COUNTYWIDE : Loans Offered to the Homeless

Lee Riggan knows what it’s like when times are tough.

Riggan, director of the 26-year-old Ventura Commission on Human Concerns and Community Development, started working for the agency 16 years ago as a volunteer while attending Cal State Northridge. After she ended up on welfare, she was hired by the commission as part of a now-defunct state-federal welfare program.

A year later, she landed a job as the coordinator of the former Rural Nutrition Access Program at the commission and was appointed executive director in September, 1981.

Riggan has achieved what the commission wants for its clients: “Its goal is to help people to become more self-sufficient,” she said.

The commission’s revolving loan program, geared toward the homeless or those at risk of becoming homeless, is a good example of that kind of assistance. The tougher the times, the busier the commission’s Ventura and Oxnard offices get.

Since the program was launched in 1986, 231 no-interest loans and 45 grants have been issued, totaling $183,764, said loan program manager John Servis. The loans, made with county and city funds, are to be used for security deposits or move-in costs. They can go as high as $1,500, but most are for less than $700, Servis said.

Because of the high demand in Oxnard, the program staff has tried to stretch the $13,000 allotted this year by capping spending at $6,500 in September “so that we wouldn’t be promising funds, processing people and then ending up without any funds,” Servis said.

The commission is accepting applications for the $6,500 balance, and Servis expects that money to be depleted by the end of December.

While Oxnard residents are scrambling for program funds, all of Camarillo’s and most of Ojai’s loan money sits untouched.

In 1986, the city of Camarillo contributed $10,000 to the program, of which only $3,225 was loaned out. In 1991, none of the $10,000 has been spent. Riggan attributes this to a lack of outreach workers in that community, a problem that she said is being worked out.

The city of Ojai put $23,000 into the program in 1991, but so far has paid out only $6,953 in loans and $5,945 in grants.

The commission, one of 900 such bodies nationwide, also feeds the poor; provides a shower, telephone, job assistance and clothes for the homeless; offers utility payment assistance for those with turnoff notices, and gives legal services for those who can’t afford to consult a private attorney. Utility assistance can reach $300 a year per person, but that person can only apply once every six months.