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An interesting contrast between the two threads just posted, this one and the one following. Sort of like the good citizens of this thread oblivious to the Godzilla of the second. I'll be happy to be proved wrong. Peace.

evan, please don't confuse tax-dollar giveaways to wealthy developers as true affordable housing solutions. These projects, when approved, rarely result in any true affordable housing, they simply subsidize a developer's profit on what typically is otherwise poor land for housing development. Invariably, "affordable" is also an excuse for substandard, cut all the corners projects that diminish the community, are ugly, lack even sufficient backyard for a tiny garden or fruit tree (is living without a garden or fruit tree even Ojai living?), and are not uplifting, beautiful places that enhance the community.

To truly address affordable housing, the city ought to look at some of the proposals in the initiatives it filed a SLAPP lawsuit to squash. Rent control, mortgage assistance, co-housing, etc. We don't need more housing in Ojai, we simply need some of what's here to be affordable.

Excellent comment, Housing! Developers use other people's money through bank loans. Just part of the scam which keeps the rich rich and the poor poor and the taxpayers footing the bill. It also drives the speculative bubble which the banksters burst right after they get their money out, just in time to buy property at fire sale prices. I don't think our elected officials, all property owners of the stockholder class, have the wherewithall to understand this. We have to educate ourselves as to what is really going on and do our best to share the information. I really liked your comment. Peace.

OVNEWS "Affordable Housing
Issue Returns" is a good
chronology written by Nao. This was a council campaign issue last year obviously, because of city council and staff bait and switch pattern to appeal community support by offering senior affordability starting at $600K? Be serious! Assuming any units sell and not
stay vacant as the rest of newly built projects in town, I wouldn't expect any awards given out for finally meeting the quota of
affordable units the grand jury complaint was calling for and would hope that any loyal resident would not allow high density projects on Bryant Street invading Ojai valley.Simple physics will not support that much traffic and sprawl in a finite setting. For market condo projects disguised as senior affordable housing captures the paradox of the problem. There are and have been real concerns about the dwindling housing stock here for middle incomes with families and other residents. It is not reactionary but realistic that unmanaged unplanned for growth is the broader ominous threat,and projects
shouldn't be misrepresented.

Pete - where would you propose to put affordable housing without creating sprawl?

Lisa - Put it right where it is, by NOT building new, unnecessary housing, and working on making currently vacant properties affordable for people who live and work here. Then you get affordable housing without sprawl.

Rent control is another solution. Allow renters some security, while being fair to property owners by ensuring they can preserve their return. Then working people don't have to either buy or leave in order to live a reasonable life.

There is plenty of housing for our current population in Ojai, and more housing and density than this valley needs already. Building more is not a solution. How/who do you think building new projects is going to help?

For starters I wouldn't put
it in Bryant Street
Industrial Plan- a little
to noisy maybe? The original
plan until funding fell
through was stick seniors
behind the monster size
storage facility, sure to find comfort behind tall
cement walls and full sun.

Housing: I like your verve! Yes, we need affordable housing, for those who serve the community yet cannot afford to live here. We could use existing housing, but I'm not aware of units sitting vacant. Come see "The Price of Paradise" Sunday 10/7 at 3pm at the Ojai Film Festival!

LS - take a bike ride around town and look at the record number of homes for sale. Many are vacant. I will lay odds there are more vacant homes for sale right now in Ojai than are proposed to be built in the new Bryant Street project. (Probably double the number. Or even more.)

Add the vacant homes not for sale - some in dire need of rehabilitation, blight that many locals I know would stand ready to cure if they could get the property at a reasonable cost - and we are way over.

Rather than subsidizing profits for developers who build unnecessary, substandard housing in unsuitable areas, why not apply tax dollars in a win-win that provides needy working residents a reasonable opportunity to buy a real Ojai home that they can then rehabilitate, for the greater beauty and good of Ojai?

And of course, that leaves alone the question of how it can ever be suitable to give away tax dollars to "affordable housing" developers when we have not even implemented rent control. Rent control is step one in addressing affordable housing.

I would not want to substitute watching a movie for doing something sensible about affordable housing here in Ojai. But, I'll look for "The Price of Paradise" when the Film Festival rolls around. Maybe you can preview: What does that film have to say about these issues?

