HUD Official Warns of Housing Aid Cuts

Belt-tightening in Washington will translate into fewer dollars in Ventura County for subsidized housing programs, a top U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development representative said Wednesday.

“Congress is looking to cut HUD’s budget by $5 billion to $6 billion this year,” said Wendy J. Greuel, HUD’s Southern California representative. “Those cuts will have a major impact on a number of programs across the country.”

Greuel spoke to a small luncheon audience of representatives from local nonprofit agencies following the groundbreaking for a new shelter for mentally ill homeless people in downtown Ventura.

The Turning Point Foundation received $1.1 million in HUD grants for the new shelter. But Turning Point’s windfall may be among the last as HUD’s budget comes under increasing scrutiny from Congress.

Oxnard Housing Director Sal Gonzalez said the proposed cutbacks will only hurt an already bad housing situation.

“We already have a difficult time meeting the needs of new families applying for housing,” Gonzalez said. Oxnard, which receives about $25 million in HUD grants for a variety of programs, houses 2,300 families but has a waiting list for 2,000 more.

“We get 20 new applications a month for urgent housing needs and there’s nothing we can do about it,” Gonzalez said.

Terrie Andrade, a spokeswoman for the Ventura Housing Authority--which receives about $8 million a year in HUD grants--said that city faces the same problem.

“We have 1,100 housing units and more than 1,500 on the waiting list,” Andrade said. “The turnover is very light, so we only move 75 people a year off the waiting list and into housing.”