Renters Find Apartments Becoming Scarce, Pricey

Welcome to the flip side of the recovery.

As home sales heat up in Ventura, prospective renters are finding that apartments are becoming scarce and pricier.

For renters whose pay does not match the steep rate increases of recent months, the emerging market has made Ventura seem like anything but home.

Ventura native Jerrica Van Nest, 23, said it took her nearly four months to find an apartment she and her boyfriend could afford. Unlike some renters, she was facing a strict deadline: She is pregnant and needs a room for the baby.

“There has been nothing out there,” Van Nest said. “Nothing in the paper, nothing from the property companies. And what is out there is ridiculously priced.”

Van Nest, who works in retail sales, said she was forced to compromise, paying more than she wanted for a small, two-bedroom apartment.

But while she has won a brief respite, she said low-wage workers such as herself are being squeezed out of the area.

“Everybody is getting flushed out of Ventura,” she said. “When I got my first apartment five years ago, everything off the Avenue was $450 for one bedroom. You can’t even get a studio for that much anymore.”

Simi Valley resident Debbie Griffin, whose family has been staying with friends since the beginning of the year, said higher rents and highly selective property owners have also made her search nearly impossible.

“I’ve called about 30 places in Simi Valley,” Griffin said. “I can’t find anything.”

That is the case for many around the county. In Oxnard, Mary Schmenk, office manager for Alert Management Co., said her inventory is tapped out.

“We’re totally full,” said Schmenk, whose company handles about 300 residences. “All of our units are full.”

Maria Pierce of Ven Co Properties agrees there has been a dramatic decrease in inventory, and in most cases a corresponding hike in rental prices.

“There is just nothing on the market and the rents are going up steadily again,” she said. “For a two-bedroom that went for $750, you can get $895 right now.”

The growing rental shortage is being fueled by several factors, analysts and rental associates say.

Booming home sales have encouraged owners of rental properties to sell, squeezing an already stagnant supply.

And the same incoming flood of workers and jobs fueling the county’s economic growth is putting pressure on its housing stock.

Rent hikes have hit low-income workers particularly hard.

“All over, people are getting rent-increase notices,” said Barbara Macri-Ortiz, an attorney at Channel Counties Legal Services, which provides free legal services for low-income clients.

“When a landlord feels he can get more, if the market is there, he will raise the rent,” she said.

“I see people in my office who pay 60%, 70%, 80% of their income in rent. What does that do to their ability to feed their families?” said Macri-Ortiz, characterizing the rental crunch’s effect on low-income residents as “the flip side of the recovery.”

Ventura renter Van Nest said the reality of her economic straits hit home after a phone interview with a property manager. During the phone pre-screening, which has become common among rental agencies, Van Nest mentioned she was getting food stamps to supplement her income.

“The woman said that’s a good thing” Van Nest said. “She said that ‘With your amount of income, I can’t see how you make enough to eat and pay rent.’ ”

While no county agency keeps solid statistics on rental rates or availability, Douglas Tapking of the Area Housing Authority said agencies across the county, and especially their clients, are feeling the pinch.

Some low-income families in Oxnard have it even tougher.

Because the city’s rental rates tend to be lower, families with federal Section 8 housing certificates--which help pay rents, but put limits on how much can be charged--are flocking to the city.

“Right now we have about 50 families out there looking for units,” said Norma Cervantes, Oxnard’s housing program supervisor. “The owners get to say, ‘I’ve got 10 families waiting here, so I want more money.’ ”

Donald A. Dawson, president of Teldon Property Management Inc., a housing investment firm, agreed the emerging shortfall has hit families hardest.

“A lot of properties in the single-family market were owned by people who really wanted to sell, not investors,” he said.

“The shortage in the sale market is causing owners to sell, and that creates a shortage in the rental market.”

Unless the area sees a rapid development of rental units, Dawson said, the shortage will not end soon.

That has Pierce of Ven Co Properties concerned.

“I feel really bad for anybody looking for someplace to live,” she said. “It’s crazy.”