Residents recently began moving into the newly completed units.
The Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura (HACSB) has been awarded $18,983,730 from the California Strategic Growth Council for its Ventura Westside Housing and Active Transportation grant application. The award is granted through the state’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program (AHSC), which funds projects that promote healthier communities and protect the environment by increasing the supply of affordable places to live near jobs, stores, transit and other daily needs. This is one of 25 awards across the state and is the first non-rural AHSC award in the Central Coast and the first for the City and County of Ventura.
The Ventura Westside AHSC award will fund the third phase of Westview Village, the transformation of an existing public housing site where 73 homes will be demolished, and 105 new affordable homes will be constructed. Additionally, the AHSC award will fund significant transit and neighborhood improvements that promote connectivity and enhance bicycling and pedestrian safety. With input from community stakeholders and City staff, the scope of improvements was defined for the grant application, and ultimately included 11,000 linear feet of new sidewalk and sidewalk repair, two miles of a new context-sensitive bikeway to close key east-west gaps in the local bike network, upgrades to Ventura Avenue bus shelters, and the purchase of 40 Calvans vans to expand vanpool service in Ventura County. Residents of Westview Village phase three will be encouraged to use public transportation, receiving bus passes subsidized by the AHSC project. Westview is a short walk from Ventura Avenue, which is bustling with pedestrian and bicycling activity and where Gold Coast Transit operates some of the highest use bus routes in Ventura County.
Projects that receive AHSC funds are committed to promoting alternative forms of transportation, sustainability, housing affordability and neighborhood connectivity. The Housing Project will incorporate a solar system that will produce at least 30 percent of its energy onsite as well as urban greening such as the expansion of the Westview Village community garden, private bike closets per unit, new trees planted at a rate of 3:1 and water conservation design elements throughout the site.
