Oxnard housing director outlines services, a 15% drop in homelessness and looming funding risks

Brenda Lopez, director of the City of Oxnard Housing Department, told the City Council that the department’s programs served thousands of residents while warning that federal regulatory changes and funding uncertainty could reduce its ability to help low-income households.

Lopez said the housing department employs 68 people across seven divisions that manage Section 8 (Housing Choice Vouchers), public housing, grants management, homeless services, affordable housing, rent stabilization, residential services and economic development. "The Section 8 division provides subsidized rental assistance to families whose income levels are considered low to very low," she said, and noted families in the program typically pay about 30% of their gross monthly income toward rent.

The director provided program-level figures: approximately 587 units in the voucher program serving about 3,695 people and more than $30 million paid annually to landlords on behalf of participants; site-level counts for scattered public-housing properties were listed in the presentation (examples included Squires and Trivina at 102 units, Felicia Court at 100, Plaza Vista at 50, and the…