many kids living away from home and attending SBCC live in Isla Vista, same community adjoining UCSB that the UCSB students live in.
I wrote a post a while back that goes more into the advantages of attending SBCC at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-santa-barbara/468098-backdoor-way-to-get-into-ucsb.html that you might want to read. Some info is a little out of date (for example UCSB bought some of the private dorms) but it should give you a starting point.