Still Determined : Thousand Oaks Will Look Elsewhere for Homeless Center Funds

Thousand Oaks officials said Monday they plan to look elsewhere for the money to build a drop-in center for the homeless after the city’s application for a $300,000 federal grant was rejected.

The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notified the city last week that it would not be sending any federal money this year for a drop-in facility, which has been in the planning stages for more than two years.

City officials said it was not clear exactly why Thousand Oaks was turned down. But they said the city was a first-time applicant and was competing against 1,400 other cities and organizations nationwide for $150 million in grants.

Councilwoman Judy Lazar, a strong supporter of a drop-in center, said the city’s size and its relatively small homeless population probably accounted for its failure to secure a grant.

“I’m very disappointed,” Lazar said. “It’s hard for cities like Thousand Oaks to compete (for HUD money) with large metropolitan cities like Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. But that doesn’t mean that other, smaller cities don’t have homeless problems.”

Thousand Oaks, with an estimated 80 to 150 homeless residents, has proposed to build a drop-in center next to the city’s social services center on Hillcrest Drive. The new center would be a daytime facility where the homeless could shower, wash clothes, pick up mail, make phone calls, type resumes and do schoolwork.

Although the city will probably apply again next year for a HUD grant, Lazar said she plans to explore other fund-raising options in the meantime. “I have a couple of ideas,” she said, without elaborating.

Roger Toft, president of the Conejo Homeless Assistance Program, which the city has designated to run its drop-in center, said he was not surprised the city’s application was turned down.

“We had little expectation of that happening,” he said. “It would have been nice, but the city was a first-time applicant. The odds were pretty far out. It’s kind of like buying a lottery ticket.”

Toft said he believes money for the drop-in center should come from the community’s private sector.

“Our goal has always been to tap into the community’s excess,” he said. “We don’t want to put a stress on another agency. This is a community problem, a local problem” that should be taken care of locally.

Even if money for a drop-in center were immediately available, Toft said it would be a year or more before the center could be built. He urged the city to explore other ways to help provide drop-in services in the meantime.

Meanwhile, Karen Ingram, vice president of Lutheran Social Services, said Thousand Oaks’ chances of obtaining a federal grant may improve next year because the Clinton Administration has made caring for homeless people one of its priorities and funds earmarked for the purpose are expected to double.

Ingram, whose organization coordinates a winter homeless shelter among seven host churches and temples in Thousand Oaks, said this year’s program opened Dec. 1 and has been averaging six to 10 people a night.

“It’s actually been a few more the last few nights because it’s been cold,” she said. “The needs haven’t changed.”