Housing Plan for Disabled Revised
Ventura County supervisors are reviewing a scaled-down plan to build subsidized housing at a county-owned site near Camarillo for foster youth and people with mental illness.
Under a conceptual plan supervisors will consider Tuesday, at least 51 mentally ill people would be housed at the site, along with up to 32 youths who have been emancipated from the foster care system.
The recommendations by County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston contrast with a broader proposal pushed by the county’s Behavioral Health Department and advocates for the mentally ill. That plan calls for more than 200 apartments and townhomes.
A more conservative approach is needed because the costs of developing the entire 58-acre site are unclear, Johnston said. Supervisors should ask for a complete analysis of the costs before approving any construction, he said. All but 12 acres of the land are already used by nonprofit groups who hold long-term leases, complicating matters, he said.
It makes more sense for the county to hold on to the undeveloped acreage as a site for future government facilities, the county chief said last week. “These are all important, well-meaning things,” Johnston said. “But we have to be measured in the actions we take.”
The county’s Mental Health Board is backing a competing proposal that calls for a wide array of housing options for people with mental health disorders. Under this plan by the Behavioral Health Department, the Area Housing Authority and Casa Pacifica, more than 200 low-cost apartments and townhomes would be constructed.
Most of the units would be occupied by people with varying degrees of mental illness, with medical supervision available to the most severely disabled, said Geoffrey Gilbert, a consultant on the project.
But some of the units would be available to anyone who qualifies for Section 8 housing, Gilbert said. Backers are also proposing that some of the mentally ill residents could purchase the townhomes, which would be offered at an affordable price, Gilbert said.
He challenged Johnston’s concern that a larger development would drain the county’s budget, saying the $33.3-million cost would eventually be covered by a combination of tax credits and government housing grants. “It’s not cheap,” Gilbert said. “But it’s affordable and doable.”
Johnston said he doesn’t oppose additional construction on the 20 acres leased by the Area Housing Authority. But any development should be carefully evaluated to determine if it would increase county costs for providing services to the mentally ill clients who reside there.
Supervisors might also consider transferring title of the land to the developer, he said. “If the Area Housing Authority wants to build out there, that’s fine,” he said. “But we might need to quitclaim the properties to the various users.”
A portion of the land is already set aside to house the county’s homeless shelter operated by RAIN, or River-dwellers Aid Intercity Network. Johnston is recommending that an additional two acres be reserved for possible future development by the Assn. for Retarded Citizens, which provides services for people with mental disabilities.
Many Mansions, a nonprofit affordable-housing group based in Thousand Oaks, has proposed building 100 low-income rental units on the property. Another nonprofit, U.S. Vets, wants to construct 100 transitional housing units for veterans.
