OXNARD : City Considers More Larger Rental Units

The Oxnard City Council agreed this week to look at creating rental units for large families to meet the city’s affordable housing goals.

Council members reviewed housing policies and practices during a two-hour study session Tuesday.

According to the city’s housing blueprint, Oxnard should be in the process of adding 1,700 units by 1994 for households with moderate, low- and very low-income residents. City planners report that only about 10% of the 675 units constructed during the past two years qualify as affordable.

Low-cost housing advocates and city housing staff members told the council that the city has not kept pace with housing goals set in 1990.

“The issue is a very simple one. It’s economic,” said Barbara Marci-Ortiz, an attorney with Channel Counties Legal Services, which provides legal aid to the poor. “Low-income people can’t afford to live in this city.”

Marci-Ortiz said more than 60% of Oxnard’s 145,000 residents qualify as low- and very low-income residents who can’t afford $700-a-month rent.

Poor people are forced to live in crowded conditions just to make ends meet, said Sal Gonzalez, the city’s housing director. There are 1,000 vacant, mostly two-bedroom rental units in Oxnard, he said.

Council members agreed to study the creation of three- and four-bedroom apartments and consider offering incentives to developers to build affordable housing units.

“We’ve got to realize that the greater portion of the people who live here can’t aspire to home ownership,” Councilman Andres Herrera said. “We need to see what can be done to ensure that those people have an opportunity at decent housing.”