Housing: I like the idea of homebuyer assistance programs, too, but the gap has been too wide for these programs to be successful for the past 5 years. Preview the film here:
www.thepriceofparadise.com
Sierra Club supports high-density (avoiding sprawl) affordable housing and their spokeman is interviewed in the film. A nurse, teacher or fireman cannot afford one of the many market-priced homes that are currently for sale. And we cannot afford to not have our critical workforce in our community.

Not sure I follow, LS.

1. The same cheap money that created the gap would permit well-designed "homebuyer-assistance" programs to fill it. Example: Typical rent in Ojai for 3 BR house is $2000/month. At recent mortgage rates, on a 30-year fixed, adjusted for tax benefits, that $2000/month might support $350,000 in mortgage. A $200,000 pay-on-sale second allows the homebuyer $550,000 to buy (not including a down payment). That $200,000 second can be supported by the investor entity at market rates of $500-700/month (or even less), and when supported by various grants and tax credits and incentives, even less again. Do the math - with a five year average second horizon per house - a modest muni bond issue (just one financing possibility) of $5,000,000 would support more than 20 Ojai homebuyers at affordable rates for life, cost the funding entity nothing (five years of interest is included in the sum, plus some cushion for the financing), and net a profit as seconds came due on sales and were repaid with accumulated interest. That's return that new building "affordable housing" projects can't begin to match - they are simply dollars out, into the developers' pockets.

The reality is not that "buyer assistance" has not been successful - it has not even really been tried. Why do our local governments keep focusing on subsidizing developer profits from the public coffers, when far better solutions could be had at no cost to the taxpayer?

[As an aside, "buyer assistance" is a poor term, unless we are going to call the mortgae industry itself just "buyer assistance." The reality is that this kind of use of public funding tools is simply good investment. How about "muni mortgage" to refer to it?]

2. I have never heard the Sierra Club say it supports building new high density housing in a small town like Ojai where no new housing stock is needed. The Sierra Club position as I have understood it is to support high density housing as an alternative to low density housing, i.e. sprawl, when it is clear that new housing is needed and coming. I don't follow the relevance of the Sierra Club position to Ojai or this discussion. Enlighten?

3. I agree. Heck, a doctor, lawyer or other professional can barely afford a home here at a reasonable mortgage, much less nurse, firefighter, or teacher. Worse, for the long term viability of Ojai, an owner-operator of an independent local business - the kind that Ojai is known for, perhaps an art studio, a restaurant, a bakery, a movie theater - cannot even think about supporting purchase of a home here from such a business. Therefore: See (1) above, as one solution.

But, pointing to the lack of affordability for critical workforce that we want in Ojai does not support the idea that we should subsidize new building of substandard homes in undesirable areas. That just increases the population, and lowers the quality of life.

In view of National POW / MIA Recognition Day (9-21-07) that many seem to have forgotten about I feel we should remember our POW and MIAs and remember also their massive betrayal into a living hell on earth by our own government leaders leaving a massive stain on Americas honor that cannot be erased at this point in history. We can however wake up to the treason that is enveloping our country in Washington D.C. and elect members of Congress that will reestablish American honor in the tradition of General Douglas MacArthur when he observed There is no substitute for victory! The horrible fate of our prisoners of war and MIAs left behind by our own government in enemy hands in WW-II, Korea, Vietnam, etc., must never be repeated. But it will be if we fail to wake up and create a new era of extreme vigilance. For there has never been a shortage of highly placed traitors in our government as the POW/MIA issue shows. We should read the book titled 'AN ENORMOUS CRIME' by Congressman William Hendon and Elizabeth Stewart(her father is missing in Vietnam) that exposes secrets of the Vietnam War and documents that American POWs were left behind and also see:www.JBS.org (search: POW/MIA) for more shocking information. We should continue to demand through the full weight of our government through Congress the release of our POW/MIAs left behind as some may still be alive. We cannot totally resolve this terrible stain on Americas honor but we must try. Ed Nemechek 760 -246- 8059.

Here's a thread that is about to drop off into oblivion, and deserves not to. Lisa, your turn! There is a possibly enlightening discussion opening up here on what we can do about affordable housing in this town. Don't leave it here - Lisa, tell us what you think. Or maybe someone else has some knowledge in this area?