VENTURA COUNTY — Housing Trust Fund Ventura County (Housing Trust Fund VC) announced today it has received a $1 million Equity Equivalent Investment from City National Bank. The organization also received $50,000 from U.S. Bank, with an additional $50,000 awarded to its sister organization, Housing Land Trust Ventura County (Housing Land Trust VC), a combined $100,000 investment in affordable housing across Ventura County made through U.S. Bank’s Community Possible Home program. These investments arrive as the cost of building and preserving affordable housing in the region continues to climb and will strengthen both organizations’ work to bring that cost down.
“U.S. Bank’s investment strengthens both sides of our work: the loans that help get affordable homes built and the land that keeps them affordable for generations,” said Linda Braunschweiger, CEO of Housing Trust Fund Ventura County and Housing Land Trust Ventura County. “The challenges facing working families in Ventura County are real, but so is the impact we can make when partners like U.S. Bank and City National Bank invest in this community.”
Housing Trust Fund VC’s $50,000 will go to its Revolving Loan Fund, which provides low-cost, flexible loans to affordable housing developers early in the development cycle, when capital is hardest to secure. Housing Land Trust VC’s $50,000 will support its community land trust work, securing donated or surplus land and holding it in trust through 99-year renewable ground leases. Removing the cost of land makes otherwise infeasible projects buildable and keeps the homes built on that land permanently affordable.
The investments are the latest in a wave of public and private investment in the two organizations during the first six months of 2026. In February, Housing Land Trust VC received $380,000 from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) through its Regional Early Action Plan (REAP 2.0) to build the infrastructure needed to evaluate, accept and steward land for long-term affordable housing. On the private side, the Greater Conejo Valley Community Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, made a $25,000 investment in Housing Trust Fund VC’s Community Impact Note, placing patient capital into the Revolving Loan Fund to be lent, repaid and lent again over time.
Led by Braunschweiger and guided by independent boards, Housing Trust Fund VC and Housing Land Trust VC work in tandem on the same mission: one lowers the cost of capital, the other lowers the cost of land. Together, the two organizations form a comprehensive strategy to expand affordable housing opportunities across Ventura County. Learn more at housingtrustfundvc.org
Housing Trust Fund Ventura County – Launched as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in 2011, Housing Trust Fund VC is the local trusted leader in helping to increase affordable housing options throughout Ventura County by leveraging public-private partnerships to provide low-cost, flexible loans early in the housing development cycle. Since its first loan in 2013, Housing Trust Fund Ventura County has committed more than $52 million through its Revolving Loan Fund, creating 2,193 affordable apartments and homes for very-low, low-, and middle-income employees, transitional-age foster youth, veterans, farmworkers, and those experiencing homelessness.