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 Palm Vista Project at 100). Lopez described project-based vouchers, emergency and veteran-targeted programs and routine administrative requirements such as annual recertification and inspections every 24 months.

On homelessness response, Lopez said the Homeless Services Division led an Encampment Resolution effort funded by a $4,000,000 grant to relocate encampment residents into interim noncongregate shelter and case-managed transitions. "A total of 44 persons were successfully transitioned from these encampments into permanent supportive housing units," she said, and she cited Casa De Carmen as a 2025 development that received clients.

Lopez also highlighted outreach and partner services: street outreach every other Tuesday in partnership with the health care agency and Oxnard Police Department liaisons, a weekly one-stop clinic at the Salvation Army, and a foul-weather shelter activated when forecasts call for more than 0.5 inch of rain or temperatures at or below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

She reported a decline in the measured homelessness rate: "In 2025, the City Of Oxnard experienced a 15% reduction in homelessness for individuals," marking the second straight year of decline. The presentation cited the city’s role in the Ventura County point-in-time count coordinated by the continuum of care.

On grants, Lopez said the Grants Management Division oversees three HUD entitlement grants (Community Development Block Grant, HOME, and Emergency Solutions Grant) and that the city receives approximately $2,000,000 annually in those entitlement funds. She noted the city received a $500,000 HUD Choice Neighborhoods planning grant in 2024 and said staff completed a comprehensive assessment in 2025 and hopes to apply for an implementation grant (the presentation cited a maximum application ceiling of $50,000,000) in late 2026 or early 2027.

However, Lopez warned of several headwinds. She described federal regulatory changes under the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) affecting multiple program sections and uncertainty about mixed-status-family policy changes, adding that repeated shifts to effective dates have created administrative burdens. "The Section 8 program has never been fully funded," she said, and she reported that HUD has announced an end to funding for the emergency housing choice voucher program — developments that could place the housing authority into shortfall status and limit its ability to issue new vouchers.

Lopez outlined other operational challenges: recruitment and long-standing vacancies in the grants and Section 8 teams, retirement-driven maintenance staffing gaps, and rising rents and construction costs that increase subsidy needs and delay capital work. The Rent Stabilization Division was noted as enforcing ordinances adopted in 2022 (including a 4% annual-cap provision for specified properties and relocation-assistance rules); the presentation recorded an increase in citations from 8 to 76 and in public contacts to roughly 2,192 in 2025.

Lopez closed by listing departmental needs: continued investment in rental-assistance demonstrations and public-housing conversion, sustained funding and time to complete a rent-stabilization fee study, support for Choice Neighborhoods planning and implementation, expansion of project-based vouchers and restricted-unit inventory, and ongoing funding for unhoused-response initiatives. "Both staff and I will be available after this appointment item to answer any questions," she said.