New Improved Housing in Guadalupe Remembers WWII’s Augustin Escalante
Rebuilt County Housing Authority Project Creates 80 More Multi-Family Homes
An extraordinary thing happened to federal disaster-relief money on its way to the City of Santa Barbara. It never got there, and, instead, the $848,000 went to Guadalupe’s new Escalante Meadows housing project, which celebrated with a ground-breaking ceremony on August 25.
“It was unprecedented,” said John Polanskey, director of Housing Development for the county’s Housing Authority, of the funding collaboration. “I can’t remember another time that this has happened.”
The Thomas Fire and mud flows of 2017-2018 were officially declared disasters, and for countless low-income people living in Montecito, they lost their jobs at businesses affected by the month of smoke from the fire or on estates hit by the disastrous debris flow that followed. The Coast Village Road area, which was swamped with the same debris flow that filled Highway 101 for two weeks, lies within the City of Santa Barbara, which had no vacant public housing to offer displaced residents. Many moved to northern Santa Barbara County and into available Housing Authority homes, looking for some stability. A permanent roof over their heads helped them get re-established and find jobs, said Polanskey.
