The original La Casa da la Raza nonprofit organization, which has been unable to operate for the past four years due to an involuntary bankruptcy case, announced that it would be looking to restore services as the complex court case nears its resolution — marking the next chapter for La Casa, a vital resource for Santa Barbara’s Latino community since its founding in 1971.
La Casa de la Raza’s official nonprofit organization had been tied up in an involuntary bankruptcy case dating back to the summer of 2021, when the courts appointed a trustee over the property and operations were temporarily ceased while the case was worked out. At the time, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, La Casa was providing hundreds of meals a week along with financial support, eviction protection, and mental health services to low-income community members on the Eastside.
“The difficulties, imposed by others, eventually led to an involuntary bankruptcy that resulted in the nonprofit having to leave its long-time Santa Barbara home at 601 East Montecito Street,” said La Casa de la Raza Board president Lisa Valencia Sherratt.
In its absence, a legally unaffiliated group — known as La Casa Founders Holding Company or the Restorative Justice Education Center — took over the space in an effort to provide similar services to those that were cut off during the bankruptcy case. That second group has operated out of the historical building since, running a food pantry and providing support to families affected by the aggressive increase in immigration enforcement.
For the past several years, boardmembers representing the original La Casa de la Raza organization — Valencia Sherratt, Ana Rosa Rizo-Centino, Pete Leyva, and Ismael Huerta — have been working behind the scenes to resolve the legal matters and restore the nonprofit’s operational status.
The original La Casa de la Raza group gained a win in the courts earlier this year, when Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Colleen Sterne ruled that the nonprofit was once again in good standing with all state and federal agencies. This ruling allowed the nonprofit to accept a $130,000 gift from the trust of philanthropists Mischa and Brigitte Seligman to allow the organization to rise from the ashes and bring La Casa “back to its historical presence,” Valencia Sherratt said.
The Seligmans — an Austrian-Jewish married couple whose family escaped the Nazis and pursued a new life in America — left much of their sizable inheritance to more than a dozen nonprofits when they both died in 2022, including the award to La Casa de la Raza. But due to the involuntary bankruptcy, the organization was unable to receive the money until its good standing was restored this year.
“We are excited to begin this new chapter for La Casa de la Raza and the community, and so grateful to the Seligmans for entrusting us with their legacy, which is literally giving us wings to launch again,” Valencia Sherratt said. “The past few years have been difficult and confusing, to say the least, but we’ve never given up hope and we never gave up our dedication to the community.”
Valencia Sherratt said she hopes this will be the beginning of La Casa’s “strong return” to its historical mission of “uplifting people through high-quality, culturally rooted services.” The organization was originally founded by a coalition of groups involved in the Chicano and civil rights movements in the early 1970s, and the building has since been designated as a historical landmark.
The building itself was also tied up in bankruptcy, though after a court settlement was reached in July, it was officially cleared to be listed for sale at an asking price of $4.35 million. In May 2025, however, the building was red-tagged after inspectors with the City of Santa Barbara found multiple code violations and declared the property “unsafe to occupy.” The sudden closure prompted a strong community response, and the group operating within the building scrambled to work with the city to resolve the code violations.
Following a second inspection in July, the city allowed the group to access the building and operate in limited areas, although city officials temporarily restricted access to several areas until more repairs were completed.
Now, the advisory board representing the original La Casa de la Raza nonprofit is working to purchase and preserve the building at 601 East Montecito Street. The goal, according to boardmembers, is to complete the sale, finalize all legal proceedings, and restart La Casa with a clean slate, beginning with a reimagined Family Resource Center.
Current plans are to reopen the resource center under Director Marisol Ortiz, and to take a careful approach to avoid the many struggles La Casa has experienced in the past. To ensure sustainable business plans and transparency, the board worked with planning consultants and trusted professionals in health, mental health, finance, higher education, and organizational development.
“Just like all of the current volunteers and supporters pouring in their good will to La Casa de la Raza now, we never went away; we’re still here, and we never gave up on the dream of bringing back the best of everything that ever happened in and of La Casa de la Raza,” Valencia Sherratt said. “We thank everyone who has been keeping the building alive since we haven’t been able to be there in recent years, and we’ll keep going with others who uphold the true essence of the original La Casa de la Raza for as long as it takes to honor our elders and ancestors who set all of this in motion many years ago, as the house of the people for generations to come.”
Meanwhile, until a sale or formal plans are announced, the daily services at 601 East Montecito Street will continue running with a small crew led by Jaqueline Inda of the Restorative Justice Education Center. With a group of volunteers, Inda has kept the doors open and the community services available during the dark days of the bankruptcy; she said she promised to shepherd the aging historical landmark to its next chapter — a task that has taken a lot of time, money, and love.
She says services will continue to operate every day, and although the future is uncertain, she is hopeful that the clean slate could mean a new life for a building that has been part of the city’s Latino community for decades.
“The Restorative Justice Education Center is going to continue its work,” Inda said. “Our promise was to keep the place open while the two organizations came to some kind of final iteration of this process. In the meantime, we furnished it, rehabbed it, and we’ll continue to do the food pantry, case management, and legal support for the community as we always have.”
