OXNARD : Task Force Due on Affordable Housing

The Oxnard City Council agreed Tuesday to form a task force to study the need for affordable housing before approving a long-term plan for spending federal housing funds.

The council voted unanimously to create the task force at its next meeting.

The council also voted to open a 60-day public comment period on the plan, known as the Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategies.

At a council study session, nearly 20 advocates spoke for two hours on the need for more affordable housing in Oxnard, saying high prices are making it impossible for low-income workers to live in reasonable conditions.

Even professionals such as city workers, teachers and Oxnard College professors cannot afford prices in the city, where the median income is $32,000 and the median house sells for $238,520, advocates said.

Barbara Macri-Ortiz, a lawyer for Channel Counties Legal Services, criticized the city’s plan for putting a higher priority on rent subsidies for low-income residents rather than on creating affordable homes.

Juanita Sanchez-Valdez, a former teacher, described how some farm workers’ families pay $550 a month to live in a garage because they cannot afford to pay first and last month’s rent and a security deposit.

The city’s plan lists as a top priority renovating 3,300 units in need of repairs and 1,200 vacant units.

The advocates’ criticism comes a week after 1,500 Oxnard residents jammed the Civic Auditorium to sign up for public housing and federal housing subsidies, the first opportunity in five years to submit applications.