Housing for Mentally Ill Attracts Many Applicants

On Lewis Road sits one of the best deals in rental housing in Ventura County, a barn-like building surrounded by one-bedroom apartments that will soon be renting for as little as $15 a month.

But the Villa Calleguas apartments under construction aren’t available to the general public, only to the county’s low-income mentally ill. So far, more than 200 people have asked for applications for one of the 24 units to be distributed in a drawing next Thursday.

The apartments are specially designed to help mentally disabled adults live on their own with limited supervision. Also, project manager Richard Parke said, several mentally ill county residents helped design the complex.

The intense interest, local advocates for the mentally ill say, underscores the gaping need for such housing in the county.

While advocates are optimistic about Villa Calleguas, their enthusiasm is dimmed by a recent study that showed the county needs at least 550 more beds for the mentally ill to meet the demand.

“It’s a very small step in a great big ocean of need,” mental health advisory board member Nancy Borchard said. “But it’s a step.”

The number of places for the mentally ill in Ventura County dropped recently to 194 when the 62-bed Ventura Garden Manor, one of the county’s largest and oldest board-and-care facilities, was closed by the state for numerous safety violations.

Villa Calleguas is being built through a partnership of the county Behavioral Health Department, the nonprofit Partners in Housing, and the Area Housing Authority of Ventura County. Construction began in September.

It is located on a two-acre parcel of the 19-acre Lewis Road property, which also houses the 30-bed Las Posadas complex for the mentally ill and Casa Pacifica, which provides 63 beds for homeless and emotionally disturbed children.

Tenants pay 30% of their income or $15 per month in rent, depending on their ability to pay, the Behavioral Health Department’s acting housing director, Patricia Kosich, said.

Money for the more than $3-million project came from a variety of sources.

About 75% of the funding was from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. More than $90,000 annually in federal funds will be used to operate and maintain the property, Parke said.

The complex represents a $456,000 investment by the county and is part of the Board of Supervisors’ plan to build 250 new units for the mentally ill in five years.

The priorities of the prospective tenants varied, Parke said. “Some like to be close to the action, others wanted to be very far away. Some had jobs, others intended to hibernate in their rooms.”

The result is the 3,000-square-foot, barn-like community building surrounded by one-story units.

Two full-time, on-site staff members will teach residents to become self-sufficient in skills such as grocery shopping, cooking, and medication and budget management.

“We don’t want to do [tasks] for them,” Kosich said. “We want to teach them how to develop the skills.”

The county staff will also check the tenants’ health to see if they are sober and well.

To qualify for housing at Villa Calleguas, tenants must be county residents, be 18 or older, and have a history of psychiatric disability that has caused frequent hospitalization.

Also, tenants must be able to live with limited support and provide a positive rental history with references “verifying ability and willingness to abide by the terms of the lease.”

“That’s going to be hard to demonstrate if you’re really ill,” Borchard said.

However, she said, a supportive program such as the one planned for Villa Calleguas may stave off the relapse that many mentally ill patients experience after leaving a hospital.

“A caseworker is there to notice that things are getting out of whack,” Borchard said. “They can facilitate that before it gets too far down the road. . . . Housing is very key to long-term stability.”

The deadline to submit applications to the county Behavioral Health Department in advance of Thursday’s drawing is 5 p.m. Tuesday.

A grand opening is scheduled in August, and tenants are expected to move into the complex in early September, Parke said.