accompanied by our entire management team that is nervously sitting here in the public third to last seating rows, in case there's any specific questions that they can help answer to give a better overview of the programs and services that we offer to their community. So I'll go ahead and get started as we mentioned, we're gonna be providing an overview of the housing department and the various divisions.
So first start off, just with the overall setup of our housing department. We have a total of seven divisions and in this seven divisions we have exactly 68 employees. Something that is a little bit unique to the City of Oxnard is that our local housing authority is actually embedded or part of the Housing Department That is not unique across the United States, but at least here locally most housing authorities are a standalone if you will. But in our case which is very helpful we are part of our housing department and so both departments have work together but they do have separate budgets. So in the case of the Housing Authority, the programs are funded directly by the Department of Housing and Urban Development which we call HUD for short and the housing authority has a budget of about 40 million and again these funds come from HUD.
Under the Housing Authority we have the Housing Choice Voucher Division Better known as Section 8, and then also Public Housing. Both divisions focus on providing subsidized housing assistance to families. And we'll go into a little bit of detail well into the presentation. Then we also have our Rent Stabilization, Grants Management, Economic Development, Affordable Housing, and our Homeless Services Division.
So first off with the Section 8 Division, again part of the Housing Authority programs. Through this division we provide subsidized housing assistance to low-income families. We currently have approximately 1587 apartment units, single family residence condos in this program and we're housing about 3,695 individuals. We release approximately $30 million in housing assistance payments on behalf of the clients so tenants pay 30% in rent of their monthly gross income. These programs or programs under this program focus on helping the extremely low to very low-income families What that means is that their income levels are at 50% or under of the area median income level for the County of Ventura.
Some of the programs that are managed through the Section 8 include what they call specialty, or special purpose vouchers and here I won't go into too much detail but we have the emergency housing choice voucher homeless set aside. We have a VASH program which stands for Veteran Affairs Supported Program mainstream and family unification. On these programs the clients get a voucher, they look for a unit of their choice in the city of Oxnard and they're able to rent there where there's also what's called a project-based voucher program little bit different in that the voucher is tied to a specific unit so if a client gets what's called a project based voucher they are required to rent a unit wherever that voucher was awarded to And the functions that our staff play in this department, we have a couple.
So in the section 8 division specifically, we administer all of the waiting lists for the housing authority. Our staff is responsible for verifying the families are eligible for assistance. All units are in the program must be inspected at least once every two years and we do have an in-house inspector and outside inspector that helps us with this role And then our staff has to do what we call as case management basically means that we recertify the families on an annual basis.
If there's any changes during the year, we also re-verify eligibility. We verify if there's any change to their portion of the rent. And if not, then we recertify it on an annual basis. Again that's for the Section 8 program. I did want to give a very simple example. If you have a family of four, the maximum income that you can make on an annual basis for this program will be approximately a little bit under $75,000. So it kind of gives you an idea of how the families are doing financially.
Then the other program that we have under the Housing Authority is what we call as public housing. Now, public housing is a little bit different in that the Housing Authority operates and manages these units. So here, the Housing Authority staff serves as a landlord if you will or for lack of better word. We have a total of 523 units in our program. These vary from studios all the way to five bedroom units, and we are currently housing 1,412 individuals in this program.
The income limit here is still considered low but it goes up to what they call 80% of the area medium income. So the example that I provided previously family of four could be making close to 120,000 and still be eligible for this program. We also have a couple of units, we have specifically 17 apartment units that are owned by the Housing Authority. The difference here between public housing and non-public housing is just the funding source so the units are still rented only to low income families they are just being subsidized through other programs such as the Community Development Block Grant or some other federal state agency that might have awarded us the funds.
Staff in this division, similar to Section 8, must verify eligibility, collect documentation, admit families but here again we do function as a landlord so we do take care of any repairs that are needed to the property. We also enforce lease if there's any lease violations. We need to make sure they cure those violations And if not, then unfortunately we have to take the next steps.
Our public housing does have a capital fund division. Capital Fund Division staff is responsible for applying for a grant so that we can continue to improve our properties through the capital fund grant. funded by HUD as well. We also have a maintenance team, our maintenance team is responsible to respond to work orders and to maintain our properties and last but not least our public housing staff they're responsible for what I deferred to as case management which again is working with the families make sure they're eligible and also to make sure that we process any changes in their income that might affect their portion of the rent And our staff here too ensures, again ongoing compliance. And we are also responsible for inspecting our units just like in Section 8 except here the Department of Housing and Urban Development does do inspections.
