Staff member presents Oxnard Housing Authority budgets, recommends using reserves to cover projected shortfalls

A staff member presented recommended operating budgets for the Oxnard Housing Authority (OHA) for fiscal year 2026–2027, asking the Board of Commissioners to adopt resolutions approving the proposals and to authorize one-time use of unrestricted OHA cash to cover projected shortfalls.

The presenter said the recommended operating package includes an LRPH (low-rent public housing) operating figure cited in the recommendation as $8,056,418 and also earlier listed a recommended LRPH income budget of $8,420,096. For the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program the presenter recommended a $36,597,778 operating budget, of which $33,169,152 are housing-assistance payments (HAP) passed directly to landlords. The presenter noted administrative fees would total $3,245,961 while administrative expenses were shown as $3,428,626, producing a projected HCV deficit of $182,665.

On the central office cost center (COCC), staff reported COCC income of $1,298,035 and expenses of $1,575,601, producing a projected COCC deficit of $277,566. To cover these shortfalls the presenter said OHA has approximately $1,600,000 in COCC unrestricted cash and about $3,200,000 in the HCV unrestricted cash and investment fund; after the proposed uses the presenter calculated remaining balances of roughly $1,322,434 for COCC and $3,017,335 for HCV.

Staff described steps intended to reduce recurring deficits over time, including generating property-management revenue for OHA-owned properties, closely monitoring indirect costs, issuing project-based vouchers, increasing lease-up, streamlining processes and applying for HUD's Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program to gain long-term fungibility and the possibility of surplus cash distribution to the COCC if the RAD conversion is successful.

The formal recommendation presented to the board was that it adopt a resolution approving the recommended operating budgets for LRPH and the HCV program for FY2026–2027 and authorize the one-time use of $277,566 of unrestricted cash for the COCC deficit and $182,665 of unrestricted cash for the HCV deficit. The transcript did not record a Board vote on those recommendations.