Tenants of West Beach Apartment Complex Declare Rent Strike
Tenants at 215 Bath Street Will Begin Strike Feb. 1 While Landlords Fight Criminal Charges
![](https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/215-Bath-Sunset-Large.jpeg)
A slow-simmering conflict between the last remaining tenants of a West Beach apartment complex and the property’s new ownership group — a struggle that began when the new owners took over the 52-unit property at 215 Bath Street and sent termination notices to the longtime tenants in September 2023 — reached a breaking point in recent weeks, with the original tenants banding together to declare a rent strike beginning February 1.
“This month, my neighbors and I are taking a stand against the harassment we have endured for over a year — some of which was particularly bad over the holidays — by participating in a rent strike,” said Corina Svacina, one of 14 tenants still living at the property. “Until conditions are improved at 215 Bath, and/or until the city takes real action against my landlords, I will no longer attempt to pay rent.”
Svacina and several more tenants spoke during public comment at this week’s city council meeting, sharing stories of displacement, harassment from landlords, and the increasingly common practice of “renovictions,” in which tenants are told they must vacate their units to allow for substantial remodels, only to be replaced by higher paying tenants. In the case of 215 Bath Street, Svacina says, 40 of her working-class neighbors were replaced by 30 international students packed into 10 units and paying up to $3,000 per bed.
The three-building apartment complex at 215 Bath Street became the sparkpoint of the conversation surrounding tenant protections when the new owners — James Knapp, Austin Herlihy, and Chris Parker of the Koto Group — served eviction notices within days after taking over. When tenants spoke out and organized with the help of the Santa Barbara Tenants Union and Legal Aid Foundation, the city found the notices to be incomplete, leading to a deeper discussion about tightening the city’s just-cause ordinance.
In the months since, the members of the ownership group have been embroiled in two separate legal battles: The city attorney’s office filed criminal charges against Knapp for ”terminating tenancy without just cause,”and neglecting to serve appropriate permits with the notices to tenants. Then in response, Knapp’s attorney filed a civil suit against the city, which claims the criminal charges are part of a purely “politically motivated prosecution” and should be dismissed.
While the civil and criminal cases are being worked out in court, life at 215 Bath Street has become unpredictable. Over the past few months, according to the tenants, they were told not to contact their property manager directly, but instead through a generic email address or an online maintenance portal. They were locked out of the laundry room, faced constant utility outages, and had their questions and complaints unaddressed.
A week before Thanksgiving, the longtime tenants’ patio furniture and outdoor plants were rounded up and thrown in the trash when management deemed the items a violation of the lease agreement. Via email, the tenants were informed that “there are no personal items, decorations, furniture, or any items allowed on the exterior of your unit.” Less than two weeks later, the management installed brand new planters, tables, and grills in a communal area set aside for their new neighbors — the 30 foreign exchange students from the EF International Language Campuses.
But before the international students were set to move in, just two days before Christmas, an electrical panel exploded in the middle of the night, sparking a visible arc of electricity into the night sky and causing a power outage over the holidays. This forced one family living in the building to run an extension cord from another building for 14 straight days in order to have power.
A series of emails obtained by the Independent, spanning December 2024 and January 2025, give a behind-the-scenes look at the city and the property owners working to remedy the power outage. In the back-and-forth messages, Herlihy insists on using a temporary generator at the property, and city officials inform the owners that they would need a new permit to allow a generator to provide power.
Herlihy and Parker expressed their frustration with the city’s process, and with being forced to turn off the generator and submit a full application while the 30 new tenants were moved into a hotel down the street. On January 9, when the city asked to inspect the on-site laundry room to look into complaints about mold, Herlihy vented his frustration in an email to the city’s community development director.
“We all know these tenants complain about every single thing,” Herlihy writes in the email to the city. “Most of them are fabricated lies.”
In the open letter announcing the rent strike, the tenants describe their repeated attempts to reach a reasonable agreement with the ownership group.
“We, as a group, have paid all the rent demanded despite months of disruption from construction, removal of amenities and threats of evictions,” the open letter states. “Our association and its members are united in this: we would like nothing more than to return to a state where all concerned continually meet our obligations, but you continue to fail to uphold your end of the bargain. For these reasons, we will collectively withhold our rent payments until our reasonable and legally-supported list of demands has been met. We do not take this lightly, but we have repeatedly asked you to address or tried to negotiate every one of these demands.”
Representatives of the Koto Group did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication. A hearing for the civil suit against the city is scheduled for Friday, January 31, while the next court date for the criminal case will be Monday, February 3.
A spokesperson for EF Language Campuses told the Independent: “It is our understanding that the 215 Bath Street property owners have secured all necessary permits from the City of Santa Barbara and the utility companies …. Although we are not a part of the ongoing matters involving the owners and the other tenants, we are in contact with all parties.”
On the same day the 215 Bath Tenants Association announced its intention of a rent strike, tenants at another property two miles away on Upper Bath Street spoke out about a similar situation, asking the city to look into a cap on post-remodel rent increases to prevent more “renovictions.”
Peggy Nicholson, a kindergarten teacher at Franklin school, described how she and her neighbors are currently facing eviction after their property was bought by billionaire Andrew Busch of the Anheuser-Busch family. “It’s not just me who’s threatened,” Nicholson said, “it’s my wonderful neighbors who are also threatened. These neighbors include a home health nurse, physical therapist, a family with two preschoolers, and a hairstylist with a 12-year-old son.”
Housing advocates are urging city council members to address the issue by discussing potential protections that would limit how much property owners could increase rents after renovations, including an option for previous tenants to return at a reasonable rate if they are displaced for repairs and remodels. This option, advocates say, would keep residents in their homes and prevent working-class families from being priced out of the region.
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