Apartment Complex Is More Than a Place to Stay : Thousand Oaks: Fiore Gardens project offers families any--and all kinds of--help needed to make the move out of public housing.

It looks like a great deal: a brand-new, three-bedroom apartment stacked with modern appliances that rents for just 30% of your income--no matter how low your income may be.

There’s just one catch. As soon as you move in, you must start preparing to move out.

With that novel rule, managers of the Area Housing Authority hope to kick-start an experiment that could change the nature of public housing in Ventura County.

They want to transform public housing from a dead-end destination, where poor families languish for years, to a hope-filled way station, where people can learn the skills they need to advance.

The experiment, called Family Self-Sufficiency, will begin in Fiore Gardens, a 50-unit apartment complex for low-income families under construction in Thousand Oaks.

Named for former Thousand Oaks City Councilman Alex Fiore, the Spanish-style development stretches along Hillcrest Drive west of Hodencamp Road. The city is leasing the five-acre parcel to the Area Housing Authority for $1 a year, and has kicked in $230,000 to upgrade the project with landscaping, red-tile roofs and wrought-iron gates.

No matter how classy the development looks, however, Fiore Gardens remains public housing. And thus, officials said, it’s automatically ripe for reform.

“We don’t want (Fiore Gardens) to be a permanent, rest-of-your-life residence,” said David Roddick, director of housing management for the Area Housing Authority. “We want to create an atmosphere where we’re helping you to move on with your life.”

To emphasize that point, the Area Housing Authority will impose a five-year limit on each family’s stay in Fiore Gardens.

During those five years, housing officials will teach workshops on budgeting, finding jobs, raising children and other topics deemed essential for “self-sufficiency.” They will also offer intensive individual counseling.

Tenants must pledge to attend the classes--and abide by the five-year limit--in their lease agreements.

“We’re not talking about boot camp,” Roddick said. “(But) I feel I have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayer of the United States” to wean tenants from federal handouts as quickly as possible.

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To that end, a Fiore Gardens computer lab will offer software to help residents obtain their high school equivalency degrees or pursue advanced studies. A jobs counselor will guide adults toward potential employment. And housing officials will set up trust accounts so families can accumulate savings when their incomes rise.

“We’re making an effort to give them a comprehensive service program, as opposed to just a box to live in,” Roddick said. “We need to provide the resources, and they need to put out the effort.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which covered the $4.2-million cost of building Fiore Gardens, has encouraged local agencies to develop self-sufficiency programs for tenants.

But the federal government does not require such programs as a condition of funding--at least, not yet.

“It’s not like somebody from inside the Beltway sent down an edict saying ‘You must do this,’ ” Roddick explained. “This has been a staff-developed idea. But we feel sure this is the direction that public housing across America will go.”

As a trial run for the program, local housing officials began last year to counsel several dozen people who rely on federal vouchers to pay for shelter.

The approach worked wonders for Maria Gomez, a single mother of three, who rents a subsidized home in Camarillo.

Self-sufficiency coordinator Mary K. James steered Gomez toward classes at Oxnard College, and encouraged her to pursue a dream of working with developmentally disabled children. Now, Gomez has picked up a $14-an-hour job as an administrative assistant for the Early Start program, which serves infants with special needs.

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More importantly, Gomez said she has learned to set goals that will help lift her off federal aid.

“Doors are opening up for me now,” Gomez said. “I know I can make more money. I’m really, really excited.”

James hopes to bring the same personal attention and steady encouragement to her work with the 50 families who will move into Fiore Gardens next fall. And she expects to do all sorts of odd jobs as she clears away obstacles for her clients.

If a tenant’s car breaks down, she will drive him to work--and beg local mechanics for cheap repairs. If mothers complain about the rigors of child-rearing, she will set up a support group for single parents. If a family trashes a rented apartment, she will arrange classes in proper home maintenance.

“Even the small triumphs are fantastic,” James said.

For all their high hopes, Area Housing Authority officials acknowledge that counseling will not be enough to lift the poorest families off welfare.

Ventura County’s rents are so high that many low-income families find it impossible to move into market-rate apartments, even when their salaries jump a bit.

The city of Thousand Oaks may help out with low-interest loans and down-payment aid. But housing officials predict that many families will still require some form of subsidy--most likely a Section 8 housing voucher--after leaving Fiore Gardens.

Still, they say Family Self-Sufficiency is worth a try.

“It’s part of this growing trend of improving government assistance to be sure we’re providing not just money, but a means to move on,” Thousand Oaks Mayor Jaime Zukowski said.

The city’s housing services manager, Olav Hassel, added: “It’s going to be a struggle for (tenants) to get the skills to better their incomes . . . but I think there undoubtedly will be some success stories.”