Code-Enforcement Policies Reviewed

Hoping to ensure that displaced residents are treated more humanely during future code-enforcement actions than they were after the raid of a shantytown earlier this year, the City Council has reviewed a list of recommendations by a task force of community organizations and city officials.

The Thousand Oaks task force met three times after an April 4 code-enforcement sweep at a series of substandard dwellings off Los Robles Road that left more than two dozen people without homes. The panel’s goal was to better address the needs of people displaced by such actions by coordinating information and social services such as food, emergency housing funds and counseling.

The group Tuesday presented the council with a list of seven recommendations, each of which was followed by a response from city staff. They included:

* Continuing to allow the Thousand Oaks Police Department’s mobile resource center to be used for community outreach.

* Setting aside money for emergency housing assistance for families displaced by city code sweeps.

* Asking the city attorney’s office to review whether landlords of substandard dwellings can be forced to pay relocation costs for displaced tenants.

* Increasing the amount of city matching funds available to nonprofit organizations so they can better help displaced residents.

Council members voted unanimously to approve the list of recommendations and afterward unanimously approved a series of grant requests to local nonprofit groups totaling $95,000 for housing and homeless services.

When Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said she wanted to make sure that no city funds were being used to assist illegal immigrants, city officials replied that they have no intention of changing existing policies that prohibit that.