It’s the quaint California town loved by celebrities: Channing Tatum owns a ranch on the outskirts, Reese Witherspoon once lived in Spanish-style splendor on an estate close by while Emmy-winning How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel owns a bucolic orange grove in the area.

Ojai boasts political royalty among its residents, in the form of Rose Kennedy Schlossberg – the olderr granddaughter of JFK and wife Jackie Onassis – whose wife ran a restaurant in the town until it was badly damaged by a fire in December.

And even the handful of homeless in the chi-chi town where chain stores are prohibited in a bid to retain its unique character are treated like royalty.

Instead of the filth, squalor and discarded drug equipment normally associated with homeless encampments, Ojai’s is clean, with city-provided services made to keep it that way.

‘I’m the happiest homeless person you will ever meet,’ William Morris Holden, the encampment’s first resident told DailyMail.com.

But while the laidback town has become a rural haven for celebrities and tourists looking for a break from city life in Los Angeles, locals are being priced out by soaring rents and a proliferation of vacation rentals.

Nowhere is the impact of the town’s housing shortage more visible than in the homeless encampment that has sprung up in the grounds of Ojai’s historic City Hall.

Home to 30 people, eight of whom occupy purpose-built tents erected by officials in the parking lot, residents are a mixed bag of self-declared nomads, the mentally ill and locals fallen on hard times who cannot afford the average $2,373-a-month cost of renting in the town.

William Morris Holden, 61, moved to the camp a year ago after his trailer was confiscated. He told DailyMail.com: ‘I’m the happiest homeless person you will ever meet. This is so much better than the motorhome’

Holden previously lived behind lush foliage in a $950,000 home in Ojai where he rented a room for $600-a-month. But when Covid hit he was asked to leave and he moved into a motorhome before going to the encampmen

Low-income local Cindy Reynolds, 65, a grandmother-of-two, began 2021 in a home: renting a room in a $608,000 two-bedroom cottage for $800-a-month but had to move to the encampment when, she says, her landlord doubled the rent 

After Reynolds’s landlord doubled the rent to $1,600, she told DailyMail.com that she could no longer afford to live in the house pictured above on her $1,750-a-month military widow’s pension

Eight reinforced canvas tents for the most vulnerable members of the camp community occupy the parking lot of City Hall, each with its own fire-treated wooden platform designed to keep the damp and other critters out and a lockable metal storage box next to it

The camp is being funded by a $200,000 allocation awarded by the City Council last fall and it is nothing like the typically trash-strewn and squalid encampments seen all over the Golden State

Although some come from as far away as Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Madison, Wisconsin, others, like Cindy Reynolds, 65, are locals who can’t afford to pay the average $2,373 cost of renting a home in the town.

Cindy, a grandmother-of-two, began 2021 in a home: renting a room in a $608,000 two-bedroom cottage for $800-a-month.

But after her landlord doubled the rent to $1,600, Cindy told DailyMail.com that she could no longer afford to live there on her $1,750-a-month military widow’s pension.

A poor credit score made finding a new home difficult, so she began living in a trailer. But unable to park it without being moved on, she sold it for $10,000 and used the cash to purchase nights in hotels.

Then the money ran out. Cindy said: ‘I’m supposed to have a house for my grandchildren. I have 11-year-old grandchild and a three-year-old grandchild.

‘They’re supposed to go to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter and I don’t have that. It’s very embarrassing.’

The camp is being funded by a $200,000 allocation awarded by the City Council last fall and it is nothing like the typically trash-strewn and squalid encampments seen all over the Golden State.

Eight reinforced canvas tents for the most vulnerable members of the camp community occupy the parking lot, each with its own fire-treated wooden platform designed to keep the damp and critters out and a lockable metal storage box next to it.

The sprawling lawns behind City Hall are home to more tents – traditional ones – including a large family-size ‘community tent’ pitched by Holden, 61, while other amenities include porta-potties that are cleaned daily by residents, wash sinks complete with scented hand soap and a canteen that dishes out free coffee, soup and yogurt to residents.

According to analytics website AirDNA which tracks the availability of vacation lets, a staggering one third of homes in Ojai or 1,132, are currently available to rent short term via Airbnb or Vrbo at an average cost of $345-a-night

The community tent erected by William Holden. His own tent is on the wooden pallet next to it 

The number of homeless is growing drastically since last year in Ojai, California, with some living in a tent at the City Hall’s propriety

Ojai’s homeless coordinator Rick Raine is pictured. Raine said: ‘Here in Ojai, there’s a housing shortage. The lack of affordable homes for those with low income – it is forcing people out’

Liz Klepfer, 41, from Madison, Wisconsin, lives in one of the structured tents with her pitbull-mix puppy Layla. The camp’s relative safety has made it a haven, she says 

Residents are offered therapy to treat mental health problems and addiction at no cost while their pets get free vet care funded by a local animal charity.

All of it is overseen by Ojai’s homeless coordinator Rick Raine who also maintains a list of rules that mandate pleasant behavior, no damaging the lawns or trees and ban any drug or alcohol use outright. Fires are also not allowed.

As a result, the grimly familiar baggies, needles and foils that feature in encampments all over California from San Diego to San Francisco are nowhere to be seen.

