OXNARD : Housing Units OKd for Seniors, Families

Despite some neighbors’ concerns about crime, Oxnard planners approved a housing development for senior citizens and low-income families in the Hobson Park West neighborhood.

About two-thirds of the funding for the more than $16-million Mercy Charities Housing project will come from federal grants and tax credits.

“We may not get an opportunity like this again,” said Ray Tafoya, a member of Oxnard’s Land Use Advisors panel.

Oxnard will contribute $1.1 million to the project, which will proceed without a City Council vote unless it is appealed within 15 days.

A San Francisco-based, low-income housing builder associated with the Catholic Church, Mercy Charities Housing plans to build a 41-unit senior complex and a 64-unit townhouse apartment complex at the southeast corner of Hobson Way and West 5th Street. The two Mediterranean-style complexes will be built around a courtyard on the 4.1-acre site of the former Channel Islands Hospital and Swift Hospital.

Hobson Park West Neighborhood Council Chairman Shawn Henning called the project an “excellent idea,” but said he was concerned that the low-income housing units outnumbered the senior ones.

“We understand that low-income people may not be bad people,” Henning said. “But if you put in nearly twice as many family units as you do senior units, you create a potential problem.”

The developer scored points with neighborhood residents by deciding to incorporate the Swift Hospital in the project instead of razing the old building.

Mercy Charities plans to begin building the family housing in January, and will start construction on the senior housing next fall. Project architect Mark Pettit said the development will be unique.

“This is the first project that we know of on the Oxnard Plain that is co-generational,” said Pettit. “We hope that the courtyard is a good meeting place.”