Report says Camarillo meets affordable housing numbers
Meadowbrook Apartments officially opened on Tuesday
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers WELCOME HOME- Camarillo Mayor Charlotte Craven, center, is joined by members of the Camarillo City Council and the Area Housing Authority of Ventura County at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Meadowbrook Apartments on Tuesday. The $4.8 million 13-unit affordable housing project at the corner of Calle La Roda and Ponderosa Drive offers two and three bedroom apartments to families making between 30 to 60 percent of the median income. Rents range between $600 to $1,050.

Rosalinda Gutierrez and her two children are homeless. They've been living with friends and apart from each other since September.

Gutierrez, a 48-year-old former farmworker, said she's eligible for subsidized housing but is having a difficult time coming up with a cosigner and the more than $1,000 needed for a deposit on a downtown apartment that would reunite the family.

"I appreciate your work, but I would like to see more and more low-income housing for farmworkers," Gutierrez told the planning commission during a Jan. 15 public hearing on an update to the city's housing plan.

State law requires cities to update housing numbers for their general plans every five years or so.

With each update, the state assigns the number of homes cities must provide for residents of all income levels. Updating the housing plan ensures that cities make room for residential growth, primarily people in the low and verylow-income brackets, said John Douglas of Conexus, a Los Angelesbased consulting firm specializing in city planning. The company was hired by city officials to help update Camarillo's housing report.

Douglas said those in the moderate to upper income levels are generally able to afford most area homes, but the average cost of Camarillo homes is well out of reach for many residents.

The median home value in Camarillo is about $525,000, according to a recent report by the University of California, Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project.

State law requires Camarillo to make 3,340 housing units available to all economic levels between 2006 and 2014. Of those homes, nearly 40 percent- about 1,300 homes- must be available to renters or homeowners with low and very low incomes.

Since 2006, the city has provided 405 homes for low-income residents, with 913 yet to go. Between now and 2014, the city must allow for about 152 low and verylow-income homes a year.

"Camarillo is one of the best in terms of meeting its objectives, particularly with new construction," Douglas said.

Douglas pointed to recently built housing complexes in town with low-income or affordable homes, such as Alara Camarillo, Avalon Bay, Tesoro Walk and home renovations along Barry Street, as successful low-income housing projects.

On Tuesday, Camarillo city officials and the Area Housing Authority of Ventura County officially opened the Meadowbrook Apartments, a $4.8 million 13unit apartment complex for families making between 30 to 60 percent of the median income.

Low-income households earn $63,600 a year or less. Households in the very-low-income bracket make no more than $39,750 annually- less than half the county's median household income of $79,500.

Fieldworkers, on the other hand, earn about $17,000 a year, according to Sonia Flores of House Farm Workers!, a three-year-old Santa Paula-based task force that wants more affordable housing for county farmworkers.

Flores urged the planning commissioners to set a policy to plan for a specific number of housing units in Camarillo for farmworkers.

Because cities can't build homes, California law requires them to identify property that developers can build on that's equal to the number of housing units the city has been assigned. Cities also must assist housing development by removing roadblocks, such as inappropriate zoning restrictions and unreasonable policies and procedures.

In addition, cities can include new construction as well as home rehabilitation paid for through a city's low-income loan program and projects done in partnership with housing agencies in meeting their housing targets. Camarillo and the county's Area Housing Authority purchased and remodeled the 305-unit Mira Vista Apartments.

Housing countywide, however, hasn't kept pace with population and employment growth, Douglas said. Between 2000 and 2006, more than 68,000 people and 32,400 new jobs moved into Ventura County- a 9 percent increase of each in those six years. Housing grew by only 7 percent- 18,900 units- during the same time period.

And while the county is expected to have some 4,000 new jobs in the higherearning healthcare industry over the next six years, twice that number of new jobs are projected in the areas of transportation, food service and retail sales, generally lower-paying jobs.

Those workers, unable to buy a home or afford apartment rent, will further strain the housing shortage.

The housing update, expected to go to the City Council for its endorsement on Feb. 27, must be approved by the California Department of Housing and Community Development and on the city books by June 30.

After last week's planning commission meeting, a staff member from the city's housing program gave Gutierrez a brochure listing apartment complexes in Camarillo. Gutierrez is awaiting word on a duplex on Barry Street.