Housing partnership gives renters a break
By DAVID DOWNS
South Coast Beacon
5/29/2003

What could you do with an extra 50 bucks a month?

That's the question the Coastal Housing Partnership wants local renters to ask themselves, then get on board its new rental discount program.

The CHP is knocking $50 off monthly studio rent, $75 off a two-bedroom apartment, and up to $100 for a single family home rented from select property managers in town.

If you're an employee of UCSB, Santa Barbara County, the City of Santa Barbara, or more than 60 other businesses, you're already a member of the CHP.

Fill out a form and you can begin picking through the rental discount properties of major managers like Wolfe and Associates, The Towbes Group and Bartlein and Company.

Jane Helmer, CHP spokesperson, said property managers pay dues to the CHP and lower rents in exchange for publicity with the 28,000 employees working for the agency's members.

"It saves them on marketing costs," she said. "We're going out to these companies and saying 'you can come to these properties.' We represent employed tenants."

The rental assistance program is but the latest offering from the 16-year-old nonprofit group that also offers first-time home buyer programs and mortgage refinancing discounts to help Santa Barbarans with the housing crunch.

Human resources manager for the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens, Phylene Wiggins, said the CHP program really complements the existing array of indispensable services. Companies that have fewer than 25 employees can sign up with the CHP for $750 a year, and just one mortgage refinance or first-time home buying loan grossly dwarfs the dues, she said.

"Even if just one person uses the program, it pays for itself. We joined recently and we already have an employee that's been using it for the purchase of a home loan. It costs $750 a year and the person is saving like $10,000."

Fifty bucks a month in rental assistance doesn't seem like much, until it adds up to $600 a year, Wiggins said.

"The fact that you can get $100 back on rent is a really substantial savings when you're a nonprofit which traditionally cannot pay as well as a corporate business," she said.

"As one human resources manager said, '$50? That's utilities,' so it does help," Helmer said.

More than 40 CHP member employees have requested more information since the program's debut in April, but it's too early to gauge the program's success, Helmer said.

The CHP is undergoing a big publicity push coinciding with its rental assistance program and an even-newer program promising relief for victims of staggeringly high security deposits.

Helmer said landlords and the CHP are currently talking about the new security deposit program that may debut in the fall. Check www.coastalhousing.org for the latest information.