Homeless Shelter Asks City to Help Pay Bills : Oxnard: The Zoe Center is $300,000 in debt and could close. Its co-founder says officials are ‘trying to run me out of town.’

Supporters of Zoe Christian Center on Tuesday appealed to Oxnard officials for help in paying mounting bills that threaten to shut down Ventura County’s only year-round shelter for homeless families.

Operators of the 10-year-old center say they have fallen more than $300,000 behind in rent, utilities and other bills over the last two years.

Zoe officials accuse city leaders of plotting to shut down the facility by falsifying an environmental report, which they contend resulted in the loss of more than $300,000 a year in federal, state and local grants.

Those allegations are part of a lawsuit Zoe filed against the city. A Superior Court judge threw out the suit last month, but shelter officials have refiled it.

“I don’t understand why you have denied the homeless and us the right to exist in this city,” said Fred Judy, president and co-founder of the shelter operation.

“You’ve been trying to run me out of town, but I’m not going anyplace,” Judy added. “If we can’t help people on the street, then there’s something wrong with America.”

Judy was joined Tuesday at Oxnard City Hall by more than a dozen supporters, current residents and former tenants of the homeless shelter.

Oxnard resident Mike Angelette, 33, told the council that he, his wife and three boys wound up at the homeless shelter about 2 1/2 years ago after falling on hard times.

“Zoe was there to take us in and basically got us on the road to recovery,” Angelette said. “I’d just like to ask for your support of Zoe to keep it open another 10 years so it can continue to help families such as mine.”

Oxnard officials said they have tried to help Zoe whenever possible.

Of the 18 families at the Rose Avenue shelter, the city’s housing department has helped one family find housing and currently is helping five others. Four other families will probably go into public housing, officials said.

The city has also provided financial assistance to the shelter.

“It’s just beyond our help, I think,” Mayor Manuel Lopez said.

Nevertheless, supporters urged council members Tuesday to assist in paying the center’s bills by helping to free thousands of dollars in federal money frozen in 1989 when the city revoked Zoe’s operating permit. Officials said the shelter was too close to a fertilizer plant where hazardous chemicals were stored.

Operators of the center also urged city officials to dip into city funds set aside over the years to help the poor.

“Help make our facility stable so we can actually concern ourselves with the homeless,” said Jim Gilmer, the center’s other founder. “We’d like to continue on another decade, providing services in this community.”

Operators of the embattled shelter haven’t paid their water bill in years and have fallen $44,000 behind in their payments to the city.

City workers were prepared to cut off water service this morning to Zoe’s Rose Avenue shelter and its Hayes Avenue facility for homeless women and children.

But Judy appealed that decision Monday, delaying the cutoff date until the appeal can be heard.

Zoe faces eviction from its Rose Avenue facility after falling $94,500 behind in rent over the past two years. Operators of the shelter last month agreed to shut down that shelter and allow Oxnard officials to relocate the center’s 18 families.

But Judy said he changed his mind after the city threatened to shut off the shelter’s water supply.

“You’re not going to run me out of town,” Judy told council members Tuesday. “You’ll have to come out and move us. We’re here to stay.”