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STOEBER A FUTURE HERE

Housing · Make Room for Local Life

Housing means making room for the people who power local life.

Plan it. Fund it. Build it. Measure it.

Position on record · Updated July 12, 2026

Candidate beside human-scale apartments and a walkable neighborhood street

The position, plainly

Housing means making room for the people who power local life. I support more homes where they fit, faster approvals under clear standards, workforce and subsidized housing partnerships, public land for public value, local-rental incentives, and tenant protections that preserve future supply. No single policy is a housing plan; delivery is.

What is happening

Santa Barbara has a housing ladder with too many missing rungs.

The City can plan for housing, zone for housing, and approve housing without enough homes reaching construction and occupancy. A home only counts when someone can live in it. Deep affordability requires more than legal capacity: it usually needs land, capital, subsidy, a mission-driven partner, or some combination of all four.

The human consequence is visible across local life. Workers commute farther or leave. Young adults struggle to stay. Families compete for scarce rentals. Seniors have fewer practical downsizing choices. Schools, hospitals, public-safety agencies, nonprofits, and small businesses all feel the strain when the people they rely on cannot live within reach.

No single lever can solve this. Santa Barbara needs a full affordability operating plan that coordinates supply, subsidy, existing-home activation, permit speed, tenant stability, and public trust.

Candidate speaking with residents in a landscaped housing courtyard
Human-scale apartments and mixed-use buildings along a landscaped walkable street

Honest scope

What City Council actually controls here — and what it does not.

The job is to use every local lever fully, while being honest about the forces one council seat cannot command.

Council decides

  • Zoning, objective standards, adaptive reuse rules, and where housing fits.
  • Budgets, staffing, fees, contracts, and local housing programs.
  • City-owned land, public leases, parking assets, and public-benefit requirements.
  • Permit-process expectations, public reporting, and escalation for stuck priorities.
  • Local partnerships with the Housing Authority, nonprofits, employers, schools, hospitals, and housing providers.
  • Fair enforcement of local rules affecting long-term housing supply.

Beyond this seat

  • Mortgage rates, national credit conditions, and the insurance market.
  • Land, labor, material, utility, and construction costs set outside City Hall.
  • State housing law, federal tax-credit rules, and most major subsidy programs.
  • University enrollment and regional housing demand outside city jurisdiction.
  • Private financing decisions and whether an approved project can secure capital.
  • Council can still advocate, coordinate, reduce avoidable delay, and make local participation clearer.

Alexander's operating plan

A housing plan that measures homes, not intentions.

ACTION 01

Housing Delivery Priority List

A public, ranked list of the housing opportunities the City should move first, with each blocker named instead of buried.

Owner: City Council sets direction; the City Administrator assigns a lead department.

First step: Introduce a Council work item in the first 100 days to identify priority sites, blockers, responsible staff, and decision dates.

Voters will see: A quarterly dashboard from application and entitlement through permit, construction, and occupancy.

ACTION 02

Local Housing Activation Pilot

Make it easier and safer for owners to return unused, underused, or short-term housing to long-term local rental use.

Owner: Housing and Community Vitality with qualified nonprofit and housing partners.

First step: Design a time-limited pilot using local-rental incentives, repair assistance, risk protection, mediation, or master leasing.

Voters will see: Units activated, local households housed, public cost per unit, and twelve-month retention.

ACTION 03

Public Land for Public Value

Classify public assets by purpose — Protect, Serve, House, Earn, or Activate — before major leases or redevelopment decisions.

Owner: City Administrator, Finance, Community Development, and the department responsible for each asset.

First step: Complete a public asset inventory and public-benefit test within the first full budget cycle.

Voters will see: A public map, the intended use of each priority asset, and the housing, service, revenue, or civic value expected.

ACTION 04

Clear Path Permit Standard

Keep Santa Barbara's design and safety standards high while making the route, corrections, fees, and timeline understandable before people spend money.

Owner: Community Development in coordinated review with Fire, Public Works, Utilities, and other required departments.

First step: Publish qualifying checklists, early interdepartmental review, consolidated correction letters, target timelines, and an escalation path.

Voters will see: Median review time, correction rounds, applications beyond target, and the reason each delayed project remains stuck.

ACTION 05

Workforce Housing Delivery Table

Turn workforce and affordable housing from a goal into named sites, partners, funding paths, milestones, and accountable ownership.

Owner: Housing and Community Vitality with the Housing Authority, employers, nonprofits, and financing partners.

First step: Identify the most deliverable projects and publish the land, capital, approvals, and partnerships each one still needs.

Voters will see: Units, income targets, funding status, milestone dates, unresolved risks, and completed homes.

The Public Results Test

This page, held to the campaign's standard.

What is happening?
Housing capacity, approvals, and good intentions are not producing enough completed homes across the full affordability ladder.
Why does it matter?
When the people who teach, protect, care, serve, build, and run Santa Barbara cannot live within reach, every part of local life becomes less stable.
What would Alexander do?
Adopt a Housing Delivery Priority List, launch a Local Housing Activation Pilot, put public land to public value, establish a Clear Path Permit Standard, and publish a Workforce Housing Delivery Table.
How will voters know?
A quarterly housing-delivery dashboard will track applications, approvals, permits, construction, occupancy, affordability levels, timelines, public cost, and unresolved blockers.

