SIMI VALLEY : City OKs Housing Loan Program

Moderate- and low-income Simi Valley residents trying to buy a house may be eligible for a new cut-rate mortgage program approved by the City Council.

Under the plan, Urban Futures, an Orange-based company, will provide up to 70 below-market loans to one- and two-person households earning $57,900 a year or less and to households of three or more people earning $66,600 or less.

The council Monday agreed to the plan, which enables the city to join a Joint Powers Authority with 14 other California cities to float up to $70 million in tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds.

In Ventura County, Moorpark, Santa Paula and Fillmore have also agreed to join the authority.

Simi Valley council members said they welcomed the program as a way to help keep housing affordable and meet federal mandates to provide low- and moderate-income housing.

“We need to do whatever we can to make sure people who want to buy homes here can,” Councilman Bill Davis said. “This program will help us achieve that.”