Courtesy photo.
SANTA BARBARA — Hundreds of residents got to know more about local affordable housing options, grooved to live music and had a bite to eat at Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara (HACSB) and its affiliated nonprofit 2nd Story Associates’ inaugural Housing Santa Barbara Day.
Held Oct. 13 in De La Guerra Plaza, Housing Santa Barbara Day was timed with national Housing America Month in October, a time to celebrate local housing efforts and raise awareness for the need of additional affordable housing. HACSB staff and representatives from more than a dozen community organizations lined the plaza with booths to share details on subsidized housing, supportive services, home purchasing programs and more.
“It’s no shock that Santa Barbara is an expensive community, but we constantly meet residents who are surprised by the breadth of supportive services available to help them make it through,” said Rob Fredericks, CEO/Executive Director for Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara. “We took Housing America Month as an opportunity to connect these residents, whether they’re homeless or middle-income, with services they didn’t know they qualify for, or may not have known existed.”
Participants include CAUSE, Chance Housing, Habitat for Humanity, Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara, Housing Trust Fund of Santa Barbara County, Mental Wellness Center, PathPoint, Rental Housing Mediation Program, Santa Barbara Community Housing Corporation, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, Santa Barbara Rental Property Association, Tri-Counties Regional Center, Transition House and Northern Santa Barbara County United Way. Local band Area 51 and local food vendors helped keep the beat during this lively event.
About 2nd Story Associates: Second Story Associates is a nonprofit corporation created in 2007 for the purpose of funding and developing affordable housing and related social services for the benefit of low-income families, seniors and disabled members of the Santa Barbara community, including clients of the City of Santa Barbara Housing Authority. More information at http://www.2nd-story.org
About The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara: The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara is a local public agency created for the purpose of providing safe, decent, and quality affordable housing and supportive services to eligible persons with limited incomes, through a variety of federal, state, local and private resources. Since 1969, the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara has developed and/or secured over 3,400 units of affordable rental housing for Santa Barbara through a variety of federal, state, local and private funding sources. Please visit the website at www.hacsb.org