A rare opportunity for affordable home ownership is coming to Santa Barbara.
The Santa Barbara City Council voted this week to award a $400,000 grant to Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County for the development of two affordable homes on East Cota Street.
The project signals a shift from recent proposals elsewhere in Santa Barbara to convert department stores or build multi-story towers for high-density housing.
Through Habitat for Humanity volunteer work, the organization will preserve and revamp a 100-year-old-structure steps from Santa Barbara Junior High School, Ortega Park and MTD bus stops. The organization plans to convert an existing office space into a for-sale, 2-bedroom, 1-bath single-family home, with affordability restrictions recorded in the deed.
On the same site, Habitat for Humanity plans to build a 2-bedroom, 1-bath accessory dwelling unit. This home will also be deed-restricted on affordability. Because of a state law on ADUs, Habitat for Humanity can sell it as a home, preventing conversion to a short-term vacation rental.
Habitat for Humanity is the first organization in the city to create and sell a permanently cost-restricted ADU. It is also the only organization that focuses on homeownership for low-income families in Santa Barbara.
“This is an innovative project that allows us to preserve existing housing while adding density,” said Susan Renehan, director of philanthropy and external affairs at Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County.
The organization has built 22 other affordable homes in Santa Barbara, housing 84 individuals. Half of these residents are children.
The grant comes from the Local Housing Trust Fund, which the city established in 2024 as a funding source dedicated to supporting affordable housing. Councilmember Eric Friedman said Habitat for Humanity’s project is exactly what the city envisioned for the fund.
Councilmember Wendy Santamaria said it is often difficult for young people buy homes.
“Housing stability may look a little different for everybody,” she said. “For some folks, it’s a long-term rental. For some, it’s to own a home. And that’s becoming increasingly out of reach.”
There is no affordable pathway to homeownership for most of Santa Barbara’s workforce, said Habitat for Humanity Board Member Lisa Carlos, in a public comment to the City Council. Of 48 new single-family ownership homes that the city permitted from 2018 to 2024, not one was deed-restricted—or affordable.
Habitat for Humanity will price homes based on the buyer’s income. For the East Cota Street projects, the total housing payment will add up to no more than 30% of buyer’s income.
Several large-scale housing projects in Santa Barbara propose renting as a solution to the housing crisis—often from non-local developers and landlords. These projects, such as an eight-story tower proposed behind the Santa Barbara Mission, have seen intense community pushback on issues like public safety and neighborhood fabric.
This past month, almost 5,500 community members signed a petition calling for stronger public safety review on the proposed Mission project.
Renehan said Habitat for Humanity is the only piece of Santa Barbara’s “housing ecosystem” that focuses on homeownership, especially for low-income families.
“Homewornership builds generational stability,” Renehan said. “Providing affordable (rental) housing stabilizes families from month to month. But affordable ownership can stabilize families from generation to generation.”
Habitat for Humanity plans to utilize its “Preservation Plus” model to rehabilitate the East Cota Street site. This model, determined by a Housing Innovation Task Force to be well-suited for the standard Santa Barbara lot, involves rehabilitating existing structures and adding density to their existing land parcels. By combining preservation with new construction, it’s a less invasive approach to development.
Next door to the proposed site, two other Habitat for Humanity projects are nearing completion. The empty homes smelled of fresh paint and new wood, with volunteers busy inside. One volunteer, Rosa Martel, pulled back painter’s tape as she shared memories of the home before renovation.
“That’s my grandma’s house, she passed away in ‘98 or ‘99,” Martel said. “I love that I get to be a part of this process.”
The home is now being passed down through generations of women.
Though the residents of the two existing homes will share the land they rest on, they will remain financially independent. The homeowners, one family with two young children and the other with a baby on the way, have already been selected. Habitat for Humanity pre-selects buyers who have given 250 volunteer hours to the organization.
Construction on the new ADU will begin next year, led by local volunteers and funded by the grant. The design will mimic one of the already-built Habitat for Humanity homes pictured.
“I can’t wait for people to drive by the finished house and say, ‘hey, I helped build that!” Renehan said.
