More Mass Evictions of Santa Barbara Tenants Threatened
Major Renoviction Cloud Hovers over 52-Unit Apartment Complex
Mike Jordan is in a big fat hurry. Late last week, Santa Barbara’s two-term councilmember got the first installment of what would become an avalanche of e-mails from a whistleblowing resident at a 52-unit apartment building shoehorned snugly into City College’s “Little I.V.” located in the West Beach neighborhood between the freeway and the waterfront. Mass evictions had just started, it warned. Or, in the parlance of the moment, “renovictions” are coming.
By Monday morning, Jordan — a Mesa granddad, longtime homeowner, and self-described “grumpy old white guy” whose district includes the area in question — had convened a top-tiered meeting with City Attorney Sarah Knecht, her assistant Denny Wei, Assistant City Administrator René Eyerly, and Community Development Director Eli Isaacson. Jordan wanted to begin knocking on doors at the apartment complex, once known as Casa Pequeña — presumably because its units are so cozy they squeak — and just renamed “West Beach College Commons” by the new owners, the Koto Group, which took possession of the property September 1. Jordan wanted to start handing out one-page flyers — one side in English, the other in Spanish — alerting residents what their rights were and what resources were available. More specifically, what protections did the city’s new Just Cause eviction ordinance offer?
What could he say? He wanted to know.
