Motel to Get New Life as Low-Income Apartment Units
With the promise of a $1-million state grant, the affordable housing group Many Mansions will soon convert a sagging Thousand Oaks Boulevard motel with few customers into a low-income apartment building.
The competitive state funding will help the nonprofit group purchase the Village Inn Motel along this city’s main drag, refurbish and reopen it with 60 “bachelor” apartments designed for working singles and couples.
Together with city funding for two other Many Mansions projects approved the night before, the new Village Inn apartment endeavor announced Wednesday is expected to meet a gaping local need for affordable housing.
The apartments--which will rent for $350 a month--would also be ideal for Thousand Oaks’ new class of migrant workers: those who work in the city’s ample service sector but cannot afford to live in the suburb.
“This is probably the greatest need in the community right now,” said Dan Hardy, Many Mansions executive director. “A large portion of people we see looking for housing are singles or couples with very low income--the people who work for $7 or $8 an hour in retail or service professions.
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“Right now, there literally isn’t any place for them to live--we have to tell them to leave town. This is going to fit that niche real well.”
About 680 households--representing 1,564 men, women and children--sought Many Mansions housing assistance in the first six months of 1997. The group has a waiting list nearly 800 names long for reduced-cost housing.
Many of those were the working poor--unable to muster rent in this city where the average one-bedroom apartment costs $775 a month and two bedrooms $900.
“If it’s a source of housing for Thousand Oaks residents who need it, that would be good,” said Lawrence Marquart, Thousand Oaks senior planner. “Providing permanent housing for Thousand Oaks residents would be better than having a motel sitting there empty.”
While hardly run-down, the Village Inn Motel has suffered from high vacancy rates for years, Hardy added.
In all, Many Mansions expects to spend between $3 million and $3.5 million to buy the property and make it livable: replacing the roof, converting some parking spaces into community gardens, providing handicap access and installing kitchenettes.
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Beyond the state funding, offered through the Department of Housing and Community Development’s Home Investment Program, the group hopes to cobble together a bank loan and city commitment to pay for part of the project.
The news caps a momentous week for Many Mansions--one in which the group’s housing opportunities and balance sheet were boosted.
At a meeting late Tuesday, the City Council spent more than three hours reviewing the city’s housing stock, paying particular attention to a lack of affordable housing.
While city officials point to Thousand Oaks’ commitment to affordable housing, scores of people wait for low-rent apartments and reasonably priced homes.
Many Mansions received a multimillion-dollar pledge of assistance from the city at the meeting.
While supportive of the idea to convert the Village Inn Motel into apartments, Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said timing of the announcement--a day after the city discussed affordable housing--was suspect.
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“I think this should have been brought up last night,” she said Wednesday. “I think this was an omission.”
At the Tuesday meeting, a divided council agreed to give Many Mansions up to $2.7 million to buy and refurbish the dilapidated 80-unit Island Village apartment complex, next door to the Village Inn.
The prospect of renting from the affordable housing group tantalized Island Village resident Joe Higareda.
“Would they fix the cracks in the pavement?” asked Higareda, 24. He envisioned more laundry facilities, a basketball area for children, more lighting, gardening around the complex’s small pool and room for storage.
That’s not to say Higareda, a security guard, isn’t happy with his present property managers. He just hopes that the new landlords would spend more time sprucing up the brown, two-story apartment buildings he calls home.
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The city’s contribution to the Island Village project--about $500,000 more than originally budgeted--will be added to state money, tax credits and outside investment to pay for an $8.7-million overhaul.
The Island Village and Village Inn projects--where existing buildings are refurbished--are in keeping with Thousand Oaks’ slow managed growth, Councilman Andy Fox said.
“We need low-income housing and they’re filling that deep need,” Fox said. “I think the most important thing in this is we’re providing a need to the community without turning to new development.”
The city leaders also agreed unanimously Tuesday to refinance and forgive a so-called “soft loan” that Many Mansions used to overhaul the blighted Shadow Hills apartment complex.
Details of the refinancing have not been fleshed out completely, but the city will likely pay between $3.6 million and $5.5 million in all.
The loan forgiveness would be the city’s first dollar contribution to Shadow Hills, a problem apartment complex that city leaders asked Many Mansions to save in the early 1990s.
City Housing Services Manager Olav E. Hassel said Thousand Oaks would issue bonds worth $9.43 million to $12.3 million to pay for the Shadow Hills and Island Village commitment, plus future projects.
The Shadow Hills debt, Many Mansions representatives said, made it tough to secure new financing for future projects.
But some residents said they suspect a bailout.
While Many Mansions provides a community service, the loan forgiveness “represents real tax dollars,” resident Wayne Possehl said. “Let’s not just give it away; let’s have an outside audit, an investigation and a report.”
Before Possehl spoke, an independent auditor said Many Mansions’ fiscal house was in order.
Correspondent Lisa Fernandez contributed to this story.
