Proposal Offered to Expand City’s Housing Assistance Program : Thousand Oaks: Partnership provides low-interest loans and financial advice to low-income renters seeking to buy homes or condominiums.

She’s signed the papers and pocketed the keys, but Magdalena Bautista still cannot believe she owns a home.

Yet there it is, in the Las Casitas neighborhood of Thousand Oaks--a two-bedroom condominium with a green lawn and a concrete stoop. She will move there next week, with her husband and two young daughters.

No more rent. No more landlords. No more borrowed space.

Thanks to a financial boost from the city and the nonprofit group Many Mansions, the Bautistas have become homeowners.

“We said, ‘It can’t be.’ We couldn’t believe it,” said Bautista, who has lived in the Shadow Hills apartment complex for five years. “It has always been our dream to own a house.”

Thousand Oaks housing analysts on Tuesday presented a plan to help more families like the Bautistas by expanding the city’s homeownership assistance program.

Working in partnership, Many Mansions and Thousand Oaks will lend money and offer financial counseling to low-income renters interested in buying homes or condominiums. The new program offers aid to any renter now living in one of Thousand Oaks’ nine subsidized apartment complexes.

“We’re providing a bridge across the scary path to homeownership,” said Katherine Luna, who directs the program for Many Mansions. “We’re saying, ‘Don’t be scared, here’s a friendly face.’ ”

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Qualified buyers can obtain low-interest loans worth up to 15% of the appraised value of their new home. In some cases, families will receive enough cash to completely cover the down payment and closing costs.

The loans comes from the city’s affordable housing fund, which draws on money collected by the Downtown Redevelopment Agency. Finance Director Bob Biery has estimated the fund contains about $500,000.

To keep the new buyers on track, Many Mansions counselors will follow their progress for the next 18 months, explaining bills, supervising mortgage payments and offering general support.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Bautista said.

Another satisfied tenant-turned-owner, Guadelupe Vilchiz, added simply: “We are very content.”

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The city has helped out first-time home buyers for several years. The new program expands eligibility by bumping the maximum loan up to 15% of the home’s appraised value.

Just as important, the program allows Many Mansions to conduct an aggressive outreach campaign, literally knocking on doors in the subsidized apartment complexes to encourage tenants to consider buying a home.

“We’ll walk you through it,” Luna tells prospective buyers. “We are here as your friend.”

That warm support helped Bautista and her husband, Jesus, take the first step. They were nervous about even imagining themselves as homeowners, until Many Mansions counselors offered their assistance.

“They worked very hard to get us this home,” Bautista said.

Families earning up to $42,000 a year are eligible for the “Key to Homeownership” program. But those with much lower incomes can often afford to participate. One father earning just $5 an hour recently bought a home in Las Casitas, with the city’s help.

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For now, officials are encouraging first-time buyers to consider Las Casitas, where two-bedroom condos sell for about $72,000. Another option is The Groves, a townhouse complex where units cost about $140,000, said Dan Hardy, executive director of Many Mansions.

If renters can find low-cost housing elsewhere in the city, they too can apply for city aid.

Many Mansions screens all candidates to make sure they have steady jobs, a good rental history, a decent credit rating--and the determination needed to carry through with decades of mortgage payments.

The city’s 20-year loans carry a 3% interest rate for the first five years, and a 5% interest rate for the remaining 15 years.

Low-income residents of the following subsidized housing complexes are eligible for the program: Leggett Court, Calle Haya Apartments, Shadow Hills, Montclef Apartments, The Shadows, Schillo Gardens, Florence Janss Apartments, Conejo Future Village, Glenoaks.