County May Restore Building as Center for Social Services

A deteriorating building that housed Oxnard’s police station until the 1970s may be restored for use as a county social services center if officials can figure a way to pay for fixing up the crumbling structure.

The Ventura County Office Building on West 2nd Street in Oxnard’s civic center area, which also was occupied by county government agencies until 1984, was shut down because of weak flooring and inadequate ventilation, county officials said.

At the time, the costs for renovating the building and removing asbestos were estimated at $3 million. County staff said the figure will be much higher today.

But county officials say the rise in demand for social services has led them to re-examine the building.

“We need to re-establish ourselves in downtown Oxnard either at the building that is there or work with the city on developing another building,” said County Supervisor John K. Flynn of the 5th District, which includes most of Oxnard.

Flynn said a building on Vanguard Drive that now houses the Oxnard district offices for veterans administration, welfare, and mental health is insufficient for the increasing client load.

James Isom, director of the county’s public social services agency, agreed. In the past two years, Ventura County has seen an overall leap in demand for social services, particularly for Medi-Cal and food stamps, Isom said.

More than 11,000 people in the county applied for Medi-Cal this October, a jump from last year’s figure of 7,461. The demand for food stamps has also gone up by more than 1,000 cases in the last year, Isom said.

In Oxnard the result has been overcrowding and short tempers at the current Vanguard Drive location.

“We have 75 to 100 people waiting in the reception area of the building in what was designed for less than half that number. Frustration begins to set in because people can’t get help fast enough,” said Isom. “We just need space.”

Oxnard officials, however, have their own concerns about space, especially for the civic center area around the old police station on 2nd Street. Plans to expand City Hall in the next decade may require the office building’s demolition, Mayor Nao Takasugi said.

“We do need to look at the overall master plan for that block,” Takasugi said, adding that cost was also a consideration.

The vacant building, owned by both the county and city, sits next to the noisy construction site of the city’s new public library and behind Oxnard City Hall.

Signs of its disrepair and current use as a county storage facility are everywhere. Chunks of the marble front are missing, and graffiti mark the walls.

In the lobby, dozens of office chairs are stacked on top of one another. On a recent morning, a side entrance was crammed several feet deep with chairs, desks, and such random objects as a wheelchair and an old-fashioned scale. There were only a few reminders of the building’s past use: a plaque, a lobby office directory and office cubicles.

The 2nd Street building was built jointly by the city and county in 1955 and occupied by both until 1973 when the city moved its police department from the building, said Ray Ruiz, manager of real estate services for the county. The county has been leasing the city’s interest with an option to buy, he added.

Flynn said city and county officials are scheduled to discuss plans for the building’s future in the next two weeks.

“It is a shame to see potentially what could be a nice building simply used as a storage facility,” he said.