ventura county housing

Ventura County Housing - Homeless people and formerly homeless families will be prioritized as tenants of an affordable housing project opening in Ventura's Westview Village.

The project is located in west Ventura between Olive and Riverside streets along Barnett, Warner, Flint and Vince streets. Of the 320 affordable units, 20 will be reserved for formerly homeless families and five for the homeless.

Ventura County Housing

The plan for Westview Village included demolition of the 1952 public housing complex and construction of new apartments, which began in 2017.

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The demolition displaced 72 families, who were given shelter elsewhere. Of those, 66 families wanted to return once the new complex was built, according to Karen Flock, San Buenaventura Housing Authority vice director of real estate.

Given the previous residents, the project provides enough space to house homeless families and individuals, which was not part of the plan when the project was first approved.

The San Buenaventura Housing Authority determined that there was a need to fill the community. The authority developed the complex with San Francisco-based non-profit developer BRIDGE Housing Corp. The authority is the property manager and service coordinator for the complex.

"It's so obvious that housing the homeless is important, and it's great that we have a shelter in Ventura, but where do people go?" said Flock. "It's really the way to tackle homelessness by housing people."

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Recently, developers have broken ground with some of the apartments intended for the homeless. A second phase of affordable units, including 20 for formerly homeless families, will be completed next month.

Project costs were $64.5 million for the first phase, $35.7 million for the second phase and $70.1 million for the third phase, Torres said. A fourth phase to build housing is roughly estimated at $21 million, he said.

In 2019, the first phase was completed with 131 affordable multi-family apartments with one to four bedrooms. All the various phases of Westview Village are expected to be completed by 2024, Torres said.

The Ventura County Continuum of Care, an alliance of state agencies and nonprofits aimed at safely ending homelessness, will help identify homeless people as future residents, said Continuum Program Management analyst Jennifer Harkey.

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Continuum works with 34 partner organizations that refer to the apartments, she said. Homeless households are prioritized based on criteria such as the duration of homelessness and the severity of their needs, such as disability or health condition, Harkey said.

There will be two case managers on staff and a community services department that will help the homeless families when they move in, said Ricardo Torres, the housing authority's policy and community affairs manager.

On Thursday, construction continued in Westview Village, where some residents had moved into their LEED-certified units — or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — that use less water and energy than traditional ones.

They ranged from multi-family apartments with one to four bedrooms. In addition to the newly built homes, construction workers worked on even more homes, a community center and a new road.

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Katherine Simonson lived in the complex before it was demolished and recently returned. She said she was glad to be back because she had problems with her previous apartment.

Simonson, who works at the complex and is a resident commissioner for the housing authority, said her worst problems stemmed from the temporary move.

Leticia Juarez, deputy director of property management for the housing association, managed the property when it still had 180 homes. A 30-year veteran of the construction site, she recalled going out to lunch one day, seeing one of the buildings being torn down and recording a video.

"For me, it was nostalgic," Juarez said. "I used to go into those units. I did inspections.'

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Building Inspector DanLocascio said he has worked on the projects since phase one and some changes were made to the newer units after current residents voiced criticism.

The kitchen layout and cabinet placements were changed, he said, while additional materials such as drywall were used to reduce noise. David Martinez, a Fillmore resident, endured homelessness, alcoholism and depression on his way to an apartment.

Martinez, 58, recently moved into Mountain View Apartments in Fillmore, an affordable housing complex for extremely low- and very-low-income households. He said that just being able to live in the building is like something out of a dream.

"It brought tears to my eyes. I was overwhelmed. I couldn't believe it," said Martinez, who moved into the building in May. "I was shocked. I have my own place - a brand new place. It's really happening."

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Affordable housing provider Many Ventura County mansions and area housing authorities are located behind the 77-unit complex, including eight units for formerly homeless and disabled residents.

The grand opening of the complex, which sits on 3 acres at Mountain View and Santa Clara streets, was in September. 27.

To qualify for Mountain View, residents must have extremely low and very low income levels based on the most recent median income figures for Ventura County residents.

In a single-person household, a salary of $26,350 is considered extremely low, and a salary of $43,900 is considered very low. In a two-person household, a salary of $30,100 is considered extremely low, and a salary of $50,200 is considered very low.

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Rick Schroeder, president of Thousand Oaks-based Many Mansions, said the $44 million project took about six and a half years to come to fruition, including design, financing, city approvals and escrow completion.

The property offers 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments with shared barbecue area, outdoor playground and indoor table tennis table.

There are several programs, including job and life skills development workshops for adults and after-school tutoring for children. There is also a case manager available for the formerly homeless residents.

Many Mansions currently has two other projects under construction, an 86-home affordable housing project in Oxnard and a 50-home complex for homeless seniors in Camarillo.

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Schroeder said building affordable housing is difficult with rising interest rates and high land prices, but he remains optimistic.

"Communities are really recognizing the need for housing, the need for affordable housing ... there's a lot more community acceptance for this kind of housing, which is a good sign and really helpful," Schroeder said.

City Councilor Lynn Edmonds, who spoke at the grand opening and was on the council in 2018 when they approved rezoning the site to a high-density apartment complex, said the area was littered with dead orchards and some downed trees.

“As for the plot itself, it was pretty tender. ... It was really bad. It definitely improved the whole image of the city," she said.

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New resident Daisy Rodriguez, 67, described the complex as beautiful. She grew up in Fillmore but most recently lived at the Spirit of Santa Paula Shelter homeless shelter.

Her life went downhill after a series of events. She used to take care of her mother, who suffered from dementia, but she died, and then Rodriguez said she had health problems that forced her to give up her job.

"I had enough money when I retired and in one year the rent skyrocketed and I couldn't afford it and I became homeless," Rodriguez said.

"This was just a gift from God. Just a blessing. It's so big and it's white and beautiful and new. You can't express the feeling and all I want to do is giggle," Rodriguez said.

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Rodriguez said she is friends with Martinez, who lives in the same building. She said the apartments are safe and if you need anything you can ask your neighbors.

"I wake up every morning and thank God where I am," she said. "Once you're homeless and you lose hope, it goes sideways. I think this is a really good attempt to solve homelessness. I know I'm the happiest person in the world." A year after a federal aid package issued emergency vouchers to 152, just over 20% of them have been used, according to local program officials and federal data.

That's better than Los Angeles County's 5% utilization rate, but nearly 10% below the state average and just under half the national average.

Social workers have submitted applications for nearly all open spaces, but more than half of them are stuck in the months-long approval process, housing officials said. Once approved, individuals and families face a difficult search for affordable housing in Ventura County, a low-income area.

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Jennifer Harkey, head of Continuum of Care, the county agency that coordinates much of the program, said only 56 of the 141 applications they referred to local housing authorities were approved. Of these, only 31 households have found housing.

The emergency check provides individuals and families experiencing homelessness with a solid rent subsidy covering more than 30% of household income. Although distributed as part of a one-time federal package, the coupons are permanent. The recipients do not have to worry about the well drying up.

Michael Nigh, executive director of the county's Area Housing Authority, said providers had difficulty finding units with rents within the range of the federal fair market value for the county, which indicates how much voucher managers can spend.

"There aren't enough of them," said Nigh, whose agency oversees 63 vouchers. "If there were more, the rent would go down."

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The data supports Nigh's point. The Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura metropolitan area has the largest housing shortage in the country, according to a recent census survey by Up for Growth, a national nonprofit research