Caleb Zimmerschied Valadez is a freelance writer. He can be reached at calzimval@gmail.com.

Jamie Nelson moved to Ojai in the ’90s to raise her kids near the mountains. Like many, she became captivated by the valley’s natural beauty. After her husband passed away in 2018, she lived with family members out of state. When Nelson returned to Ojai four years later, she found she could no longer afford to live there with Social Security as her only source of income.

The small town, which sits 90 minutes outside Los Angeles, had become a recreation and wellness mecca. About half of the city’s general fund revenue comes from the bed and sales taxes from visitors. The cost of living had surged. And so, like many Californians, Nelson became homeless.

“There are a lot of people right on the edge, a paycheck or two away from a very difficult situation,” said Ojai Mayor Andy Gilman. “I’ve certainly been there at times in my life.”

Nelson, like nearly all of Ojai’s unhoused residents, began camping near city hall’s wooded campus. She hoped staying there would let her save money while she figured out a permanent living situation.

“At first I was afraid of Tent Town because I was an older woman living alone and I didn’t know what to expect,” said Nelson, who later learned a family friend was also living in Tent Town. “There are amazing people living at Tent Town. They’re very intelligent people. They’re not doing drugs and drinking; they’re just normal people who have had things happen to them.”

Patience and stick-to-itiveness

In 2025, the city joined forces with the Ojai Valley Green Coalition to turn the city hall campus into an enhanced community space. The plan coincides with a separate effort to develop permanent supportive housing for Jamie Nelson and other unhoused residents. 

The coalition project includes restoring an existing building, removing invasive plants, and adding walking trails, gardens, benches, public restrooms, and other amenities. Other uses for the space could include a meeting hall and outdoor facilities to host celebrations, classes, and educational forums. It builds on recent efforts by the city and other nonprofits to identify and remove invasive plants at a nearby creek, which often consume additional groundwater and increase the risk of wildfires.

Residents say that Betsy Vanleit, who had worked with homeless people in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is one of the reasons why the city hall campus and housing projects are advancing with less in the way of opposition that sometimes accompanies housing projects.

Before Vanleit passed away in 2025, she led efforts to work with unhoused residents and include them in potlucks and workshops. Many coalition members became friends with the residents. That relationship-building paved the way for the housing project.

“It took patience and stick-to-itiveness,” said Kathy Nolan, the coalition’s board president. “Not just for me, but for the city, those who care, and that part of the community who wanted to help the unhoused.”   

Local churches and other volunteer groups in 2023 helped move Tent Town residents from the campus’ woodland and creek area to a parking lot on the campus. HELP of Ojai, a local nonprofit, provides wraparound services and case management to the residents. The city also contracts with Ventura County Behavioral Health to facilitate the connection to services for residents. 

“There are such good people here,” said Jamie Nelson. “One of the first things someone brought me was an actual bed. I was hardly sleeping, and then I got my first night’s real sleep in weeks.”

The residents are set to have permanent housing by July 2027. The housing project will be a hacienda-style building with a community space in the middle that fits the town’s Mission Revival architecture (including city hall) and include supportive services from the city and county. The project is supported in part by state dollars and located on city property two blocks from city hall, at a public works yard. 

“There’s an estimated 60,000 people in the city of Los Angeles right now who are homeless,” said Mayor Gilman. “I can’t get my head around that, but I can get my head around 30 homeless people in Ojai right now. That is something we can address.”

About half of Tent Town’s residents are either at retirement age or elderly. “Age factors into homelessness because rents are going up and their incomes are staying the same,” says Whitney Nunes, HELP’s director of homeless services. “A lot of the clients we work with, their only income is their Social Security. It is hard for seniors to find part-time work to supplement their income.”

“Through the state’s $12.7 million Encampment Resolution Fund grant, the city of Ojai is taking the bold step of building permanent supportive housing for its most vulnerable residents,” said City Manager Ben Harvey. “I thank the Ojai City Council and the community for their ongoing support of this important project. Some cities would have just wanted me to bulldoze the homeless encampment.” 

Mayor Gilman hopes this can be part of a larger network of homeless support programs that include community organizations like Dignity Moves, Mesa Farms, and Ventura County. “It falls very much in the spirit of what most of our city tends towards — a combination of deep humanitarianism, ecology, and culture,” he said. “This whole space is becoming alive with purpose, and I feel really lucky to be a part of it.”

For her part, Jamie Nelson has been living in a tent with her dog for two and a half years. She has been on multiple housing lists but has not yet found permanent housing. If she is not placed with another program by the time the new housing is completed, she will likely move into the new residence.

“There are times when I think I’m in heaven when I’m here. It’s so beautiful when I’m staring out at the mountain and the open space and watching the birds,” said Nelson. “I would think heaven smells like here too, when the jasmine and the orange blossoms are blooming, and the air is heavy with their scent.”