Westmont Magazine Homes for Faculty

Westmont is committed to providing affordable homes for its exceptional faculty and has constructed 30 such residences since 1995. When the college builds the final 11 in the next few years, the residential area next to campus will be complete.

Both Westmont and the surrounding community enjoy advantages from these homes. The college is able to use Las Barrancas as a valuable asset in attracting and retaining outstanding faculty. In fact, the lovely homes have already proved valuable in recruiting highly qualified professors during the past several years.

The community benefits because faculty who live close to campus often walk to work, keeping cars off the roads in the neighborhood of the college. Las Barrancas also frees up affordable housing in Santa Barbara that Westmont professors might have occupied.

Students benefit because this community of homes fosters the close, informal relationships among faculty and students that lie at the heart of our residential program. They can walk to professors’ homes and enjoy meals and fellowship there.

Music Professors Steve and Rebecca Leftwich ’85 Hodson love living in Las Barrancas. “This is a phenomenal community for young families,” they note. “I would have been delighted to teach at Westmont even without the housing, Steve says. “But it was a blessing on top of a blessing to have this home.” “It has given me the option to work part time,” Rebecca adds. “This is great because I feel God is calling me to focus on being a mother right now.” Like many Las Barrancas residents, the Hodsons have young children.