OXNARD : Council to Consider Housing Program

Oxnard officials are seeking $2.2 million in federal funds to launch a public housing program that would keep homeless parents from losing custody of their children.

The Oxnard Housing Authority has been invited by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to apply to its Section 8 Family Unification Program. The Oxnard City Council is set to approve an application today for 50 rental units for separated families.

The $77.5-million program provides rental vouchers to parents whose children are at risk of being put in foster homes or already are in out-of-home care due to the family’s inadequate living conditions.

“There are homeless people living in the street, in their cars, and their kids are being taken away,” said Oxnard Housing Programs Coordinator Virginia Nunez. “If the . . . children are about to be put in foster care, this program allows the family to receive a certificate for safe, sanitary housing to keep them together.” Families must meet regular maximum-income requirements to be eligible. Ventura and Camarillo already receive HUD family unification funding.

The Ventura County Public Social Services Child Welfare Agency, which wrote a report in 1992 detailing the need for a unification program, would refer homeless families to the program.

Jerry Blesener, deputy director of protective services for Ventura County, said children are not taken away from their families for lack of proper housing per se, but for related health and safety violations.

When that happens, he said, “certain housing conditions have to be met before the child can be released into custody. That is a big problem for some parents. They can’t get their children back.”