Impending Sale of 2 Homes for Mentally Ill Raises Concerns : Health care: Advocates fear that residents of the Oxnard and Ventura facilities will have no place to go.

Two major board and care homes for 118 mentally ill people in Ventura County are up for sale and could be closed down altogether--prompting fears among advocates that the patients will end up on the streets.

Lilly Buenafe, owner of the Sandpiper Manor in Oxnard and the Santa Clara Manor in Ventura, said she wants to sell the two apartment buildings because she is tired of hassling with officials at the county Department of Mental Health.

“The county has cut off my funding and they are very strict,” Buenafe said. “I cannot put up with this kind of thing. I’ve complied with all the rules and I don’t agree with how they have dealt with me.”

In June, the county curtailed supplemental payments of $383 a month for each of the 30 patients referred by the county to Buenafe’s two facilities. The county payments had been allocated to improve the residents’ living conditions, including entertainment, clothing and other extras.

For basic expenses, Buenafe said she receives $626 a month from each client’s Social Security benefits. The money is supposed to cover rent, food and other basic necessities for patients referred by the county, state facilities or elsewhere. “It’s just not enough,” she said.

After months of financial struggles and then the abrupt loss of about $11,500 a month from the county, Buenafe said she decided that it was time to sell.

She said she has placed a stipulation in her sales agreement that the buyer continue to provide housing for the mentally ill, although she believes that the two buildings will eventually be converted to conventional apartments.

Randy Feltman, the county’s mental health director, defended his department’s action in dealing with Buenafe. He said officials decided to stop subsidizing private homes for the mentally ill because they saw little improvement in the condition of the state-financed facilities.

“It wasn’t that the facilities were bad, we just felt our money would be better used in other areas,” Feltman said. “For the money we were spending, there was not a visible improvement in the quality of life of the people living in those homes.”

But Feltman said if the two facilities are closed, only one large board and care home would remain in Ventura County.

“If she were to close down abruptly, it would be a serious problem for us,” he said.

He said the only options for the 118 mentally ill residents would be to squeeze into other small board and care homes or be placed in more restrictive care facilities. Some would have to be sent home to live with their families, Feltman said.

County advocates for the mentally ill said they are worried that residents of the facilities would end up with no place to live. They criticized the county Department of Mental Health for not doing more to support the two facilities.

“I don’t want a hundred or so beds closing with no good options for the people who are in them,” said Kate Allen, president of the Ventura Chapter of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill. “And the county is not . . . coming to the rescue.”

Feltman disagreed. He said the county has put together an extensive housing plan that would provide better living arrangements for the mentally ill.

Feltman said eventually the county wants to give mentally ill residents more options of renting apartments independently at locations throughout the community instead of living in the large board and care facilities.

“The philosophy is to provide the most normal living environment to our clients,” he said. “There are people who can make it in independent living. They want to overcome their obstacles.”

Besides, Feltman added, “All across the state, there is a serious problem in terms of providing quality in the board and care facilities.”

But Betty Ryerson, a member of the Alliance, said severely mentally ill people do better in board and care homes than they do in apartments.

“We have people who can’t survive on their own,” Ryerson said. “Yet the county has a lot of grandiose ideas about putting them into independent living. They have to have supervision. They need the board and care homes.”