VENTURA : Council OKs Plans for Federal Funds

The Ventura City Council unanimously approved an application and spending plan Monday night for up to $651,000 in federal community development money.

The city would spend it on:

* The last installment on a loan for the downtown shopping mall built in 1984, $250,680.

* Downtown redevelopment, including condominiums for low-income families and renovating the train station, $240,000.

* Loans for housing rehabilitation, $100,000.

* A city employee to monitor the use of the money and do the paper work for next year’s request, $21,320.

* A yet to be determined project to help the homeless, $32,000 to $39,000. Officials hope to add to the fund over the next few years and give large grants to agencies with strong programs, Assistant City Manager Lauriane Brekke said.

Six social service agencies with requests totaling $164,000 were excluded from the request on the recommendation of city officials. But the council urged the agencies to re-apply for money from the city’s social services budget.

The requests were for money for a shelter for mentally ill homeless people, a food bank, an ombudsman who would search for homes and jobs for the poor, a grant to help develop affordable housing, the renovation of a children’s crisis center and improvements to 50 rental units to house mentally ill adults able to live independently in a shared housing arrangement.

“This recommendation is not because the requesting projects are not good or because their needs are not urgent,” Brekke said, “but rather that CDBG funds are limited and it is more effective to focus the funds on existing programs.”

The reference was to the federal Community Development Block Grant program under which the request was made.