The Fight to Stay Housed Goes On in Isla Vista

An unlawful detainer is usually Step Two in an eviction proceeding, a step called out specifically in the County of Santa Barbara’s renoviction ordinance passed in the spring. Ananya Kepper, who’s lived at Isla Vista’s CBC & The Sweeps while she pursued her degree in materials science at UC Santa Barbara, regarded the unlawful detainer she received to be an expected blow in an “awful waiting game” in which landlord Core Spaces “aggressively maneuvered us out.”

The four buildings that used to hold somewhere between 550 and nearly 1,000 tenants — students, families, children, older folks — are down to handfuls of tenanted units, seven months after the first Notices to Vacate were posted. The Chicago-based landlord has received permits to move electrical sub-panels and outlets within apartments and replace roofing, and the noise and vibration of the work resounds through the apartments.

“It was all done while we still lived here,” said Kepper. The apartments around her are gutted, with sheet rock removed to access electrical or plumbing in the walls. She wonders if Core Spaces will turn it all into fully furnished by-the-bed rentals, as the company has done near other campuses. “Their emails are all about students. We were families here, with children,” Kepper said. “That’d be discrimination.”

In addition to giving 120 days’ notice and financial relocation assistance, for any owner who intends to evict tenants in order to remodel a building, they must first have permits in hand for the renovation, ensure the “substantial remodel” is to bring the place into compliance with Health & Safety codes, and allow tenants to rent their home again, though the price is up to the landlord.

Many tenants left when offered relocation assistance of three months’ rent or $7,000, whichever was larger, per the ordinance, while some were offered a move to the Cortez apartments — one of the Cs in CBC; the other is Colonial, while the B stands for Balboa. Kepper said a number of those tenants had just renewed their lease when Core Spaces bought the buildings. They moved under an inducement that they could stay for three months and get relocation assistance, Kepper asserted, and signed away their other rights.

Core Spaces spokesperson Kim Lyons said that six unlawful detainers went out, stating that some tenants have remained for months past their lease expiration dates. The work taking place was all necessary as the buildings were aging, with critical maintenance issues and some flood damage. Tenants were notified before water or electricity was to be shut off, she said.

Lyons did not know how many tenants remained, and Kepper wasn’t sure either. She hopes to keep her apartment and is trying to help the other tenants. When her neighbors’ electricity blinked off early in the morning, “The daughter was showering in the dark,” Kepper exclaimed. “I marched down to the office and said, ‘You can’t just turn off the electricity.’ They acted all shocked, and, ‘I’m sorry, maintenance will come over.’ We waited for two hours,” Kepper said. “The electricity came back, but the guy never showed up.”

Correction Nov. 15, 2023: The noticing period for an eviction is a total of 120 days — a 60-day early notice and a 60-day Notice to Vacate — in Santa Barbara County as of this July.