They come independently and they inspect our properties. We got to make sure that they are in good standing if they're not that impacts our ability for future program participation and also it impacts how often we get audited. I'm not going to go into too much detail on the next slides, but these are just our sites. Our 523 units are located amongst 11 different sites in the city of Oxnard. We have units all the way out to Cuesta del Mar and in the northern end more by Othia Court. Most of our sites are either maybe 10 or 12 units except for the larger ones which in this case and the image on the screen will be Squires and Trevino which has I think like 102 units but other than that they're smaller projects And again, on this next slide just a couple more images.
These are a little bit outdated in the painting most of them have been painted since then the pictures were taken but again here our larger sites would be Palm Vista and Juanita and Felicia Court those three sites have at least 100 units. The other ones again are a little bit on a smaller scale Under the Housing Authority, we also have a different program. We don't consider it a division but we felt it was important to highlight it. It's our Resident Services Initiative Program which is operated and based out of the multi-service center at 1500 Camino del Sol.
Camino del Sol or the 1500 building is owned by the City of Oxnard, but the housing authority staff operate the building. So here we work with non-profit or organizations that offer services to the community at this point in time. We for example have New Dawn Counseling, we have CDR Catalyst which provide child care and early education services to low income families We have Future Leaders of America, and then we also have the extension of the public library which we call the Colonia Public Library Extension. On site our resident services initiatives also offer access to a computer lab and we also apply to a ROS grant. ROS stands for Resident Opportunity Self-Sufficiency Grant. Basically it's funding that we receive so that we can have a coordinator on site The coordinator coordinates with various agencies to bring programs not just to La Colonia neighborhood, they're open to all the community.
But basically things such as workshops on obtaining your citizenship, getting your GED, job fairs. We also put together a food share once a month we have food share distribution and we also bring other services such as helping with financial aid applications for students We have a mural project that takes place in back of this building. And again, all of this is through this ROS program. The coordinator I'll go into the next slide as well but the coordinator also works with our financial self-sufficiency coordinator for the FSS program. This slide I'll spend just a couple minutes on it was a question that was brought before us by council in the past and that was if we could share a little bit more information about the financial self-sufficiency program The FSS program for short is offered to our public housing and our Section 8 Program participants, so it is limited to them.
Right now we are at what they consider capacity. We have 126 households participating. The way this program works, it's an escrow account savings account. So basically when a family improves their self-sufficiency if their income increases, their rent increases that increase in rent instead of being put back into operating budget, we put it aside for the family in an interest-bearing account and we continue to hold it there. Once the family graduates from the program then we release the funds back to them. This is a typically a five year program. Families can improve their self-sufficiency various many many many tools. It could be improving your credit score so that you're not subject to predatory lending. It could be consolidating your credit card debt or It could be learning about homebuyer or homebuyer education so you could purchase your first home.
So again, financial self-sufficiency means different things to our families. So success is measured depending on their goals. Once again they participate for about five years. We did pull back our data just to try to see if we can get a little bit of statistics. So we went back to 2010 Since then, we've had 96 participants that completed the entire program. We dispersed a little bit under 1.6 million to those families and out of the 96 families that graduated, a total of eight did purchase their first home I personally met one of the participants, they did move out of state but they did purchase a home free and clear. Right now with the economy that is obviously going to be a little bit harder but that is a goal that the family can set for themselves.
Both are the Ross and the FSS coordinator also co-lead a PCC committee. The PCC committee is a program coordinating committee we have 50 agencies participating in the county We come together once a quarter where we talk about the various programs for low-income families, and we share best practices again so that we can help and meet our families where they're at. So that's a little bit about that FSS program.
And now we'll move over into the services provided by our Homeless Services Division. Our Homeless Services Division has two staff members, again we say small but mighty group and some of our efforts include encampment response efforts. Again this comes back to a grant that we received close to four million from the state where we were able to work with community partners and be able to respond to the encampments on McWane and Fifth Street We did two things. One was to come in and assist individuals where they were at to get them emergency services, and then for those that were able and willing to work with us to become ready to be housed we also then set them up in non-congregate shelter. You've heard about it as programs or as developments have come to fruition.
We've been transferring them out We had a total of 44 participants go through this program and they have all been successfully placed at either Casa de Carmen, Central Terrace or Casa Aliento. So we're very excited to have seen families be able to get back on their feet. In addition our Homeless Services team also does street outreach via two efforts twice a month. We go out there again with community partners We work with the Oxnard Police Department liaison to determine what areas maybe they've seen a little bit more individuals gathering around. We try to come to them and encourage them to seek services and connect them to services. We also participate in the one-stop clinic at The Salvation Army that's once a week, and that's walk-in so anybody who needs help is welcome to stop by and get services whether it's connecting them to health benefits or a food pantry or emergency housing.
