Housing conference addresses affordability
Options limited for low-income residents
By Avi Rutschman avi@theacorn.com

Housing officials from throughout Ventura County met at the fifth annual Ventura County Housing Conference last month to address the county’s growing need for affordable homes.

The event was sponsored by a number of housing agencies in the area, including Housing Opportunities Made Easier, the Ventura County Economic Development Association and the Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation.

The conference, which was held at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza, examined how Ventura County has grown over the past five years in terms of housing density and the number of housing policy decisions that are required to be made.

“What makes our conference unique this year is that we focused on real-life developments right here in Ventura County,” said Bill Buratto, the president and CEO of the Ventura County Economic Development Agency. “I’m excited to begin the dialogue about new housing strategies and how Ventura County can benefit from them.”

The conference’s title, “Growing Up in Ventura County,” was a double entendre referring to both the difficulty new families are having in acquiring housing inside the county and the need to start new construction, said Brad Golden of Housing Opportunities Made Easier.

“We . . . have to go vertical and rethink the way our county is going to grow,” Golden said. “The sky is the only place we have left, and with such large anti-growth sentiment in the area, we are going to have to push people into urban cores.”

The conference addressed the issue of housing trust funds, a tool utilized by hundreds of cities in America to mee the demand for affordable homes.

According to officials with the Center for Community Change, the funds work by dedicating public revenue to to help low-income families find housing.

While most high-cost coastal communities in California have a housing trust fund in place, Ventura County does not, according to Housing Opportunities Made Easier.

“The biggest advantage of having a county-based housing trust fund would be the ability to use a regional approach to following the program and developing funding mechanisms,” Golden said. “You can attract and collect a lot more funds with a regional effort.”

Industry sources say the average cost for a home in the Conejo Valley is now over $700,000.

According to a statement from UC Santa Barbara’s Economic Forecast Project, “Almost half the jobs in Ventura County pay less than a poverty-level salary” and “only 16.4 percent of jobs pay $34,000 or more.”

With escalating home and rental costs outpacing household income, officials believe such housing trust fund could help fund a variety of home and financing needs.

“Getting everyone to get along is a giant task,” Golden said. “In our study over the last six months, the issue of cooperation kept popping up. How do you convince Oxnard to give you $4 and Fillmore to give you $1 while providing the same services for both communities?”

Affordable housing projects undertaken by a number of cities in Ventura County were also highlighted at the conference. Projects include the Oak Creek Senior Villas, a 56-unit affordable living complex in Thousand Oaks; RiverPark, a 2,805-unit mixed master plan development that will include 140 low and 112 moderate affordable units; and Casa Bella Apartments, a Santa Paula project that will consist of 41 affordable apartments.

For young professionals and new families interested in moving into the Ventura County area, Golden has one piece of advice:

“Make sure you’re in your parents’ will if you want to live in Ventura County. To buy the median-priced home in this area, you have to make at least $150,000 a year. It’s next to impossible to find entry-level positions that allow people to afford the cost of living in this area,” Golden said.