City to Contribute Toward Homeless Shelter Plan

The Oxnard City Council agreed Tuesday to contribute $8,000 toward the creation of a regional homeless shelter, reinforcing the council’s new policy that it can’t cure homelessness on its own.

Council members offered the money to a countywide housing and homeless coalition as part of a series of steps to reduce homelessness and help homeless people become self-sufficient.

Those priorities include continuing efforts to develop low-cost housing and finding ways to give the homeless access to employment training and other social services.

The homeless and housing coalition, made up of volunteers from throughout the county, will soon begin a study to determine how and where a regional shelter could be built.

“This plan recognizes the fact that homelessness . . . is a regional issue and needs a regional solution and approach,” Housing Director Sal Gonzales told the council.

Until last year, Oxnard’s efforts to aid the homeless have consisted largely of helping the financially troubled Zoe Christian Center pay its bills. The center, once the county’s only year-round shelter for homeless families, closed its doors for good last summer.

In January of last year, the council agreed to draft a new policy broadening those efforts, including taking a comprehensive, regional approach to the problem of Oxnard’s homeless.