On June 1st, Congressman Salud Carbajal hosted a pivotal roundtable with regional leaders, developers, and key stakeholders to address the critical housing shortage impacting our community. This strategy session builds directly upon the foundation laid in 2023, when Congressman Carbajal first convened the Regional Workforce Housing Forum. That initial forum successfully identified core workforce housing challenges and brainstormed potential solutions. This session shifted the focus to execution. U.S. Congressman Salud Carbajal and U.S. Space Force Col. James T. Horne III, Space Launch Delta 30 commander, engaged with 42 community representatives and opened the floor to answer their questions about potential workforce housing growth options.

The Purpose

The primary objective of this session was to align on a tactical, actionable gameplan to accelerate the development of additional housing. Expanding our regional housing capacity is essential to supporting the rapidly growing Federal workforce and vital industry partners centered around Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). By securing adequate housing, we ensure both the base’s operational mission and our local residents can thrive.

With leaders in attendance, the discussions evaluated recent progress and continued challenges. Milestones have been achieved since 2023, and ongoing regulatory, financial, and logistical bottlenecks were identified. The outcome was a gameplan to establish concrete, collaborative steps to get more doors open for our workforce.

EconAlliance Contributors

To support the discussions with robust regional economic data and practical development strategies, John Fowler, Nash Moreno and Laurie Tamura of EconAlliance were on hand. They collaborated to find sustainable, high-impact housing solutions for the Northern Santa Barbara County region.