By Mike Harris Thursday, October 16th, 2025

The Oct. 16 Ventura County Housing Conference focused in large part on a familiar lament: California’s lack of affordable homes.

Keynote speaker Jamshid Damooei, a California Lutheran University economist, said affordability is rooted in how our economic system allocates resources, shaping whether people can seize opportunities, use their talents and live with dignity.

“Our income distribution, our wealth distribution, our gap between rich and poor is incredible,” Damooei, executive director of CLU’s Center for Economics of Social Issues in Thousand Oaks, said at the conference at the Serra Center in Camarillo.

In 2023, he said, families at the top of California’s income distribution – the 90^th percentile – earned 11 times more than families at the 10^thpercentile, $336,000 vs $30,000.

“Where will these conditions allow families to own their homes or afford to rent without being burdened?” Damooei asked.

The lack of affordability led to nearly 287,000 homeless students in the state in 2023, he said.

Santa Barbara County was tied with Sierra County in school year 2024-25 for the second highest percentage of homeless students – 12.1%. 

San Luis Obispo County’s percentage, 10.1%, was fifth, while Ventura County, at 6.9%, was eighth.

The lack of affordable housing has social costs as well, Damooei said.

“When you cannot afford a house and you spend more than 50% of your income on it, you do not eat well,” he said.

“You have stress,” he said. “Your health is jeopardized. Your life is shortened.”

Damooei said that although California has more than doubled the production of new affordable homes in the past five years, the state only funds 15% of what it needs.