Denia G. Diaz placed herself and her three children on a waiting list for affordable housing in 2016 after her life was altered forever by a domestic violence crisis in her home.
At the time, the Ventura resident didn’t know about the Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura, the city’s nonprofit provider of affordable housing founded in 1949. The agency, which is in the process of rebranding itself as “Ventura Housing,” opened its first complex simply called “Westview” on Flint Street during 1952, and in recent years the original single-story units were replaced by modern, three-story town homes with views of the surrounding mountains.
Diaz, 54, and her youngest daughter now live in one of the new Westview Village units, and Diaz shared her story at a Sept. 4 fundraiser for the Housing Trust Fund of Ventura County, a nonprofit bank which finances early phases oflow-income housing projects which traditional banks typically won’t handle, including financing for the Westview Village renovation.
Diaz told the Ventura County Reporter she’s thankful for the opportunity to live at Westview Village after spending more than a decade in an RV or renting rooms in houses with her children.
“That creates housing instability when you don’t have a home you can call your own place,” Diaz said. “Before, we said, ‘Let’s go home,’ butwe couldn’t call it OUR home.”
VCReporter inspires hope
Diaz said she frequently reads the Ventura County Reporter and saw the Oct. 6, 2022 edition at the laundromat she frequented. The issue included a cover photo of newly appointed Ventura County Supervisor Vianey Lopez, following the tragic passing of her predecessor, Carmen Ramirez, who was struck by a vehicle in Oxnard.
Diaz wanted to show her daughter the news article about Lopez and her immigrant upbringing in Oxnard and took the paper with her. A feature article about low-income housing was also included in that edition. (“Doing their home work,” Oct. 6, 2022, Alex Wilson.)
The article included quotes from Housing Trust Fund of Ventura County CEO Linda Braunschweiger along with a photo of the housing advocate in her office, and above that photo was a shot of construction workers laboring at the Westview Village site as it neared completion. Diaz told the VCReporter she was reminded that a friend had moved into a previously completed section of the complex.
“I remembered how happy she was. And this Housing Hopes Fulfilled Ventura resident shares her story at Housing Trust Fund event was very, very important to me because she was struggling with homelessness with her three children in a very difficult way. So, to see her in a new building, the new apartment that she called ‘my mansion,’ it was amazing to me. She even invited us for Christmas,” Diaz said. It was at that moment, looking at the news paper, that Diaz, who describes herself as a woman of faith, prayed that she would someday live there.
“I have to share this with you because this is key to my story,” she told the VCReporter. “After I saw the picture, I made a specific prayer, because I’m a believer in Jesus. I mentioned to him in prayer about that place, about that construction. And I pointed at the picture while I was praying, and I said, ‘Why not?’”
Diaz reached the top of the waiting list and moved into Westview Village. As they were unpacking, her daughter found the article and
looked at the photo of the building more carefully.
“Then she says, ‘Mom. Do you notice that we are in that exact corner of the picture?’” Diaz said. “So, in that moment I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ So, I started to laugh and I was crying because I remembered my prayer. I remember that I pointed my finger at that picture…So, it brings me some laughter and tears at the same time. We were jumping. We were in awe.”
Speaking up for the cause
After Diaz moved into Westview Village she encountered Braunschweiger at a ribbon-cutting event for a new phase at the complex and shared
her story.
“I was so grateful for all the work they put into it, because now I’m one of the beneficiaries,” Diaz said. “So, I approached Linda and I approached the people in the front. I said, ‘You know what? I’m a resident here. And I’m just grateful. I just want to tell you that I’m grateful because I live across the street from here. So is it gratitude that I feel because I struggled for many years.”
Braunschweiger told the VCReporter they hold one fundraiser a year, the “Compassion Campaign,” where investors, developers and local government partners gather to “put a spot light on affordable housing.” Since 2013 the nonprofit she runs has lent $48.8 million — whichhas produced 1,899 units of affordable rental
housing. This year’s successful event drew about 200 people to Walnut Grove at Tierra Rejada Ranch and was a big success with one couple making a surprise $25,000 donation, she said.
Braunschweiger said the speech Diaz delivered was a highlight of the evening.
“I don’t think everybody who doesn’t live that experience understands how painful it is to live with insecurity every day of whether you’ll have a roof over your head, or whether your children are growing up in a domestic violence situation that you can’t get out of because you don’t have a home or you don’t have a safe place to go to. And that was really powerful. There wasn’t a dry eye,” Braunschweiger said. “We try at these events to make sure we have somebody share their journey to safe and secure housing because it makes a difference. It’s not ‘those people,’ it’s everyday people who are working, trying to support their families, who are struggling with this issue.”
Ventura Housing CEO Jeffrey Lambert told the VCReporter that financing from the Housing Trust Fund of Ventura County has been critical to projects including the new Valentine Road Apartments for formerly unsheltered people and Westview Village.
“Many applications require us to have a shovel-ready project or entitlements in place before they would even consider us for funding. And so, getting money from the Housing Trust Fund allows us to get projects to the point where we’re more competitive for other funding,” Lambert said. “And having local investment is often an important part of the scoring system for afford- able housing. So even if it’s short-term money that we pay off, it shows a local commitment to projects, which also helps us be more competitive when we’re going after funding like tax credit investments and things like that.”
Lambert said he had met Diaz at Westview Village prior to Sept. 4 but had no idea she would be speaking at the Moorpark event before he arrived.
“So it was actually really, really cool,” he said. “Itwas hard not to cry; I cried quite a bit.
“There’s a lot of rough stuff going on with their lives, and now they’re in stable, safe, supportive housing…I now know why I see her at events on the property pretty regularly, because she’s so grateful to be in this housing. It’s so improved her life. She wants to celebrate and be engaged.”
Sharing ‘our story is a privilege’ Diaz said it felt great to give the speech.
“Just to share our little bit of our story is a privilege. Because as a woman of faith, I don’t do this to point to myself but my God, the God I trust could move me here and there and in trials and difficulties and in good times, too.”
She’s also kept the VCReporter article.
“Oh, my goodness. I had to frame it because finally, after being in many places, we moved seven times in four years,” Diaz said. “I didn’t know that just saying ‘thank you’ that day was going to turn into something bigger. Which is people getting to know another story of families who are struggling and what they really do for low-income families. I really appreciate it.”
