Helene Schneider,
Santa Barbara
In Helene Schenider’s city, the median home price is more than $800,000, and there is less than 1% vacancy for rentals in the area.
“While there are numerous new rental and for-sale projects in the pipeline throughout the area, the new supply will not keep up with the big demand of people who wish to live here,” says the mayor of Santa Barbara, Calif.
To encourage more development, the city’s recently updated General Plan provides for a rental housing bonus density overlay. “This new policy has enabled close to 170 new rental units to move through the planning and permitting process,” says Schneider, who was re-elected to her second term in 2013.
Santa Barbara has also started working on a new private/public partnership with a local philanthropic agency to create a landlord liaison project that would help identify affordable housing opportunities.
In response to an AHF survey question, Schneider says she would like developers to coordinate more with agencies that have access to social services funding so that essential services are part of and secured within the overall operating budget of a project.
She also serves as co-chair of the U.S. Conference of
Mayor’s Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness. One of the initiatives the task
force has supported and discussed at meetings is the Mayors Challenge to End
Veterans Homelessness.
