Federal Grant OKd for La Colonia Housing

Despite strident objections from some members of the community, Oxnard’s City Council has approved a nonprofit housing group’s request for federal money, saying La Colonia needs more low-cost homes.

“It seems to me that the concept being proposed is very good,” Mayor Manuel Lopez said late Tuesday. “There has been very little development in La Colonia.”

The council voted 5 to 0 Tuesday after a lengthy public hearing to provide $273,000 in federal grants to El Pueblo Unido Reinvestment Corp.

El Pueblo modeled its proposal on home-building projects sponsored by the Habitat for Humanity organization championed by former President Jimmy Carter. El Pueblo plans to use the federal funds to build two to four homes in La Colonia using sweat equity--the labor of future homeowners.

“We are going to be able to build some new homes,” said Vincent Godina, El Pueblo’s president. “There is going to be change.”

Godina said the group will start negotiating with property owners to purchase empty lots in La Colonia and hopes to begin construction by the end of the summer.

El Pueblo Unido’s proposal has generated a flap in a community that lacks enough affordable housing. So big a flap, in fact, that Oxnard housing official Ernie Whitaker had recommended before the meeting that the City Council reject the project because he believed the group had not gained enough community support.

As in past meetings, opponents filed up to the podium, arguing that El Pueblo’s proposal was poorly conceived and that the city could get more for the money with another project. Despite lobbying by El Pueblo, members of La Colonia Neighborhood Council voted overwhelmingly last month not to back the project.

Some of the opposition stems from comments made by El Pueblo’s treasurer, Juan L. Soria, who angered residents when he used the Spanish word for “jackass” to refer to project opponents in a radio interview last year.

Other residents feared--wrongly--that the group planned to condemn existing properties to build new homes. The group only plans to build homes on empty lots it purchases.

Godina has blamed the opposition on landlords who he says fear that new houses would lure away tenants or force the owners to make costly repairs.

But opponents deny the charge, saying the proposal simply lacks merit and that El Pueblo never answered their questions about the project.

“We have never seen El Pueblo Unido around,” said Vicky Gonzales, chairwoman of La Colonia Neighborhood Council. “Only when they want the money.”

La Colonia resident Harold Ceja blasted the City Council’s decision, saying it would influence his vote in the November election.

“I have lost faith in the City Council,” said Ceja, a 60-year-old truck driver. “When it comes election time, I am going to do all I can to make sure [the council members] get voted out.”

Godina said El Pueblo will choose new homeowners by screening low-income applicants and then asking a neighborhood priest to pull the names of qualified individuals out of a hat.

For the first time Tuesday, a group of residents rose to speak in favor of the project, reducing concerns of city officials that El Pueblo had no community support.

“It gives people who would otherwise not own a home an opportunity to have one,” said Miguel Espinosa, a 63-year-old concrete contractor who said he would volunteer with the group.