Big Windfall Revives Hope for Projects in Simi Valley : City Council: Federal authorities let $802,703 left from an affordable-housing plan be used for grants. Veterans, soccer and counseling programs are among possible recipients.

Thanks to an $800,000 windfall, the Simi Valley City Council may be able to fund a half-dozen community projects that appeared to be in jeopardy last month, city officials said Friday.

In a new report, the city staff has recommended that the council on Monday approve grants that would buy a van for disabled veterans, help build soccer fields and pay start-up expenses for a low-cost counseling clinic.

A change of heart occurred after federal authorities decided last week that another $802,703 that the city recovered from an affordable-housing project could be used for community grants, said Brian Gabler, assistant to the city manager.

Previously, city officials had been told the money could only be used for another housing project, Gabler said.

Leaders of nonprofit groups were elated Friday when they learned that their grants are more likely to be approved.

“It’ll be a godsend to the veterans, I’ll tell you that,” said Harry H. Kundin, commander of the Simi Valley chapter of Disabled American Veterans.

Kundin’s group has asked for $15,000 to buy a 15-seat van that would shuttle veterans to and from the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Sepulveda. At least 500 veterans in Simi Valley and neighboring communities need the service, which would run five days a week, using volunteer drivers, Kundin said.

“I’m sure we’ll have a full van,” he said.

The largest proposed grant--$50,000--would go to the Simi Valley Soccer Foundation, which wants to build two international-size soccer fields on undeveloped park land.

Proponents say there are not enough safe fields to accommodate the more than 2,500 children and adults who play soccer in Simi Valley.

“How exciting!” Caesar Julian, chairman of the soccer foundation, said Friday when he learned that additional grant money is available.

If the council approves it, the $50,000 grant would literally provide seed money for the proposed soccer fields, he said.

“We need the seed money to actually plant the grass seed,” Julian said.

The city staff has also recommended the following grants: $21,750 to the Simi Valley Historical Society for an engineering study of the Simi Adobe; $20,950 to Interface toward a Simi Valley counseling center; $7,825 to the Simi Valley Free Clinic for office equipment; and $4,000 to Grey Law of Ventura County for legal services to senior citizens.

Last month, the city staff recommended that virtually all of the $545,000 in the federal Community Development Block Grant funds received by Simi Valley be used to help the city comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

This measure requires cities to make public facilities accessible to all residents, regardless of disabilities. The federal funds should be used to provide sidewalk ramps and make city-owned buildings more accessible to people with disabilities, city staff members said.

But after hearing pleas from public service groups at a May 24 hearing, the council told staff members to give the grant program additional study.

The $800,000 windfall came from federal funds the council allocated in 1985 to lower the price of condominiums in the Royal Place project so that the units could be sold to people who met affordable-housing income guidelines.

When the condominiums were resold, the city was reimbursed for its subsidies, plus interest and a share of the equity.

These funds, plus the original block grant, will allow the city to comply with Americans with Disability rules and support the community projects, said Mayor Greg Stratton.

“The council said, ‘We’d really like to fund these things,’ ” Stratton said. “Now, the staff is saying we can do both because (a federal agency) has released this other $800,000.”