Building on a Blueprint for Affordable Housing : Thousand Oaks: Many Mansions expands beyond apartments with a plan for 55 homes for moderate- and low-income families.

First, Many Mansions renovated run-down apartment buildings in Thousand Oaks, turning them into clean, affordable housing. Then they built a low-income apartment complex, the 30-unit Schillo Gardens.

The nonprofit group’s plans are getting grander. In its 15th year, Many Mansions is ready to build full-scale homes, providing low- and moderate-income Thousand Oaks residents with the means to afford homes of their own.

Many Mansions, saying that affordable housing is increasingly hard to find in Thousand Oaks, is embarking on a plan to build 55 detached townhouses on a Ventu Park Road site.

The three-bedroom homes would range in price from $100,000 to $160,000, depending on applicants’ income.

“There is a real shortage of housing in that price range in this community,” Many Mansions Executive Director Dan Hardy said. “Finding a three-bedroom is really hard. I’m looking for one right now myself. I just saw one that costs over $200,000 and needs a new roof and a new floor.”

Hardy said the group will have no problem filling the townhouses once they are built. There are already 40 families on a Many Mansions waiting list who want desperately to buy a home but can’t afford to.

“Rents are very high here, $775 [a month] is an average price for a one-bedroom apartment in Thousand Oaks,” Hardy said. “There is really nothing less than that, unless you are willing to live in a scummy place.”

For a low-income family, monthly payments on the townhouses would end up costing about the same as the typical rent for a one-bedroom apartment.

Many Mansions administrators are asking the Thousand Oaks City Council to lend them $950,000 from the city’s Redevelopment Agency to buy the land, which is just off the Ventura Freeway.

But council members Judy Lazar and Andy Fox, who sit on the Housing Issues Committee, said the city can’t lend the group that much.

Said Fox: “$950,000 is a big chunk of money. It was a little too much. I want to be prudent with our expenditures.”

The two council members are recommending a loan of $475,000 instead. The issue is scheduled for discussion at Tuesday’s meeting, but Hardy said he will probably ask for a continuance while he works out the details of the purchase.

Either way, Hardy said a $475,000 loan is enough to get the project off the ground.

“That’ll get us going,” he said. “We’re going to leverage it with another loan from a federal low-income housing fund.”

Many Mansions also hopes to take over two troubled apartment complexes in town in the near future, Hardy said.

Fox praised the group for its ambition in going ahead with the Ventu Park Road complex.

“Detached affordable housing is by far the most pleasing and most palatable kind of low-income housing to the community,” he said. “You get the pride of ownership--it’s perfect.”

A four-member family with an income of $40,000 qualifies for the low-income bracket, Hardy said. Under the ownership assistance program, if the townhouse changes hands in the next 20 years, the next buyer must also be in the low- to moderate-income category.

Hardy said the Ventu Park Road parcel is ideal for the project, but the group--which is still negotiating for the land--will keep looking for a new location if the deal doesn’t work out.

Many Mansions founder Frank Schillo, now a county supervisor, said the group has come a long way since the late 1970s, when it concentrated on helping families find affordable apartments.

“The organization really has blossomed,” Schillo said. “They’ve put their noses to the grindstone. They’ve been very creative in the past, and now this is going to be a different profile for them.”