City to Take Steps to Cut Homelessness : Oxnard: Council will establish steps to promote self-sufficiency and will consider helping build a shelter for the county.

Trying to help the nearly 350 homeless people estimated to live on the streets of Oxnard, the City Council on Tuesday will establish priorities for reducing homelessness and promoting self-sufficiency.

The council also will decide whether to give $8,000 in redevelopment funds to a countywide coalition that is developing a plan to build a regional homeless shelter for Ventura County.

“We want to make sure that we can establish a coalition to work effectively with the homeless,” said Councilman Andres Herrera. “It is imperative to us that we help our homeless people as much as we can.”

Among the priorities in the city’s proposed Comprehensive Homeless Assistance Plan are:

* Developing a regional shelter that would offer a wide range of services to the homeless;

* Finding ways to give the homeless easier access to a number of social services, including employment training, primary medical care and homeless prevention services;

* Continuing efforts to develop additional affordable housing resources for low-income individuals or families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Like other cities in the county, Herrera said, Oxnard is working with the all-volunteer Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition to develop the regional homeless center.

Herrera said it would be more cost effective to use local resources for services such as medical assistance, family budgeting skills and counseling, provided under one roof.

“We want to maximize the resources available in the county,” Herrera said. “All the countywide services would be able to use the shelter as a clearing house for services provided for the homeless.”

The homeless and housing coalition, made up of countywide volunteers, will soon begin a study to determine how and where a regional shelter could be built, Herrera said.

There is no timetable for when the study will be completed, but Herrera said city officials are trying to expedite the project, particularly because a winter shelter operated at the National Guard Armory in Oxnard has closed, Herrera said.

The Zoe Christian Center, an Oxnard shelter that housed 180 people, closed in July, 1993.

“This is the worst time we have had since the big Depression,” Herrera said. “A lot of our homeless people are in fact working-people who don’t make enough money to afford housing.”

The Oxnard City Council is also looking into other ways to help the homeless.

Recently, Councilman Tom E. Holden proposed that the council investigate the possibility of using the Boys and Girls Club at 7th Street as a shelter.

Under that plan, the Rescue Mission, the only year-round, nonprofit homeless shelter in Oxnard, would operate out of the facility now housing the Boys & Girls Club. In turn, the club would use the Oxnard High School site on Fifth Street for its operations. The high school is moving into a new facility at Gonzalez Road after this school year, Holden said.

“We would provide a facility to the Rescue Mission so they can provide quality service to a larger number of homeless people,” Holden said. About two years ago, most of the Rescue Mission’s dormitory was destroyed in a fire and so far it has not been able to rebuild.

Phil Wehry, who heads the 44-bed Rescue Mission, said the city, like the county, is in desperate need of more shelters and medical assistance for the homeless.

“It is an overwhelming tragedy that we can’t provide the assistance those people need,” Wehry said. “There is more homeless (people) than facilities to handle them.”