 53
affordable units.
We have
always appreciated and benefited from your support in our quest to solve the
critical shortage of affordable housing in our community, and now we ask you to
demonstrate this support to the Planning Commission on our behalf. It
is for this reason that I ask you to attend the Planning Commission Meeting and
voice your support for this new development.
