Housing Grant Aims to Reunite Families

Oxnard housing officials have received a $408,605 federal grant to subsidize rents for families whose children are in foster care or in danger of being taken into custody by social workers because of inadequate homes.

The grant will benefit about 50 families, Oxnard housing officials said. Those families have been living in garages, rundown apartments and other substandard dwellings. Their children are either already in the custody of social workers or scheduled to be placed with government agencies, officials said.

Under the program, families will move into new apartments after being awarded federal Section 8 certificates. The federal Housing and Urban Development’s “Family Unification” is aimed at reuniting parents and children and preventing such breakups, said Virginia Nunez, the city’s housing program coordinator.