Realtors Give $10,000 to Refurbish Motel

Nonprofit housing group Many Mansions hopes to turn an old motel into affordable housing with the help of a $10,000 donation received Tuesday from the Conejo Valley Assn. of Realtors.

Lisa Safaeinili, Many Mansions’ director of resource development, said most of the money will go to renovating the 60-room Village Inn Motel into a 50-unit low-income apartment building.

Many Mansions bought the motel last summer with a $1.3-million grant from the city and $950,200 in state funding. Construction is scheduled to start in September, and the first units are expected to be completed early next year. Twenty families from Many Mansions who now live in the motel will continue to live there after the building is refurbished, Safaeinili said.

Since 1979, Many Mansions has been dedicated to managing and developing low-income housing for working-poor residents in the city. The group houses more than 1,000 low-income residents in its six facilities throughout Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.