Ground Broken on Transitional Housing

Many Mansions, a Thousand Oaks-based affordable housing group, broke ground Thursday on its Community House, a $1.8-million transitional housing center.

There is no place in the Conejo Valley like Community House, an 11-unit complex at Los Robles Road near Hampshire Road, according to Dan Hardy, Many Mansions executive director. Expected to open in six months, it will give those without a home a place to live at minimal cost while they get back on their feet.

“Think of it this way: The closest facility to this is 40 miles to the east in North Hollywood and to the west in Ventura,” Hardy said. “There is a tremendous need for housing like this because people will have to pay virtually nothing.”

Councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Linda Parks, County Supervisor Frank Schillo and representatives of Los Robles Bank were among those attending the groundbreaking. The bank provided construction financing.

In addition to housing, Community House will offer day care to residents through a contract with local child-care provider Roots and Wings.

Many Mansions is also hoping, with the assistance of Roots and Wings, to train people to become child-care providers.

The property is the former site of a 1940s brick house built by Sicilian immigrant Dominick Tringali.

“We’d liked to have kept the one house, but it would have taken up half the property and it was seismically unsound,” Hardy said. “It would have cost a lot of money.”