Guardian Angels Drop $5 Million Donation on New Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic

Wyatt Family of Montecito Makes Big Donation to Newly Named Wyatt Family Health Center Currently Under Construction on Westside

Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics’ new three-story medical structure project now under construction on the Westside will be named the Wyatt Family Health Center in honor of the Wyatt family’s $5 million donation. | Credit: Nick Welsh

The new three-story medical structure project now under construction by the Westside intersection of Micheltorena and San Andres streets just got a $5 million infusion of much-needed cash courtesy of the Wyatt family of Montecito. Hence the new and vastly bigger flagship for the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics will soon be named the Wyatt Family Health Center.

Wyatt siblings and their spouses: Top row (left to right): Cliff Wyatt, Geof Wyatt, Mark Horowitz. Bottom row (left to right): Crystal Wyatt, Laura Wyatt, and Monica Wyatt | Credit: Courtesy

The Wyatts had donated $5,000 and $25,000 to the clinic before, but this is by far the biggest donation they’ve given and the biggest the new clinics have received. With inflation, tariffs, and cost of materials going up, construction costs — now weighing in at $23 million — have exceeded initial projections and additional financing was required to finish the job.

The new building will fuse mental health, dental, and traditional medical treatment all in one location. Clinic administrators say the new building will enable a caseload increase from 20,000 patients to 28,000.

For Santa Barbara, the clinics have long provided an essential medical safety net for the South Coast, offering treatment to the poor, the very poor, the uninsured, and often those without proof of citizenship. Thirty percent of clinic patients now have no insurance; 53 percent are insured by MediCal; only 5 percent of clinic patients secure coverage from commercial providers.

The Neighborhood Clinics started back in the 1970s at in an old two-story home located rights across Micheltorena street. Since then, it has expanded with the development of multiple smaller clinics.

Construction for the new clinic is scheduled to be completed in December 2026 and open for business early the first quarter of the New Year.

Rendering of Westside Clinic building to be named Wyatt Family Health Center | Credit: Courtesy

The Wyatt siblings agreed unanimously to make such a sizable donation, acknowledging via press release that they don’t always see eye to eye when it comes to philanthropic impulses. The family philanthropy is rooted by the sale of the family company Wyatt Technology, which was started in Goleta roughly the same time as the Neighborhood Clinics, by Philip Wyatt, who pioneered the use of laser light to detect, measure, and characterize a wide range of microscopic biological materials with wide biomedical applications. The company reportedly sold two years ago for $1.3 billion.