With a higher percentage of elderly residents per capita than any other
city in Ventura County, Ojai badly needs more affordable housing for its
low-income seniors, according to local officials and housing advocates.
Voters in Ojai
are being asked on Nov. 2 to support the concept of building an
affordable-housing project for lower-income seniors. The initiative is
Measure G and it is being supported by the Ojai City Council.
"I'm 59 and I
know a lot of people whose biggest fear is their loss of affordable
housing," said Councilwoman Carol Smith, an Ojai resident for 28 years.
"We want to keep affordable housing for our residents who have lived
here all their lives. Housing becomes a real fear factor for older
people."
While no
specific project has been designed at this point, city officials hope to
build up to 50 affordable-housing units on 2 vacant acres near Soule
Park. State law requires voter approval of any new government-subsidized
public housing or units built with city funds.
No organized
opposition has emerged to Measure G. No one submitted a ballot argument
against it.
According to a
city staff report, 18 percent of Ojai's population -- some 1,405 people
-- are 65 or older, compared with 10 percent countywide. In Ojai, nearly
a third of all households include at least one elderly person, and 36
percent of Ojai's elderly are renters, the report says.
Smith said
many of Ojai's low-income elderly rent rooms in other people's houses
because that's all they can afford. They just hope their landlord won't
hike the rent too much or sell the house. "If they lose that rental,
they have no place to go," she said.
It hasn't been
determined yet who would qualify for the 50 new units or how the
residents would be chosen. Based on the county's median annual income, a
single person living alone with an annual income of $40,250 is
considered low income, and a single person making less than $27,100 a
year is considered very low income, said Kathy McCann, Ojai's special
projects coordinator.
The issue of
increasing Ojai's affordable senior housing arose earlier this year
after some property owners asked for city approval to build a storage
facility on 6 acres of vacant land near Soule Park.
At the public
hearings that followed, community members, housing advocates and senior
advocacy groups such as HELP of Ojai complained that the city didn't
need a new storage facility as much as affordable housing for the
elderly. The property owners listened, too, and came back to the city
with an amended proposal to build the storage facility on only 4 acres
and to leave 2 acres vacant for another use. The 4-acre storage facility
was approved and construction is pending.
The property
owners are willing to sell the remaining 2 acres to the city or the Area
Housing Authority for fair market value, city officials said.
If Ojai voters
approve Measure G, Ojai could buy the land and retain local control over
the project, giving priority for the new units -- probably apartments or
town homes -- to seniors who already live in the city.
The measure
needs a simple majority to pass.
"This is going
to be an Ojai project with local control -- local housing for local
residents," Smith said.
Ojai has a strict
growth management ordinance that allows only 11 new single-family homes
and five multifamily dwellings to be built a year, but affordable
housing is exempt.
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