History of the Housing Crisis
The systemic and structural nature of housing injustice in the Isla Vista community.
Until 1567, the area of Isla Vista was a territory of the Chumash people with a population of roughly 10,000 people
1567
Anisq'Oyo' was the Chumash name for the IV mesa. Isla Vista was later colonized and inhabited by Spanish settlers from 1567-1822. Upon their arrival, the Spanish began to enslave the Chumash, leaving few survivors.
From 1822-1846, Isla Vista was a part of Rancho Dos Pueblos, after the Mexican government granted the land to an Irish immigrant named Nicholas Augustus Henry Den.
1822-1846
The end of the Mexican-American war brought about the cession of California to the United States.
The drought of 1863 was one of California’s worst droughts ever. As a result, the livestock died and the ranch became worthless, forcing the Den family to sell off much of the ranchlands.
1863
Nicolas Den, the youngest brother, inherited a portion of the mesa (that is now UCSB). His brother inherited the portion that is now Isla Vista, which was sold off and developed in three stages, resulting in the mis-alignment of the street pattern.
During the Second World War, the area adjacent to the east of Isla Vista (what is now the UCSB Campus) was a Marine Corps Air Base during the war.
1939-1945
The only military strike made against American soil during WWII occurred when a Japanese shell struck the coastline West of Isla Vista on Ellwood shores. Following the War, the United States War Assets Office sold a portion of the Marine Corps Air Base to the UC Regents. The remainder of the base became the Santa Barbara Airport.
In 1953 the Regents relocated Santa Barbara College, originally a teacher’s college, from the foothills above Santa Barbara to the current campus and chartered it in 1958 as a UC campus.
1953
The UC Regents bought this stolen land for only TEN dollars.
The original target population of 2,500 students in 1954, jumped to 10,000 students in 1958, and resulted in a mass construction of Isla Vista apartment buildings.
1954-1970
From 1954 to 1970 Isla Vista grew from a residential population of 350 to 11,600 people.
The unprecedented growth in the student population caused significant crowding in Isla Vista. At least 60% of its residents were students.
1950-1960s
Civic critics pointed to the prevailing substandard housing and overcrowding throughout the community, the lack of adequate services for this overwhelmingly student population, and UCSB’s overall benign neglect of Isla Vista. The societal angst of the 1950s-1960s in response to these and other societal crises, drew the ire of Governor Ronald Reagan and the mainly conservative Board of Regents. In turn they cut budgets for higher education and STARTED THE PRESENT DAY TUITION SYSTEM.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors established the student residential zoning plan in the early 1960s, which stipulated that Isla Vista did not have to conform to many basic zoning guidelines and housing standards.
1960s
In anticipation of a lucrative student-housing market, a handful of Isla Vista landowners (many with connections to offshore oil ventures and all with significant influence on Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors) hatched plans to zone the area so that they could extract maximum profit from it. Using their political leverage on the County Board, they designed and pushed through a custom-made “Student-Residential” (SR-2 and SR-4) zoning ordinance for IV that permitted a density of residents unheard of in California. Despite pressure from IV residents and planners for the University to supervise IV’s rapid growth, the administration made clear that it did not wish to “interfere with the private affairs of any developer in this area.”
Isla Vista constitutes a mere .54 square miles.
With more than 20,000 people per square mile, Isla Vista has an exceptionally high population density
UCSB students responded in 1970 with a series of campus protests that sparked a year of conflict between the students, UC and UCSB administration, and local law enforcement.
1970s
These movements included non-violent protests such as sit-ins, as well as a series of riots. These culminated in the burning of the Isla Vista branch of the Bank of America in February 1970, followed by the death of a student attributed to a sheriff’s department crackdown. There are terrifying accounts of police lobbing tear gas canisters into apartment buildings from a helicopter, the running down of a student with a squad car, breaking down doors, and clubbing and dragging students out of bed by their hair.
In 2010, the UC Board of Regents adopted a 10-year Long Range Development Plan for the Santa Barbara campus that proposed an enrollment cap of 25,000 students through the year 2025.
2010
Many factors play into the current housing crisis, including the university’s high enrollment rates and the lack of university housing. Admissions to UC Santa Barbara increased by about 12,000 students between 2010 and 2020. Many students are blaming what they see as UC Santa Barbara’s lack of communication about the return to in-person classes and housing opportunities. Increasing enrollment and stagnant housing opportunities have caused a waitlist for university housing of more than 900 students for this academic year, according to Zachary Brennan, Isla Vista Tenant Union’s legal director.
"The Isla Vista we know today was not created in a vacuum; it has been shaped by ever-changing balances of power, and produced by the actions of those people who engage with it—whether they are powerful landlords and police or residents at the grassroots. The future of Isla Vista is wide-open and we, the people, have the power to make its history our own."
NOW
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