Dianne White, a resident of Presidio Springs Senior Housing Complex since March, was thrilled to move into her one-bedroom unit after spending six years on the affordable housing waitlist.
But on the fourth day of her residence, a neighbor informed her that her new home was to be demolished in phase 1 of a 10-year-long proposed project to redevelop and expand Presidio Springs on Garden and De La Guerra Street. In the 27 years she has lived in Santa Barbara, White has lived in five different places. Now, because of a demolition she wasn’t made aware of, she’ll have to go through a 6th move.
“We were never told the units were going to be completely demolished,” White said. “The word that was used was ‘renovation,’ which is totally different.”
White attended a Thursday Historic Landmarks Commission meeting along with around eight other residents. All residents were given a flier in their mailbox inviting them to the meeting, but White said she wished turnout was higher. She said one prior resident meeting about the redevelopment occurred last year, before she moved in. The rest has been “hearsay.”
The meeting was the first of five hearings with the city Housing Authority to begin redeveloping Presidio Springs, which provides low-income housing to seniors in downtown Santa Barbara. When construction is finished, the complex will house 284 units instead of the current 122.
According to data from the Housing Authority, over 1,000 seniors in Santa Barbara are on the waiting list for affordable housing. Demand is growing – over the past five years, the percentage of seniors on the waitlist is growing faster than any other segment of the population.
“By thoughtfully developing this site, we can more than double the amount of seniors who live here,” said Dale Fathe-Aazam, deputy executive director of the Housing Authority.
The project’s first phase will involve demolishing a building and relocating 10 residents, who will be moved into the new building when it is completed. Fathe-Aazam said that every current resident of Presidio Springs has a “right to return to a newly finished unit,” but will be relocated into vacant apartments owned by the Housing Authority in the meantime.
This staggered re-construction process was modeled to keep any resident from being permanently displaced. However, residents of Presidio Springs aren’t convinced their convenience has been prioritized.
“It would better serve the people on the waiting list to build from the ground up instead of taking us out of our homes,” Valerie Wroten, Presidio Springs resident, said during public comment at the meeting.
“I thought it was about housing. Well, what about our housing?” she later told the News-Press.
Wroten said she is heavily concerned about the health of residents throughout possible construction. She has arthritis, and knows residents who have cancer, asthma and some who walk the grounds carrying portable oxygen.
Another Presidio Springs resident, Janet Brinckmann, said that most residents are scared of what may change. Many have custom gardens that they have spent years growing, which will be destroyed and paved over.
Brinckmann’s neighbor, Deborah Barnes, was on the affordable housing waitlist for 10 years before moving into Presidio Springs. She said that herself and several of her neighbors are losing sleep worrying about what might happen.
“If you wait as long as I did to get in here, and you feel so blessed to be in a downtown location, and then suddenly they’re going to take it from you and it’ll never be the same, that’s a huge shock,” Barnes said.
As residents are relocated to other spaces, Barnes said she wonders what will happen to their friendships and community ties. For example, she knows elderly neighbors who share grocery shopping and cooking duties when one is suffering from mobility issues or other chronic illnesses.
While the Housing Authority originally said that residents would be relocated into one-bedroom apartments, Barnes noticed that an updated announcement said they will be sent to studios. She also said that the Housing Authority has set aside storage units, since the temporary apartments won’t be able to fit many of residents’ personal belongings.
“We thought we would spend our final days here,” Barnes said. “This is a plan that will displace us from our homes and make us adapt to whatever they’re putting us in. That’s something you don’t understand the difficulty of unless you’re older.”
Residents are confused about when the phase 1 of the project will break ground. Some were told as early as March 2027. Wroten said that some of the community’s beloved trees have already begun to be removed, which she feels may be an early sign of the construction.
“It’s the unknown that’s over our head constantly,” Barnes said. “People can’t eat, they can’t sleep, they’re really worried.”
