Housing Authority in Santa Paula Buys Apartments

In an effort to provide long-term housing for low-income families, the Santa Paula Housing Authority has purchased a 22-unit apartment building near the city’s downtown district.

The housing authority paid $1 million for the El Dorado apartment complex, marking the first time the agency has bought property since it was established in 1969, said Ramsey M. Jay, the agency’s director.

Until it bought the apartment building, the agency’s sole function had been to subsidize rents for low-income residents, Jay said.

With the lowest per capita income in Ventura County, Santa Paula has many residents in need of low-rent housing, said Flo Zakrajshek , chairwoman of the City Council-appointed commission which oversees the housing authority.

The agency provides financial assistance to 529 families and has another 650 families on a waiting list, she said.

“We had no choice but to purchase the building. It was a question of [the housing authority’s] survival,” Zakrajshek said. “There is no question that federal funds for the housing authority are going to be cut back in the next few years and we want to make sure that we have something that we own.”

The housing authority is expected to take over the 20-year-old apartment complex, at the corner of Harvard Boulevard and 8th Street, by Aug. 15, Jay said.

But he said the building will not be immediately occupied by low-income residents. He explained that the apartments are currently occupied, and that as tenants leave they will be replaced by low-income families.

Furthermore, he said the housing authority only plans to set aside 10 of the apartments for low-income residents. Jay said state law would require voter approval to rent more than 10 of the units to low-income families.

Jay said there are no immediate plans to put the issue to a vote.

During the past four years, the agency had been trying to buy or build a housing project for low-income residents. After talking to developers about building such a project, agency officials decided it would be better to buy an existing building.

The agency had been putting money aside for 10 years for such a purchase, Jay said.

Although the agency will take over management of the apartment complex, it will continue subsidizing rents for low-income families. Last fiscal year, the agency spent $3 million in rent subsidies, Jay said.

Santa Paula is one of four cities in Ventura County that has its own housing authority.

Other cities with housing authorities are Ventura, Port Hueneme and Oxnard. Santa Paula was the last of the four to own its own housing agency, officials said.

For some Santa Paula residents such as Cynthia Rodriguez, the housing program kept her from living on welfare.

For nine years, Rodriguez, a professional cook and a single parent, depended on the housing program to help her with rent.

“I could not find a job that would pay enough for me to support my son, myself and pay rent,” said Rodriguez who no longer receives rental assistance. “If it hadn’t been for the housing, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”