ACTION · OWNER · COST · DEADLINE · RESULT

How progress will be measured

The numbers this page will be judged by.

Homes completed

Certificates of occupancy, shown by housing type and affordability level — not announcements alone.

Time to decision

Median days from a complete application to entitlement or permit, with delayed cases explained.

Priority projects moved

Each named project's current milestone, next decision, owner, deadline, and unresolved blocker.

Existing homes activated

Long-term local rentals created or returned to use through the activation pilot.

Affordable homes funded

Units with a complete land, subsidy, partner, and financing path — and units that reach occupancy.

Public assets producing value

Sites classified, decisions completed, and housing, service, revenue, or civic benefit delivered.

A fair look at other views

The real disagreement is which tools will actually deliver lasting affordability.

The strongest case for a different approach: Current renters need relief now. Large housing projects may produce mostly market-rate homes. Faster approvals can feel like weaker review, and public land is scarce. Thoughtful advocates therefore favor stronger affordability mandates, tighter rent regulation, and greater caution before changing neighborhoods or public assets.

Where Alexander lands, and why: Tenant stability and strong public benefit belong in the plan. They cannot substitute for the plan. Requirements must survive financing, standards should protect beauty through clear rules, and public land should pass a transparent public-value test. The whole system should be judged by completed homes, lasting affordability, maintenance, future supply, and cost to the public.

What would change his mind: Verified evidence that a different policy delivers more durable affordability, preserves maintenance and future rental supply, remains legally and fiscally workable, and outperforms the proposed operating plan over time.

Questions people actually ask

Housing: straight answers.

Will building more housing make Santa Barbara affordable?

More supply helps, but it will not create broad affordability by itself. Santa Barbara also needs public land, subsidy, workforce partnerships, existing-home activation, faster delivery, and tenant stability. Market-rate homes address scarcity; deeply affordable homes usually need capital and a mission-driven partner.

Where should new housing go?

Where it fits: near jobs, transit, services, and infrastructure, with clear design, fire, access, water, and neighborhood standards. Downtown adaptive reuse, upper-floor housing, ADUs, small multifamily homes, and well-located larger sites can all play a role. Open space, habitat, coastal access, and legitimate safety constraints deserve protection.

Are you pro-density?

I am pro-fit and pro-function. The question is not whether every parcel should change. The question is where additional homes strengthen local life, where infrastructure can support them, and what clear standards should govern the result.

Will you speed permits by lowering design or safety standards?

No. High standards and slow processes are different things. Santa Barbara should write beauty, compatibility, fire access, infrastructure, and public safety into clear rules — then move compliant projects through a predictable process.

What would you do for renters who need help now?

Support tenant stability, mediation, lawful rental assistance partnerships, fair rules, and programs that bring more existing homes into long-term local rental use. Rent stabilization is important enough to address on its own page, including both immediate protection and the effect on future supply.

Read the rent stabilization position →

Can City Hall actually make homes affordable?

City Hall cannot control mortgage rates, insurance, land prices, or construction costs. It can decide where housing fits, how clear the rules are, how public land is used, which partnerships receive support, how local funds are deployed, and whether progress is measured honestly.

Why focus on vacant or underused homes?

Because the fastest home is sometimes the one we do not have to build. The City should understand why usable homes sit outside the long-term market and test lawful, voluntary tools that make local renting safer and more worthwhile without promising that activation alone solves the shortage.

How will we know whether your housing plan is working?

By tracking homes through the entire pipeline and ending at occupancy. The public dashboard should show applications, entitlements, permits, construction, completed homes, affordability levels, review times, public cost, activated rentals, and the named reason any priority remains stuck.

Go deeper

The full position, the related decision, and the action plan.

The platform

A Future Here

See how Housing, Health, and Hope work as one local governing system.

Related decision

Rent stabilization

Tenant stability matters. Future renters matter too. Read the full position and measurement test.

The plan

Actual Actions Plan

Every named action, Council lever, owner, and public result in one document.

Tell Alexander where Santa Barbara's housing ladder breaks for you.

Whether the issue is rent, a permit, an ADU, downsizing, workforce retention, or a home sitting unused, your experience helps the campaign see the system clearly. Alexander reviews these responses directly.

Share your experience Join the campaign

Sources

Where the public record comes from.

  1. City of Santa Barbara — 2023–2031 Housing Element implementation. The City's adopted housing framework, goals, policies, programs, and implementation materials.
  2. California Department of Housing and Community Development — Annual Progress Report dashboard. Jurisdiction-level applications, entitlements, permits, and housing completions.
  3. City of Santa Barbara — Housing Initiatives. Current City housing programs and implementation work.
  4. City of Santa Barbara — Accessory Dwelling Unit Activity. Public project-status information for ADUs in the permitting pipeline.
  5. City of Santa Barbara — Affordable Housing and Rental Housing Mediation Program. Existing local affordability, ownership, information, and mediation resources.
  6. Alexander Stoeber — Actual Actions Plan. The campaign's proposed housing delivery, activation, public-land, permit, and accountability actions.

This page states a campaign position and operating proposal. It does not provide legal, financial, property-specific, or individualized housing advice.

Facts last verified July 12, 2026

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