Federal aid continues to erode for city's affordable housing, social services
Official reports 30 percent drop in five years
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

Shrinking federal funding has Camarillo city officials hustling to do more with less when it comes to a local grant program that subsidizes both low-income housing and a slate of social services.

Managed by the city, the Community Development Block Grant is a grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Camarillo City Council voted 5-0 last week to accept an annual report of how the nearly $367,000 in federal money was spent. The report, required by the Department of Housing, was submitted to Washington, D.C., last week.

Randy Richardson, Camarillo's housing program analyst, said the block grant is essentially used to help the city finance affordable housing for low-income families and seniors.

But as housing costs throughout Ventura County climb, Richardson said, the amount of federal aid continues to shrink. In 2002, the city received $470,000 in block grant money- nearly 30 percent more than what it received last year.

"Every year the amount goes down," Richardson said. "Yet, we're required to do as much or more."

A lion's share of the grant money, about 70 percent, is used to fund affordable housing and to provide low-income families with programs that help pay rent, finance essential home improvement projects and to offer homebuyer assistance.

Richardson said the city used the block grant money last year to help finance the purchase of the 305-unit Mira Vista Village Senior Apartments and to build the 13-unit Calle La Roda apartment complex. Both are affordable housing projects in Camarillo.

The city paid about $1 million for each project. It's block grant money, Richardson said, that took a number of years for the city to save.

Although only a small portion of the two projects' total costs- Calle La Roda is nearly $5 million, while Mira Vista cost $44 million- an additional $300,000 in block grant money saved the complicated multi-agency deal for the Mira Vista apartments from falling apart last year.

Richardson said the shrinking federal aid has forced the city to seek different ways to leverage their block grant money to subsidize affordable housing.

To do so, the city continues to partner with the Area Housing Authority of Ventura County and seeks additional grant money from the state.

"I call it 'lasagna financing' because there are so many layers," Richardson said of the various deals that have helped the city cofinance affordable housing projects even without sizable federal aid.

The remainder of Camarillo's block grant money is used to subsidize nearly a dozen local service agencies that provide assistance to the homeless, abused women and children, low-income families, homebound seniors, the area food pantry and drug counseling for atrisk teens.

Those agencies, however, depend on similar federally funded block grant programs from Camarillo and neighboring cities- money that is slowly disappearing.

"It's a trend in the wrong direction," said Karol Schulkin, program administrator for the homeless services program, part of the county of Ventura Human Services Agency.

Schulkin said over the past 15 years federal money has steadily dropped, leaving her private welfare agency with a smaller budget to help the nearly 3,000 homeless with emergency housing, transportation and employment services.

"People we work with are very, very limited in income and resources," Schulkin said, whose Camarillo-based agency receives less than $4,000 a year from the block grant and operates on a $400,000 annual budget. "That money, although very modest, is very helpful."

Ginny Connell, executive director of the Palmer Drug Abuse Program, said dwindling federal aid money has also affected her Camarillo-based agency that provides drug counseling for at-risk teens.

Connell said her nonprofit agency counsels nearly 1,000 teens a year.

She said a majority of her agency's $500,000 annual budget is generated through contract work with the Ventura County Behavioral Health Agency but that funding through various local grant programs keeps her program afloat.

If that money was to disappear, Connell said, her agency would not have the ability to reach at-risk teens.

"There would be a big sense of loss for us because we are working as a nonprofit to offer services for as many teenagers as possible," Connell said. "They're all pretty much highrisk, lowincome kids with no other services to steer them away from alcohol and substance abuse."

Connell said the program helps teens avoid the dangers of drugs- jail and long-term health problems- both of which end up costing taxpayers millions each year.

"Every dollar that we spend on intervention saves $11 in health and corrections cost," she said.