And then also our homeless services program coordinator is responsible for the fall weather shelter. So we usually notify all of our community that this shelter is in place, we notify individuals how to seek for help. We activate the shelter whenever it's gonna get below 40 degrees Fahrenheit or when we're expecting a lot of rain. So last week I believe you guys heard us announcing we're activating our shelters second activation Usually we activate two to three times depending on how the weather does. So again, Homeless Services Division is in charge of that effort and then of course we help any community or any individuals from the community who come in and seek assistance related to emergency housing Just a quick highlight for our homeless services team, we also serve as the lead contact for the City of Oxnard.
We work along the continuum of care for Ventura County in the point account and just a little highlight that we always like to share is that in 2025, we did see a decrease in the number of unhoused individuals for City of Oxnard 15%. And this is the second year that we've seen a decrease. And obviously, that's not just our division but it is thanks to all of the efforts and all the programs that we have brought forward to the community to help house individuals who are unhoused.
And I'll move on to our Grants Management Division. Grants Management Division is in charge of administering the entitlement grants that the City of Voxnard receives on an annual basis. We receive three major grants, which are the Community Development Block Grant or CDBG. We receive HOME and then ESG as well. These programs are all focused in different areas. CDBG usually we fund public services or programs that improve the quality of social services available to the community Through HOME, we usually work with developers to be able to help them bridge any financial gaps when new developments are coming online for affordable housing projects. And then ESG really focuses on programs that are geared at addressing or preventing homelessness.
Our grants division is responsible for monitoring the grants. We also accept applications from internal and external organizations, we review the applications, we make funding recommendations, we are responsible for monitoring any agreements and then responding back to the HCD which is the entity that monitors these grants on how we're doing and if we're not able to perform why we're not performing. And again, that's the Grants Management Team.
And then our Rent Stabilization Division is responsible for enforcing and monitoring our ordinances that were put in place. The most recent one would be the Anti-Harassment, but the Just Cause Evictions and Tenant Protection Ordinance which we refer to as Just Cause for short. We also monitor the Rent Stabilization Ordinance. What we do here is we take calls or walk ins from the general public questions from landlords or tenants about their rights and whether or not a proposed change in term or rent is within the ordinance that is here in the City of Oxnard. We'll review the information provided if we identify that there's violations to our ordinance, we will work alongside our city attorney's office to determine if there are violations. If there are, then we issue citations to the landlords under the rent stabilization ordinance.
There our focus is to ensure that rent increases if a property is not exempt do not exceed four percent and if somebody has been asked to relocate that they've been provided their relocation benefits. If this has not taken place, we do contact the landlord and we don't issue a citation. Our first step is to encourage them to Work with the family, obviously reduce the rent and if the family already paid an origin rent that they get reimbursed for any origin rent paid. And here just on the graph on average right now in 2025 we did see an increase in calls and walk-ins please keep in mind not all of these become a case this could be general in nature but at the end of the day we do our best to either assist them or connect them with services but we had over 2 000 calls and walk-ins related to our rent stabilization or Just Cause Ordinance.
We also are monitoring or will be monitoring our anti-harassment ordinance. This one, this ordinance was just passed at the tail end of last year so we are working on recruiting the staff that was approved by City Council to help us manage this enforcement. So far we still are under recruitment for the investigator that will be working for the Housing Department and on our city attorney's office they have already brought somebody onboard that will be dedicated to assisting us to respond to anti harassment And then last but not least, our team also monitors the mobile home rent solicitation ordinance. This applies to about 20 mobile parks in the city of Oxnard where we basically monitor rent increases and we also facilitate any appeals on if there's a dispute on the amount of rent increase for rent space.
Our affordable housing division, economic division. Here we do a couple of things for our economic development team. Our team was dormant at least in the housing department for about a year while we recruited a staff member so our manager just came on board and our supportive staff. So in 2026 we will be revamping our efforts on assisting businesses to launch grow or start their business here in the city of Oxnard And then on our affordable housing division or team, we have a couple of responsibilities. One is the loan servicing and monitoring of units and affordable development projects that received some sort of either assistance from a funding perspective or perhaps a density bonus so our team will monitor ensure that they're in compliance with any covenants or deeds or restrictions on the property.
We currently have 642 units. These are owned in the community by Oxnard residents where they received some sort of assistance. This could have been to rehabilitate their property or down payment assistance, so we're responsible for monitoring those up to 30 years depending on when they got their loan. And then we have 3,603 apartment units that we're monitoring which are all under 47 developments in the city of Oxnard. And again here we ensure that any restrictions are being abided by by the developer Just wanted to share a couple of projects that the affordable housing team assisted with via funding and helping them identify sources of funds for any gaps in their finances. In addition to that, all of these projects have project-based vouchers tied to them.
