Officials Struggle to House Quake Victims : Aftermath: Many displaced residents turn down temporary shelter because they prefer to stay in their battered communities.

Alfonso Gaitan would rather live in his earthquake-ravaged house in downtown Piru than move eight miles up the road to a temporary shelter on the wooded banks of a nearby lake.

And that’s just one of the hundreds of little realities confronting county officials these days as they fit the complexities of federal earthquake disaster relief programs with the specifics of Ventura County and its residents.

Just last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency put up four trailers for quake victims at Lake Piru, about a 15-minute drive from Gaitan’s dilapidated Main Street home. But there were no immediate takers.

Gaitan believes that the reason is simple, although not easily understood by federal bureaucrats: He and other Piru residents want to stay in their community, and the winding drive to Lake Piru is more inconvenient to local residents than outsiders might think.

Many Piru residents will bide their time in their cracked abodes, Gaitan said, until Ventura County sets up mobile homes in a more suitable location downtown--a task local officials now are trying to get under way.

Since the Jan. 17 earthquake battered Piru, Fillmore and Simi Valley, county officials have been formulating plans to build alternative housing for victims.

More than 1,000 Ventura County dwellings were deemed unsafe and 900 were seriously damaged in the quake, according to building inspection reports.

But helping residents get settled elsewhere is proving to be a difficult process, said Marty Robinson, who is coordinating the county’s housing efforts.

“It’s a challenge to figure out a way to make all of these funding sources fit together to meet our needs,” Robinson said. “We want to maximize what we can get to our residents as much as possible.”

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider Robinson’s recommendation to locate 20 mobile homes--financed with FEMA money--on a lemon grove in Piru.

The county has already put three trailers on Piru’s Main Street for businesses that were displaced by the quake.

“You have to realize the nature of the community out there,” Robinson said. “It’s not a very wealthy community. People walk a lot in that little town.

“If everything you do is five miles away and you have no transportation, you have a hardship. That’s why we are trying to keep things downtown.”

In neighboring Fillmore, 50 mobile homes are expected to be placed near the city’s central core, and construction is under way on a giant tent that will house damaged businesses.

Simi Valley officials, meanwhile, said they have no plans to install trailers. But, they say, that doesn’t mean that the temporary homes won’t be constructed later on.

Currently, Simi Valley is using FEMA funds to help more than 600 mobile-home owners repair their damaged structures, said Laura Herron, deputy city manager.

As for the county, Robinson said officials have been working “around the clock” to help meet housing needs, especially for low-income residents.

“Eighteen-hour days are pretty regular in our efforts to find the holes in the system and determine how people are going to fall through them,” Robinson said.

In addition to putting up the mobile homes, county officials are pushing forward with projects using the following funds:

* $2.8 million in federal community block grants will be spent to repair homes of low-income residents.

The money could also be used to build permanent and temporary housing in the Fillmore and Piru areas. About $160,000 will be used to pay for the business tent in Fillmore.

* An undetermined amount of money from the local Area Housing Authority will be used to help lower-income quake victims pay their rent.

Last week, authority officials said they received more than 725 applications for assistance. About 75 families in Fillmore, Simi Valley and Piru were approved to receive the money.

* $1 million in state housing grants will be used to assist first-time home buyers in Piru. Meanwhile, the federal government is paying for its own trailers in such areas as Lake Piru--where gas, water and sewer hookups are readily available.

“There are sources of money in all different directions,” Supervisor Vicky Howard said. “We will be examining every source of money we can possibly find.”

But advocates for low-income residents warn that the county must be careful how it approaches the housing issues. While temporary homes are needed now, the county must make sure that enough permanent dwellings are available for low-income quake victims, advocates say.

“We must take care of these people with long-term solutions,” said Lynn L. Jacobs, president of Affordable Communities Inc., which owns the Piru lemon grove where the 20 mobile homes will be placed.

Affordable Communities plans to build housing for first-time home buyers and low-income apartments on the grove this summer.

“Hopefully, we will be able to take a big bite out of the need,” Jacobs said.

Howard agreed that providing long-term affordable housing must be a priority.

“Perhaps some good will come out of a disaster like this,” Howard said. “We have had a very small amount of housing for people on lower incomes. We really should be working harder on providing those types of housing on a permanent basis.”

Gaitan, who has been out of work for two years, said he hopes to rebuild his Main Street home, which he shared with his mother and brother, with low-income grants secured by the county.

In the meantime, he said, he is anxious to move into the county’s temporary housing with his mother and brother, who are now staying with relatives in Fillmore.

“It will bring us back together,” Gaitan said. “I’ve lived in Piru all my life. My mother has lived here all her life. I don’t know any better reason than that to want to stay.”