(snip)""it's hard to get sympathy for people making $160,000 a year if you're down in Texas or something," said Bill Watkins, head of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project. Any household with that kind of money is in the nosebleed section of American earners, and "most of the country would think, 'You're going to subsidize that person's house? You're kidding me.' "
But in this city where the median home price is around $1.2 million that person needs help. And the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara is about to become the rare public housing agency to assist the well-heeled along with the poor, to build shelter for those whose business cards come in designer leather cases and include words like "doctor," "lawyer," "director."
"It's getting into a market that we shouldn't be spending much time on but, stunningly, needs it," said Robert G. Pearson, the agency's executive director. "It's rare for housing authorities to get involved in a project like this. We have our plate full dealing with the poor."
So, what does it mean when a city is down to its last vacant lot and must help build housing for some of the most financially comfortable people in America?
Santa Maria Mayor Larry Lavagnino can't decide which part surprises him more, the last lot or the helping hand. His working-class city is home to a chunk of its ritzy neighbor's displaced workforce, men and women who have been priced out of the rarefied market 75 miles south.
"I can hear the water swirling" down the drain, he said of Santa Barbara's situation. "How do you retain or recruit policemen or firemen when the median home price is $1.2 million?"
Actually, Santa Barbara officials view Los Portales as one answer to the conundrum of keeping middle-class families in a rich man's city.
Prospective buyers would probably be "a cop married to a teacher, a nurse married to a guy who owns a plumbing store," Councilwoman Iya Falcone said during last week's City Council meeting. "Some of the people who are going to buy the higher-priced units are doctors and lawyers. But lawyers are people too . I love this project.""(snip)
... I'm speechless ...



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