HOME Addresses Ventura County Housing Crisis

 The issue of “growth or no-growth” has historically been difficult and controversial for Ventura County’s communities to grapple with, as local population grows whether we like it or not. The local housing shortage has become so severe as to be a potential economic and social equity issue equal to preserving the environment or “lifestyles”. If we do not build housing at a rate equal to our long term job growth rate our housing crisis can only worsen.

A majority of the County’s voters have essentially said they do not want to grow outward in what some call “sprawl development”. The voters also mandated that agricultural uses be protected by eliminating urban uses outside SOAR (CURB) boundaries for the next 20 years.

What we need to eliminate is our current “ostrich” approach to handling the housing shortage, since the ten incorporated cities are unlikely to allow land to develop within their CURB boundaries at a pace faster than the recent past while population growth continues. The key question is what happens when the estimated supply of land available for housing is developed within 8 to 10 years, even sooner in some cities? (Smart Growth inaction: Housing Capacity and Development in Ventura County: 2001, Solimar Research Group)

What we need instead is a balanced, creative approach to manage growth in order to preserve our resources and protect the local quality of life as population grows. “Smart Growth”, or “New Urbanism” principles of  planning policies and development aim to add more housing within already developed areas by raising densities, developing infill sites, and converting land in some other urban use to housing (such as older commercial or “brownfield” industrial sites to mixed commercial uses with housing included). This policy option shifts the focus to achieving a range of diverse housing types and densities which create or preserve a sense of neighborhood and community.

We are beginning to see how bad the regional housing crisis can be, but more importantly what can we do about it? While we may not be able to ultimately provide for all of our housing needs, HOME (Housing Opportunities Made Easier) believes there are realistic community planning solutions that can make a significant difference and ease our current crisis.

HOME is a broad based volunteer coalition of civic organizations, businesses, elected officials and interested individuals committed to creating a more positive environment for workforce housing development in each of Ventura County’s communities through programs to educate and engage residents, public servants and elected officials, and to advocate for greater availability and affordability of housing for people of all income levels.

HOME has identified six (6) action items to achieve these goals:

1. Regional Situation Analysis-Information gathering
2. Community Outreach resulting in advocacy and lobbying
3. Housing Information Clearinghouse- Education by newsletters, website
4. Policy Reform- advocating changes in procedures and policies to elected officials
5. Project Endorsement- support for projects meeting HOME’s endorsement criteria via our independent review panel.
6. Regional Housing Conferences- collaborating with other groups to sponsor educational meetings which create action teams in local communities to lead.