Housing costs continue to snowball over local income levels
By Avi Rutschman avi@theacorn.com

Housing officials from throughout Ventura County met last month at the fifth annual Ventura County Housing Conference to discuss development issues facing the growing county.

The event was sponsored by several housing agencies in the area, including Housing Opportunities Made Easier, the Ventura County Economic Development Association and the Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation.

The conference at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza specifically examined how Ventura County has grown over the past five years in terms of housing density and policy and procedural decisions that influence development.

"What makes our conference unique this year is that we focused on real-life developments right here in Ventura County," said Bill Buratto, the president and CEO of the Ventura County Economic Development Agency. "I'm excited to begin the dialogue about new housing strategies and how Ventura County can benefit from them."

The conference's title, "Growing Up in Ventura County," was a double entendre meant to refer both to the difficulty new families are having in acquiring housing in Ventura County and the county's new need to start building up, according to Brad Golden, the chair of Housing Opportunities Made Easier.

"We . . . have to go vertical and rethink the way our county is going to grow," Golden said. "The sky is the only place we have left, and with such large anti-growth sentiment in the area, we are going to have to push people into urban cores."

Those who attended the meeting also examined how various developments have managed to address issues such as affordability and increasing needs.

"The meeting was a call to action for our group," Golden said. "In the first quarter of 2007 we will be assembling stakeholders, which include government entities, big business and large employers, to further discuss options in focus groups."

The conference also addressed the issue of housing trust funds, a tool utilized by hundreds of cities in America to address critical housing needs.

According to officials with the Center for Community Change, these trust funds work by dedicating public revenue to fund homes for low-income families.

While most high-cost coastal communities in California have a housing trust fund, Ventura County doesn't have one in place, according to Housing Opportunities Made Easier.

"The biggest advantage of having a county-based housing trust fund would be the ability to use a regional approach to following the program and developing funding mechanisms," Golden said. "You can attract and collect a lot more funds with a regional effort."

According to Many Mansions, a Thousand Oaks-based nonprofit affordable housing and service provider, the average cost for a home in the Conejo Valley is over $700,000. According to UC Santa Barbara's Economic Forecast Project, "Almost half the jobs in Ventura County pay less than a poverty-level salary" and "only 16.4 percent of jobs pay $34,000 or more."

With escalating home and rental costs outpacing household income, officials with Housing Opportunities Made Easier believe such a trust fund could help to fund a variety of housing types and fill a common gap in financing needs. But they are also quick to warn that these funds are difficult to establish and take time to set up.

"Getting everyone to get along is a giant task," Golden said. "In our study over the last six months, the issue of cooperation kept popping up. How do you convince Oxnard to give you $4 and Fillmore to give you $1 while providing the same services for both communities?"

Affordable housing projects undertaken by a number of cities in Ventura County were also highlighted at the conference. These include the Oak Creek Senior Villas, a 56-unit affordable living complex in Thousand Oaks;

RiverPark, a 2,805-unit mixed master plan development that will include 140 low and 112 moderate affordable units; and Casa Bella Apartments, a Santa Paula project that will consist of 41 affordable apartments.

For young professionals and new families interested in moving into the Ventura County area, Golden has one piece of advice.

"Make sure you're in your parents' will if you want to live in Ventura County. To buy the median-priced home in this area, you have to make at least $150,000 a year. It's next to impossible to find entry-level positions that allow people to afford the cost of living in this area," Golden said.