How does that help us? Twofold it obviously helps the developer to be able to bridge the financial gap but for us in the community it makes units available for our low-income families. Sometimes even if you get a Section 8 voucher, it doesn't guarantee that you're going to find an apartment or you know that it's either that the landlord will be willing to bring down the rents or maybe that you have enough of a security deposit to be able to rent so whenever units have a project based voucher tied to them it helps us because then the family usually has to jump through less hurdles to be able to secure an apartment. And so here we just have, um, we have our Ormond Beach Villas, Central Terrace, Casa Aliento and Dolores Huerta in Casa de Carmen.
So all of these projects came online and all of them have project-based vouchers. I just wanted to put a little shameless plug here. The Choice Grant is not a division, it is actually a grant that the City of Oxnard and the Housing Authority applied for. The Choice Grant is an initiative from HUD and what we're seeking to do is to come up with a transformation plan that will revitalize Five of our neighborhoods here in the City of Oxnard, which include La Colonia, Fremont South, Wilson, Hubson Park East and five points Northeast. What we're doing is we're assessing what resources are in the community where the community needs. We're having focus task meetings. We'r working with our various divisions in the city of Oxnard and our goal is to come up with a proposed transformation plan and we would like to apply for the choice implementation grant in a year So right now we're in a two-year cycle, if you will.
We did receive $500,000 for this work so that we can put together the plan and be able to submit it to HUD hopefully at the end of next year. And of course all of this is subject to funding. To wrap up my presentation, we just wanted to highlight a couple of challenges and some requests for your ongoing support as we come before you to propose recommendations or your support in programs. I think just with any other division, we obviously are on standby for changes in federal regulations that depending on what they are, are going to have a significant impact on our families. I think at the forefront most of us are familiar with the mixed status family Basically what that means is that the government might be changing which families are eligible for assistance.
At this point in time we don't know, we don't have an answer so we're on standby but depending on what at the end of the day is passed by our administration it could have a significant impact on our families And also we have an act that's called the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act, HOPMA for short. It's a change in our laws and policies that govern public housing section eight. This has been on the books for probably almost a decade. And every year we get a different implementation date. So what that means for our staff is the challenge of the administrative burden of running our program under two policies. So right now, we have what we call the pre-HOTMA, the post HOTMA and so our staff has to make sure that when they're reviewing eligibility and our clients that they're applying the rules that are in place and not the ones that are going to come in the future.
So again, just a little bit of a challenge. We also, of course, have the uncertainty of funding as I mentioned. The Housing Authority is primarily funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The funding goes away. That jeopardizes Section 8 public housing and any housing authority-owned properties. Our entitlement grants are also state funded. So if that funding goes away, that would impact how much funding we have available to provide or to facilitate for our community partners so that they can bring services to their community. Increased cost obviously as rents go up, our Section 8 program is not able to assist as many families as our per unit cost increases. In addition, if or until such time that the Department of Health and Urban Development passes a budget Sometimes if it looks like a housing authority will not have sufficient budget they'll be placed on what's called shortfall status.
What that means is basically we can't admit more families into our program, we're on standby but unfortunately that could negatively impact our next year's allocation as your prior year allocation is taken into consideration so that's a challenge that we're navigating through and of course when we're looking at assisting our low-income families in becoming first time homebuyers as an example Layering the down payment assistance necessary for them to be able to afford a unit has become very difficult as these units would have to be deeply affordable in order for them to be sustainable by our families. As always, demand will always exceed supply on our affordable housing units and I think just like with any other departments we've had a couple of vacancies and whenever there's a vacancy we obviously want to make sure that we bring the best candidate on board that could take time And in that time, it could create a backlog.
In addition, a lot of our housing specialists have to have very specific, a very specific niche skill set and that could take one to two years to fill the vacancy. So again, these are just challenges that we were seeing across. And then some of our ongoing needs, we do ask for your continued support with our conversion program. This is called the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program or RAD. You'll hear us coming through the year and proposing strategies on how we're going to reposition the public housing program under the Housing Authority. The reason we want to do that is because if we reposition, we can set up a platform where we're generating the necessary revenue to be able to cover the deferred maintenance on our properties. So again, we ask for your continuous support on this in addition to the continuous support for rent stabilization division I mentioned this division specifically because we are working on a fee study and while we get the fee study up and running and we can generate that revenue We do ask for the sustained levels of funding so that we can have our dedicated staff and we can continue to respond to the community.
In the meantime, the choice grant as I mentioned here if you get invited to a meeting or for your input, we greatly appreciate your continuous support and of course if we have opportunities to assign project-based vouchers to developments, we strongly recommend that opportunity because again it increases inventory for our families And then last but not least, to please continue funding our efforts on addressing or programs that will address the needs of our own house population. Whether it's mitigating efforts or our response. Okay? And with that I'll open up for any questions.
