Officials Leery About Senior Housing Plan
Despite a shortage of affordable housing, city leaders are reacting coolly to a developer’s proposal to build a low-rent senior housing complex in Wood Ranch.
“There are too many things going against it right now,” City Councilwoman Barbra Williamson said.
The Corporation for Better Housing, a Glendale-based builder that specializes in affordable apartments, hopes to build a $13.2-million, 120-unit apartment complex next to a senior housing complex on Country Club Drive.
The developer wants a $3.3-million subsidy from the city, or about $27,500 per apartment, which is much more than Simi Valley has ever provided in support of affordable housing.
“I almost laughed when they said that,” said Mayor Bill Davis.
The city’s most recent housing subsidy was $8,181 for each apartment in the Season’s At Simi Valley Apartments for seniors.
Davis and Williamson sit on the city’s Affordable Housing Subcommittee, which listened to the housing proposal from the developers at a Wednesday meeting.
Corporation for Better Housing executives want to charge seniors monthly rents ranging from $404 for one-bedroom apartments to $870 for two-bedroom flats.
The Area Housing Authority for the County of Ventura in Newbury Park said affordable housing in Simi Valley ranges from $762 to $963 a month. It’s a few dollars higher in Thousand Oaks and about $50 to $80 a month cheaper in Ventura and Oxnard.
The demand for low-rent senior citizen housing far outstrips the supply in Simi Valley, officials say. Nearly all of the 10 senior affordable apartment complexes in the city have long waiting lists of tenants, said Dulce Conde-Sierra, the city’s deputy director of housing.
