Housing Plan Would Aid Ojai Youth and Seniors

In a novel attempt to bridge the generation gap, a nonprofit agency has proposed building and managing an affordable housing complex for seniors that would fund youth programs and provide employment for teenagers.

The Ojai Valley Youth Foundation has proposed the 20-apartment project on one acre of Ventura County-owned land on East Ojai Avenue, next to Soule Park Golf Course, said foundation Executive Director Caryn Bosson. The project would cost an estimated $2 million.

“Certainly there is a need for senior housing, and it’s a very creative look at having the youth foundation play a role in that so that both ends of the age spectrum will benefit,” said county Supervisor Kathy Long, who is helping the group secure the land from the county.

The newly formed foundation, established to implement the city-backed Ojai Valley Youth Master Plan completed in January, would tap sources that include tax credits and the 20% of municipal redevelopment funds that by law must be set aside for affordable housing projects.

“These are the two age groups that basically need some assistance, and this is a way to provide assistance for both groups,” said Mayor Steve Olsen, who is also president of the nonprofit. “There is no money for new youth programs in our area, so we felt if that’s true we must find innovative ways to come up with the funding for youth in our valley.”

The City Council gave the go-ahead last week for municipal staff to examine the feasibility of the proposed Golden West Senior Apartment Homes.

Preliminary figures show that such a complex could generate $30,000 to $50,000 a year, Bosson said.

The money would support youth-oriented programs that the foundation is putting into place to benefit the Ojai Valley’s 7,000 children. Those include after-school safety programs, a teen diversity summit planned for March and an experimental “wellness village” intended to keep kids safe and off the streets.

The group recently received a $125,000 grant from a private foundation to implement the wellness village.

The housing proposal “makes a lot of sense for the Ojai Valley because we have limited [private] foundation and corporate resources here to pay for youth services,” Bosson said. “It’s a direction many nonprofits are looking toward--sustainable fund-raising sources.”

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Indeed, the housing development itself could provide badly needed employment opportunities for youths and help increase interaction between age groups, Bosson said.

“There are certainly work-experience programs that could include landscaping and jobs that connect youth with seniors such as errands and household chores,” she said. “They are actually two of our fastest-growing demographic groups. We need to prepare for the needs of both.”

Almost 20% of the city’s residents are 65 or older, compared to 9.4% countywide, according to 1990 census figures.

In addition, most of the city’s existing senior housing is 30 to 40 years old, with a vacancy rate of only about 1%, Bosson said.

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The city’s only designated affordable housing complex for seniors, the 99-unit Whispering Oaks development on East Ojai Avenue, has a long waiting list, said City Manager Andy Belknap.

Using plans donated by a local developer, the new complex would have Mission-style architecture and such amenities as a barbecue area and an eight-person whirlpool tub.

Still, the need for the project doesn’t guarantee its success in a city notoriously suspicious of any development that may change the area’s rural character.

“There’s no short cuts,” Olsen said. “It’s going to go under the typically harsh Ojai planning microscope.”