The Santa Paula Housing Authority project is the second that focuses on housing for low-income seniors and its design and floor plan was copied from the agency’s successful complex, The Orchards. 

The new complex will also be owned and managed by the Santa Paula Housing Authority; it sits on formally blighted property that had belonged to Blanchard Community Library, which in turn had sold the parcel - located on Santa Barbara Street east of 8th close to the Downtown - to a developer.

After years of fits and starts the housing authority acquired the property and the project became one of the first to be awarded a Ventura County Housing Trust Fund loan, just one of several supporters that helped make the project possible.

Santa Paula Housing Authority Executive Director Ramsey Jay said Citrus Grove fulfills the agency’s mission of providing affordable housing with an emphasis on low-income and/or homeless seniors and veterans.

And, he added, the agency not only improves the quality of life for those needing affordable housing, but the Santa Paula Housing Authority improves neighborhoods overall. 

Said Jay, “Once we started building Citrus Grove the neighbors on either side of the complex started sprucing up their properties,” with new paint and landscaping.