UC Santa Barbara alum and former American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union Representative Wendy Santamaria is running for Santa Barbara City Council representing District 1, comprising the Eastside of Santa Barbara County. 

Santamaria is running for the first time with much of her support stemming from labor unions. Courtesy of Santa Barbara Independent.

Santamaria is running for a government seat for the first time. She has endorsements from labor unions and local tenant groups like Santa Barbara Tenants Union and community organizations, such as Central Coast Alliance United for Sustainable Economy (C.A.U.S.E). Santamaria spent over five years doing union work, including with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, an international trade union that covers 600,000 members across North America. She also served as a board member at Project Super Bloom, a youth-led organization that supports the mobilizing of California candidates and as a community organizer for C.A.U.S.E.

Her primary organizing experience comes from American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 3299, a University of California (UC)-wide union which represents 35,000 service workers at 10 UC campuses, five medical centers, numerous clinics and research labs. 

“The work that I’ve done as a staff member in either of these unions has been an incredible experience, but honestly, nothing beats being able to organize in your own workplace,” Santamaria said

Santamaria graduated from UCSB in 2020. Immediately afterward, she settled in Santa Barbara working in the I.V. Housing Crisis Coalition, helping tenants seek resources to achieve affordable housing. At the time, she saw that many people were facing housing displacement and in need of legal aid to combat corporate landlords. 

“I started working full time, doing this kind of work, and then I started organizing tenants, and I saw immediately the need, and it was very acute here in District 1,” Santamaria said.

Seeing displacement in Isla Vista, Goleta and Santa Barbara, Santamaria felt motivated to get involved with the community. She said she mainly saw the impact of these issues during the COVID-19 pandemic — her own neighbors were dealing with these very same issues during the pandemic, being displaced with the lack of affordability.

“We [Isla Vista Housing Crisis Coalition] started seeing folks were getting displaced everywhere, left and right, and a lot of the folks doing the displacing were a lot of the same people”

Santamaria said that students at UCSB hold the power to make a change this election season. Even mentioning her own experience as a student.

“To make ends meet, because, you know, I was going to school full time, but I still needed [to pay] these bills … And I think a lot of students feel that right now … so housing in particular has been an issue that students are very, very much with us.”

Mainly rallying behind her goal of housing affordability in Santa Barbara, her plan is to take on large renter corporations, such as the National Association of Realtors. 

“We have found that a lot of the larger [laws] that represent corporations often don’t care to follow those [laws]. And there is a lot of retaliation, intimidation … a lot of actions from the property owners that ends up being very anxiety-inducing,” Santamaria said.

Santamaria is proposing rent stabilization measures, such as a housing policy package to make Santa Barbara more affordable, as well as preserving tenants to stay in Santa Barbara County and preventing tenant displacement. 

“You know, we need to make sure that we prevent price gouging in terms of rent, build affordable workforce housing that is specifically catered to first responders and our essential workers here and make sure that we make it easier for this housing to be built — cut through that red tape,” Santamaria said.

Santamaria also made a connection between her family members in Southern California being homeowners to her understanding the difference between intergenerational renting and independent property owners. 

“I totally understand the notion of wanting to build generational wealth, but the ones causing the issue isn’t those folks, its property owners who don’t live in the district, who don’t really know the people here, and they have zero regrets about kicking a family out into the street because they weren’t able to make the extra $500 in rent that they’re charging.”

Santamaria is running against an incumbent candidate, Alejandra Gutierrez, who held the seat on the Santa Barbara City Council for five years. The competition in this race distinguishes two visions of Santa Barbara and the directions that issues of housing and stabilization are headed in. 

In addition, she wants to highlight other goals in public safety, support working families — especially in the Latinx community — and stimulate the local economy.

Santamaria said that the “people power” she has gained during his election is a powerful force and highlights their importance in support of her campaign and election turnout.

“We are purely funded by community organizations, labor unions … folks that you know live around here, and … the fundraising has been harder for us, of course, because we are representing everyday people who are living paycheck to paycheck, and that’s their skin in the game, is that we are just trying to survive,” Santamaria said. 

Wendy Santamaria won the seat for Santa Barbara City Council District 1 by 46% of the votes. Carolyn Li / Daily Nexus

A version of this article appeared on p. 6 of the Nov. 7, 2024 edition of the Daily Nexus.