Work is proceeding toward an April 2026 completion date on 32 rooms being taken apart and put together again at the old Mountain View Inn at the corner of State and De la Vina streets to become permanent supportive housing. At a small get-together on November 6 to celebrate the ongoing progress, Rob Fredericks, who heads the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, thanked his staff and myriad funders for getting the project off the ground.
“We met all the threshold requirements. We got our plans done. We got our building permits through the city. We’re ready to move forward with this,” Fredericks said, calling the names of his team to thank them: “Dale, Tracy, Jacqueline, Hector, Miguel, and the rest of the property and development team.”
The city had given $6 million, the Santa Barbara Foundation $1.5 million in an initial seed funding loan, Banc of California approved a $5 million loan, and California’s Homekey Plus program awarded a $5.8 million grant to turn the former motel and its grounds into 32 studio apartments with kitchenettes, a manager’s apartment, a laundry room, new outdoor grounds, and 17 parking spaces on 0.56 acres.
The layout will include meeting rooms for support services provided by New Beginnings Counseling Center. The county’s Behavioral Wellness and Public Health departments were pitching in as well, Fredericks observed, to make sure the newcomers would integrate into their new homes and neighborhood. Federicks added, “This project isn’t just a project. It’s a promise. It’s a promise to the residents who are going to live here. It’s a promise to the Samarkand neighbors that we’re going to be good neighbors.”
One of their neighbors is Assemblymember Gregg Hart, who said he walked up to the nearby Trader Joe’s from his home a few blocks away. “This is really a treasure to see the transformation that’s about to happen here,” Hart said, praising the assembled group for their contributions but also the community for its support. “It’s not an accident that we have this community. It’s an intentional place, because generations of people have dug in and helped, and we’re doing our part today.”
Correction: The neighborhood referenced in the speeches was Samarkand, not San Roque.
