Tenants Protest Work Rules at Homeless Shelter : Oxnard: The founder of the financially troubled Zoe Christian Center says jobs are done on a voluntary basis. A rent increase drove some residents away.

A month after management at the Zoe Christian Center hiked rents to keep the financially troubled homeless shelter afloat, two dozen tenants have left the Oxnard facility and those who remain are fighting to change the center’s work rules.

The center, the only year-round shelter for homeless families in Ventura County, raised the rent on June 1 after several public and private funding sources dried up.

The shelter now houses 62 people, down from 85 a month ago. It has room for 180 residents.

Some tenants left after learning of the rent increases. Others were less upset at having to pay rent than at a policy requiring them to do chores at the facility in exchange for room and board. They conducted a work stoppage last week to protest the work policy.

“A lot of people felt that when it was a homeless shelter, when we didn’t have to pay rent, the work rules were fine,” said Wilford Williams, who has lived at Zoe with his wife and two sons since December. “When they had mandatory rent, a lot of people felt Zoe had become our landlords and that we didn’t need to do all the work around here anymore.”

Fred Judy, Zoe’s president and founder, said Monday that tenants now only work at the shelter on a voluntary basis. But he said the rent hikes remain in effect because the center has too many bills and too little income.

Judy said the center no longer accepts tenants who cannot pay the new rent of $350 to $550 per month. They used to pay 30% of their income and residents without income stayed free.

But he said the 10-year-old center remains deep in debt.

“I think they figure if they cut off our finances, we’re just going to disappear,” he said. “But we’re not going away, not without a fight anyway.”

Judy blames the city of Oxnard for the center’s problems.

The city refused to renew Zoe’s operating permit in 1989 after fire officials said it was too close to a yard where hazardous chemicals were stored. The center commissioned its own study, which concluded that the site was free of contamination.

Nevertheless, Judy said the center has lost $300,000 a year in federal, state and local grants since then. The biggest blow came in May when United Way of Ventura County cut off funding to Zoe, citing the center’s poor financial health.

In December, the City Council agreed to grant a permit that would have allowed Judy to continue operating the center at 5th Street and Rose Avenue as long as he conducted an environmental impact report, at a cost of about $50,000.

Judy said he can’t afford the study, but without it he fears that public agencies will remain unwilling to contribute.

“They want me out of town,” Judy said of Oxnard officials. “It’s discrimination against the homeless people.”

Oxnard officials said Monday that they will continue to work with Judy to keep the homeless shelter open.

“We have bent over backward to work with him and we will continue to do so,” Councilman Michael Plisky said. “We’re trying to make it work, but I don’t know if we can. But I don’t think he should blame all of his problems on the city of Oxnard.”

In the meantime, tenants such as Wilford Williams are caught in the middle.

His unemployment benefits are about to run out and his small one-bedroom apartment is paid until Wednesday, when he is leaving for Houston to look for work. His wife and children will stay at Zoe until he sends for them.

“Most of the people came here from the back seats of our cars or from some other agency,” said Williams, who lost his Moorpark aerospace job four years ago. “Zoe has been a big help to a lot of us. Without this place, where would we be?”