Homeless Advocates Tell County More Affordable Housing Needed

Ventura County should build more affordable housing for the poor instead of helping low-income residents fix up their homes, county homeless advocates told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

“No matter how much rehabilitation you do, it doesn’t address the real problem,” Barbara Macri-Ortiz told the supervisors at a public hearing on how the county should allocate its federal housing grants. “We have to build houses people can afford. . . . We will never see interest rates as low as they are now. We can really do some good.”

Last year, the county received $1 million in Housing and Urban Development funds to assist the poor, but only $175,000 was spent on building new housing, said Susan Van Abel, county housing analyst.

The rest of the money went toward fixing up old homes, building parks in low-income areas and constructing wheelchair ramps for people who are physically impaired.

“The priority of all jurisdictions in this county needs to be the construction of new units,” said Nancy C. Nazario, coordinator of the county’s Homeless Ombudsman Program.

“We cannot just accept getting a family of four into a one-bedroom because that’s all their income will buy. By definition, that’s overcrowding. . . . It’s going on all over the county. It’s the only way people can make it.”

Several supervisors said they would consider the homeless advocates’ comments when putting together the county’s 1994 Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy.

A draft of the plan is due out in November. The report is required by law for the county to receive another $1 million in housing grants from the federal government next year.

“For a child not to have a certainty of knowing that he will have a place to lay his head at night is unconscionable,” Supervisor Vicky Howard said. “Yes, we need more units. There is no doubt about that.”

Currently, there are between 2,500 and 3,000 low-income housing units in Ventura County. In the unincorporated portions of the county, there are about 480 units.

County officials estimate that there are about 1,900 homeless people in the county. About 400 are children.

“I hope the new units will be a higher priority,” Supervisor Maggie Kildee said.

Van Abel said housing administrators traditionally have not focused on building new housing units as their top priority because the county discourages new building in unincorporated areas.

Under the present housing strategy report, the county listed helping low-income people rehabilitate their homes as its top priority.

But, Van Abel said, the priorities could be easily changed to meet the requests of the homeless advocates.

“We have absolutely no preconceived notions,” Van Abel said. “I will do a demographic analysis and determine what our needs are. We’ll outline whether we need rental housing, elderly housing, homeless housing. We’ll look at everything.”