SOMEPLACE TO CALL HOME; ORGANIZATION PROVIDES NEEDED LOW-INCOME HOUSING.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

It was just a couple of years ago that Nora Gandulfo lost one of her two jobs, and she and her daughter ended up homeless.

Today the single mom and her 8-year-old have an affordable roof over their heads, thanks to the nonprofit organization Many Mansions.

``It's helped me a lot,'' said Gandulfo, 31, who has lived in Schillo Gardens apartments for a year after having stayed in the organization's Stoll Community House, which helps homeless families become self-sufficient. Gandulfo now works full-time at a photography shop in Westlake Village.

Many Mansions in Thousand Oaks celebrates its 20th anniversary today with civic leaders including Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo, in whose honor the apartment complex was named, and Thousand Oaks Mayor Linda Parks.

It was through Schillo's efforts two decades ago that the place where people turn to for affordable housing came to be.

In early 1979, after a resident brought forth concerns of the need for low-income housing, Schillo, then a financial planner and not yet in public office, took the idea and ran with it.

Under Schillo's leadership, business leaders, churches and temples banded together to help the nonprofit organization take root.

``Frank spearheaded it, and without him it would have never happened,'' said Lisa Safaeinili, resource development director of Many Mansions.

With the city's endorsement, Many Mansions successfully won voters' support in November 1979 for a ballot measure to allow construction of low-cost housing for the elderly, handicapped and poor in the city.

Although Many Mansions tried twice afterward to get housing built, it wasn't until 1987 when the group overcame both funding and public opposition to build a 29-unit apartment complex called Schillo Gardens.

Five more housing projects followed, bringing a total of 285 units to Many Mansions' affordable housing stock.

With a $4 million budget covered largely by rent from its properties, donations and grants, Many Mansions also offers other resources, including emergency food distribution, an adopt-a-family program that involves community members helping low-income families with rent, a summer camp and a homework and literacy program for children.

Many Mansions, however, has more work to do.

``We see ourselves providing more of a community to go with our housing,'' said Dan Hardy, executive director of Many Mansions. ``So we are going to be enriching what we have on site and the current programs we have.

``And we are going to be possibly expanding into other communities, looking at the possibility of expanding into Westlake Village, the city of Ventura and the city of Simi Valley.''

Many Mansions opened Casa de Paz, the first affordable 14-unit building for disabled people in Simi Valley, in May.

Hardy said the organization also plans to educate the public to try to dispel the negative stereotypes that often fall on those who live in low-income housing.

``In the past, you didn't have to think about affordable housing because housing costs and wages were not so high,'' he said.

``But nowadays the wages are staying pretty stagnant and housing costs are going up exorbitantly,'' he said. ``So people who traditionally did not have to think about getting some sort of break in rent or subsidy have to start thinking about it.''

In Ventura County, 47 percent of households are able to buy a median-priced home, which means more than half can't and must rely on rental housing, according to a report by the University of California, Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project.

And as more jobs - especially in manufacturing, service and retail - are generated in the county, attracting people who are usually apartment dwellers, the rent goes up in an already tight market, the report said.

In Thousand Oaks, the median rental cost for a one-bedroom apartment was $886 in January 1999, according to the report.

``I think that people are going to have a shock around here when they find their kids have to move away or stay home after college because they can't move out on their own,'' Hardy said. ``The community needs to realize they need a variety of housing rather than the current 80 percent single-family large lots.

``It can't be that way in the future if there is to be a healthy community,'' he said. ``We are going to start losing business because of the lack of affordable housing.''

Currently, 1,100 households are on a waiting list for affordable housing - that's a three-year wait. The people are mostly either homeless or living in overcrowded housing, Hardy said.

Safaeinili said many of the people Many Mansions helps work two jobs, and 95 percent of them don't have health coverage.

Many have hard luck stories to tell, such as one woman in her late 70s who did not want her identity revealed.

``We had never been in this financial strait before,'' she said from her home at Schillo Gardens, where she and her husband have lived for about three years. ``We were very comfortable.''

The woman and her husband, who was in the medical field, were living an affluent lifestyle in Northern California. The woman did not know her husband, a workaholic, was slowly deteriorating with Alzheimer's disease, and was making bad investments and not paying the bills.

``We had everything taken away,'' she said. ``We lost our home and business and lovely things I've collected.''

The couple moved to Thousand Oaks to be near their son and ended up living in a motel until they found Many Mansions.

``This is where we ended up,'' she said, ``and we are grateful being here.''

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Photo: (Color) Single mom Nora Gandulfo benefits from the low-income housing provided by the organization Many Mansions in Thousand Oaks.

Tina Gerson/Daily News