And Many More . . .

As every city in Ventura County struggles to provide the affordable housing required by good conscience, common sense and state law, let us pause to praise a nonprofit organization that has achieved remarkable success in this area.

Today Many Mansions will celebrate 20 years of finding or creating decent housing for low-income residents of Thousand Oaks. It provides safe, pleasant homes for more than 800 people in six housing complexes. They are the sort of homes it is easy to be proud of--and the residents’ pride and contributions to the community are evident even to a casual visitor.

Many of those homes are in rehabilitated apartment buildings that were rundown, overcrowded and crime-ridden before Many Mansions took them over. By carefully screening its residents, setting and enforcing fair and clear rules and actively managing its properties, the organization has demonstrated how to offer good, low-cost homes while eliminating problem spots for the surrounding community.

Even 20 years ago, Thousand Oaks had a serious need for homes that could be afforded by laborers, service workers and such professionals as teachers or police officers. Realtor Joe Brown, county Supervisor Frank Schillo and the late Otto Stoll were involved in starting the organization. It was not a universally popular cause, then or now.

“There was not a popular citizen uprising for it,” Schillo told The Times last week. “Brown had a real estate company. He took a risk by supporting affordable housing. It could have hurt his business. He knew it was the right thing to do.”

The Times congratulates Many Mansions for its good work, and the residents of Many Mansions housing for their role in that success. Other cities pondering how to improve and expand their supply of low-cost housing could learn a lot from this story.