Cheerful and bearded, Holden, an Ojai local, moved in a year ago with his ancient pet chihuahua, Fievel Mouskawitz when the battered motorhome he had occupied since 2020 was confiscated after falling foul of California’s smog laws.

He told DailyMail.com: ‘This is so much better than the motorhome.

‘Before, there was a recurring daily thing where I was always looking over my shoulder because I knew I’d be kicked out or moved on by the police.

‘Having this tent at City Hall where I know I’m allowed to stay and won’t be moved on is a real relief.’

Residents are offered therapy to treat mental health problems and addiction at no cost while their pets get free vet care funded by a local animal charity. Pictures is camp resident Nate 

One resident tells DailyMail.com that the camp can be noisy and there’s little privacy but he doesn’t mind

‘In the middle of the night, you hear someone having sex an hour or so later, you hear them arguing and fighting and something’s smashing,’ one camp resident said 

The camp is home to nearly all of Ojai’s 44 homeless residents – a tiny number by the standards of other cities but nevertheless, a 42 percent increase on 2018

For Liz Klepfer, 41, from Madison, Wisconsin, who lives in one of the structured tents with her pitbull-mix puppy Layla, the camp’s relative safety has made it a haven.

A self-described ‘vagabond’, she has lived in encampments all over California, beginning with Santa Cruz where she studied anthropology at college before dropping out.

Unable to hold down a job due to a variety of mental health diagnoses including bipolar disorder, she said living at the camp has given her access to therapists and that she would one day like to get a job as a social worker so she can give back to society.

But Liz’s story reveals that even in a camp as orderly as Ojai’s, problems can arise – she was classified as vulnerable enough to be moved into one of the structured tents after being punched in the face by another resident ‘who is mentally ill’ which left her needing three stitches.

Nonetheless, it is still safer for the 41-year-old than anywhere else with the pretty brunette telling DailyMail.com of the problems she faces when she goes panhandling at grocery stores in nearby Ventura where she is frequently accosted by men proffering $20 bills and asking for sex.

Liz said: ‘People assume because I’m homeless, I want money so badly, I’ll do anything. You go to some of these supermarkets in Ventura and they think you’re homeless and you’ll do anything for 20 bucks.

‘It’s like, no dude, just because I’m homeless, that does not mean I’ll go anywhere and do anything. You’re f***ing waving $20 at me. No.’

She added: ‘There’s always people taking meth around [elsewhere] – meth is the perfect drug for homeless people because you don’t have to sleep and you don’t have to eat.

‘When you’re homeless, there’s nowhere to sleep without being moved on and nothing to eat. Here, I have both and I’m getting therapy to treat my mental health problems.

‘I enjoy living outside which you can do all year round in California but one day, I’ll have to get a job and move inside. I’m getting older and don’t want to do this forever.’

She added: ‘I’ve been in cities like Los Angeles where you can be screaming for help and nobody comes. Here, if you scream, somebody will come.’

Holden says the camp can be noisy and there’s little privacy but told DailyMail.com that he doesn’t mind.

He said: ‘In the middle of the night, you hear someone having sex an hour or so later, you hear them arguing and fighting and something’s smashing.

‘It seems kind of like we all live in a glass house now, but it’s kind of what I already knew – humans do things, they argue for no reason. They don’t make sense.

‘They’re allowed to. Human frailty is a beautiful thing.’

There is a list of rules that mandate pleasant behavior in the encampment, including no damaging the lawns or trees and ban any drug or alcohol use outright. Fires are also not allowed

Raine told DailyMail.com that while most of the camp’s residents have suffered with addiction and mental health problems, a handful have been priced out of their homes by the Airbnb boom

‘Families are moving out; rents are going up or the houses that they were renting are being sold and then the new owner is renting them out as well,’ Raine said

Raine says the camp is home to nearly all of Ojai’s 44 homeless residents – a tiny number by the standards of other cities but nevertheless, a 42 percent increase on 2018.

The remaining 14, he said, are spread out around the town: some choosing to sleep rough under a freeway bridge while others live a truly nomadic lifestyle, dropping in for a week before moving on again, but are still counted as Ojai homeless people.

He told DailyMail.com that while most of the camp’s residents have suffered with addiction and mental health problems, a handful have been priced out of their homes by the AirBNB boom.

Raine said: ‘Here in Ojai, there’s a housing shortage. The lack of affordable homes for those with low income is forcing people out.

‘Families are moving out; rents are going up or the houses that they were renting are being sold and then the new owner is renting them out as well.

‘Most of these homes are being rented out short term because they make more money that way. Ojai is not supposed to have short-term rentals. But there’s always loopholes. So, it isn’t just that there’s a shortage, it’s that [the housing supply] keeps decreasing.

‘There’s just nowhere for people to afford to live here.’

Ojai has a total of 3,582 houses, each of which costs an average of $834,180 to buy or $2,373-a-month to rent.

According to analytics website AirDNA which tracks the availability of vacation lets, a staggering one third of homes in Ojai or 1,132, are currently available to rent short term via Airbnb or Vrbo at an average cost of $345-a-night.

For tourists, that represents a bargain: rooms at the luxury Ojai Valley Inn, a retreat loved by Natalie Portman among others, rooms start at $749-a-night.