City Donation Creates Affordable Housing

The Camarillo site where a lumberyard and a building supply store once stood will host 68 affordable apartment units and for-sale homes by 2024. Last month, Camarillo City Council heard an update on the 2800 Barry Street project, a joint venture between Ventura County nonprofits Many Mansions and Area Housing Authority of the County of Ventura. According to a Ventura County Star report, the endeavor, which address used to belong to the old Stock Building Supply business, will provide affordable housing for extremely low-income, very low-income and low-income families. The city of Camarillo, which had purchased the 2.52-acre property for $3.6 million in September 2018, will donate the property to the nonprofits. Camarillo has also been aggressive in recent years in using funds allocated for affordable housing development to purchase existing properties and earmarking them as affordable housing by leasing them out for below-market prices. The Many Mansions/Area Housing collaboration next goes before the Planning Commission in October before returning to the City Council in November for public hearings and the entitlements process. Once the project secures its entitlements to build, the nonprofit partners will officially apply for funding. The organizations have also requested that the city provide a loan of $4.9 million in affordable housing funds toward construction costs. Such a loan would have 3 percent interest on a 55-year term.