The Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara (HASBARCO) celebrated the opening of Escalante Meadows, an 80-unit affordable housing community in Guadalupe, on Friday morning.
Escalante Meadows replaces 52 cinder block units originally built in the 1950s at the former Guadalupe Ranch Acres public housing site to include new two-story apartment buildings for a total of 80 affordable rental units, a community center, and associated amenities.
Friday's event included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Color Guard presentation, a tour of the property, and remarks from Congressman Salud Carbajal, State Senator Monique Limón, HUD Region IX Administrator William Spencer, California HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez, Mayor Ariston Julian, and other regional officials.
"The idea behind affordable housing is to give people a safe, affordable place to live so that they can kind of reset, not worry about the cost of housing or if they even have housing, and move on to whether it's education or job training. The children in particular have an opportunity to live in a stable environment," said John Polanskey, Santa Barbara County Housing Authority Director of Housing Development.
The community center on the property will provide "early childhood education, wellness services, a place for non-profits to meet, and a place for the residents and community to gather," Polanskey added.
Some of the amenities will be open to the residents of Guadalupe, regardless of whether they live in Escalante Meadows.
"The community center provides childhood education to over 100 children and is a combination of people here living in the residence, but it's also people within the city at large," Polanksey said. "The wellness services are also open to folks that live in the city, in addition to use by a residence."
Escalante Meadows is named after Sgt. Agustine Escalante, who gave his life serving in World War II. He formerly lived on the property before passing away.
"It's really a community-wide, country-wide effort to provide affordable housing for folks, but the pay off if people want to know why tax dollars should be used for affordable housing, it's the fact that you are providing a place of stability for the next generation, not just for the current generation to the next generation,” Polanskey said.
The units are located at 1096 Escalante Street.
