Housing Authority Creates Waiting List

More than three years after it stopped accepting applications from residents trying to keep a roof over their heads, the Ventura County Area Housing Authority is taking names of low- and moderate-income families that need rent subsidies or public housing.

Thursday, the housing authority will begin placing names of applicants for housing aid on a waiting list.

Officials had stopped accepting applications three years ago when the number of people on the list had topped 5,000, said Carolyn Briggs, executive director of the housing authority.

“We closed the waiting list after a lot of deliberation,” she said. “At the time we had over 5,000 names and most of those people had no reasonable hope of ever receiving assistance.”

The housing authority has 305 spaces in public housing and gives out rent subsidies to more than 2,000 families, Briggs said. About 70% of the aid goes to families earning less than $14,000, but Briggs said there is also money set aside for the working poor--families of four that earn less than $28,000 a year.

The money to pay the roughly $1.2 million it costs each month to fund the program comes from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The housing authority provides the aid to qualified residents in all unincorporated parts of the county and Camarillo, Ojai, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark and Fillmore. For information, call the Ventura County Area Housing Authority at (805) 482-2791.