Sherwood Forest Home Owners Association Works to Make Northridge a Better Place to Live

On January 18th, the Sherwood Forest HOA will hold a stakeholder meeting at the Dearborn Elementary Charter Academy, at which there will be a presentation on the Clean Streets, Clean Starts program, which seeks to find work, counseling and housing for North Valley homeless.  Guest speakers will include Don Larson and Laura Rathbone, coordinators of this revolutionary approach to tackling homelessness.

Homeless issues are important issues in the community, no less in the well to do and idyllic Sherwood Forest neighborhood.  Overnight parking of recreational vehicles and cars has become a daily occurrence in the neighborhood.  Other issues, such as large scale development and growing traffic strains are increasingly on the radar of the community and the Sherwood Forest Home Owners association.   Homeowners and the SFHOA find the need for advocacy in the community more than ever.  This increased advocacy has been reflected in the participation of Sherwood Forest Homeowners in local governance such as the Northridge South Neighborhood Council and the Northridge Vision 2025 planning group.

An important example of their increased advocacy has been reflected in the increased dialogue about local projects such as the relocation of the Northridge Train Station, or the retrofitting of the rail lines between Lindley and Reseda, culminating in the “double track” protests of last year.  Individual opinions varied, but the clear message is the Sherwood Forest community is a force to be reckoned with.

The Sherwood Forest HOA has also shown its commitment to the neighborhood by its monetary contributions to important civic governmental groups such as the YMCA, Northridge PALS, Clean Streets, Clean Starts as well as public safety groups such as the California Highway Patrol.

Citrus Sunday, held once a year in May, is a signature event for both the SFHOA as well as the Northridge South Neighborhood Council, with the donation of several thousand pounds of citrus for local food banks.  The clear majority of this citrus comes from the Sherwood Forest community and its mature citrus trees, remains of the original orchards first planted in the 1930s and 1940s.  Sherwood Forest’s spacious neighborhoods boast a bounty of orange, lemon, grapefruits, tangerines and other fruit.  The relationship developed over the years with groups like MEND and Food Forward through Citrus Sunday has deepened Sherwood Forest’s relationship with many volunteer agencies and groups in the Valley. 

Sherwood Forest, its homeowners, and its HOA understand that their success as a welcoming community is tied to the success of the greater community around them.  Their actions today, and in the future, will add to the success or failure of larger community as it works to solve some of our more pressing challenges in the years to come.