$8-Million Bond Issue Planned for Housing

The Camarillo City Council is moving ahead with a bond issue of $8 million to upgrade low- and moderate-income housing in the city’s Old Town area.

Money from the bond issue would go to KDF Holdings in Newport Beach for the purchase and improvement of the 35-year-old Park Glenn Apartments on Glenn Drive.

A KDF spokesman said the bond deal probably would close in late February.

“We will rehabilitate apartments as they turn over,” said Roger Williams, KDF Holdings’ managing director. He said few, if any, residents would be displaced.

Eighty percent of the tenants at the 150-unit apartment complex are low income. Under terms of the bond, all apartments will be for low-income tenants after the rehabilitation.

The bonds are financed by the state, which uses cities as conduits to issue them. KDF--not Camarillo--will be responsible for repaying them.

Camarillo officials are considering an additional $2-million bond issue so KDF can buy a property next to Park Glenn and build a 20-unit apartment complex for low- to moderate-income seniors.

A similar proposal was rejected by the Ventura City Council on Monday.

The council chose not to issue $5 million in state-funded bonds to rehabilitate the 81-unit Citrus Tree Apartments.

Council members were concerned over the possible displacement of tenants and believed an upgrade of the building would be better left to the private sector. Moreover, members were swayed by neighbors of the complex who did not want problems they associated with low-income tenants.

KDF Holdings has bought and rehabilitated low-income housing in Santa Paula, Fullerton, Anaheim and Garden Grove.

“We buy the houses using tax-exempt bonds and tax credits, rehabilitate them and then keep them as affordable housing,” Williams said, adding that they can rent only to people who make no more than 60% of the area’s median income. “So if the rents go crazy due to demand, we’re still limited to what we can charge.”