Developer Seeks Grant to Support Low-Income Housing Project

A nonprofit developer of affordable housing is applying for a $1-million federal grant to help buy and rehabilitate an aging apartment complex that is home to dozens of low-income residents.

Thousand Oaks-based Many Mansions plans to apply next week for federal funds for the Park Terrace apartment complex on Erbes Road, according to Executive Director Dan Hardy.

Even though walls are spotted with dry rot and rusted water heaters clutter the building’s main street, the 46-unit complex does not have a single vacancy.

“Park Terrace shows how desperate the need for affordable housing is,” said Hardy, who hopes to hear early next year whether the grant has been awarded. “People are living in slum conditions.”

If the grant comes through and the nonprofit housing provider can gather another $3.9 million needed for the purchase and repairs, Many Mansions could begin the first phase of renovation as early as June.

About $3.1 million will go toward the purchase, Hardy said; the rest is needed for extensive drywall, plumbing and other repairs.

In addition to the grant, Hardy said, he is hoping to secure state bond money, state tax credits and some local financial support.

Some residents at the apartment house said the improvements can’t happen soon enough.

“Nothing can get worse,” said Jamie Amarales, a mother of three who has lived in the complex for more than two years.

The current management company has been negligent, she said, pointing at the scarred stairwell leading up to her second-floor apartment.

Other areas show signs of wear. At the rear of the complex, a courtyard is dotted with small pools of water--evidence, Many Mansions officials say, of drainage problems.

And along the complex’s main street, rusted water heaters and discarded furniture are stacked just beneath a “No Dumping” sign.

Amarales said the situation has been bad for a while, despite promises by the management group to fix the problems.

“They say they’re going to make the complex nicer, but they haven’t done that,” Amarales said. “I’m basically just here because it’s convenient for us financially.”

A resident who requested anonymity agreed that the complex has serious problems.

“There’s a lot of functional things wrong, there’s a lot of structural things wrong,” she said.

Among the problems, she said, are rotting stairs, termites and rusting pipes.

She said that she has resorted to applying duct tape to cover holes in her walls that she says are full of termite larvae.

“I can’t get out of here, because there’s no place else to go that I can afford here,” she said.

Officials with Wespac Management Group, the Newbury Park-based company that manages the complex, were unavailable for comment.

Despite the high price tag for renovations, Many Mansions officials say rental rates--which start at $720 for a one-bedroom unit--will not increase if the purchase goes through.

“We’d like to see them go down, but that’s really a question of funding,” said Lee Milman, new projects manager for the housing group. “We wouldn’t be interested in investing in an apartment building if we had to raise the rents.”