For the past several years, rent prices in Santa Barbara’s South County have skyrocketed. As they continue to rise (according to data collected by Zumper, the average price of a one-bedroom apartment in the City of S.B. is currently $2,900 a month), tenants are being displaced for a myriad of reasons — whether it be properties being sold, zoning issues, or marital conflicts — with limited options due to a dwindling supply of rentals.
During the pandemic, local and federal governments enacted moratoriums preventing evictions, but the statewide protections ended in March 2022 and now the backlog of evictions are moving their way through the courts. In Santa Barbara, this displacement is affecting every corner of the community, and this week the Independent brings you three different stories of tenants who are all being asked to leave their properties by the end of the month.
Out with the Old, in with the New
For over 30 years, massage therapist Thea Altman had lived in the same blue clapboard house on Castillo Street. The home is tucked right off Mission Street near the Oak Park neighborhood on a block full of classic homes, one of the most ideal places to live in the downtown area. For three decades, she spent her life in that home, raising her children, tending a lush garden, and renting from the same property owner, with whom she always had a positive relationship.