Fate of River Bottom Dwellers Is Debated : Ventura: Downtown merchants say transients bother customers. Homeless advocates urge delay until all 200 can be relocated.

With downtown merchants pleading for relief from transients, and homeless advocates urging delay, the Ventura City Council debated a proposal Monday night to kick the homeless out of the Ventura River bottom.

“They look bad, they are dirty, they stink and they are drunk half the time,” said Dee Frisbie, owner of a downtown pizza parlor, in an interview during the meeting.

But Clyde Reynolds, director of an agency that assists the mentally ill homeless, urged delay until the city can relocate all 200 river bottom squatters.

“I am concerned that a certain group of people may be scapegoated for problems in the downtown area,” he said.

The council had not taken a vote by late evening, and numerous speakers were waiting to comment on a plan to relocate all homeless people from a two-mile stretch of the river bottom--beginning as early as this winter.

The council’s housing committee--composed of Jack Tingstrom, Rosa Lee Measures and Jim Monahan--had worked on the plan for months. The three committee members say they hope it will not only clean out the river bottom but also remove panhandlers and other transients from downtown streets.

But three council members not on the housing committee have expressed concerns that the proposal is not legally sound.

City Atty. Pete Bulens had warned the committee that the city could be setting itself up for a lawsuit if it does not provide adequate, alternative housing for the squatters once it kicks them out of the river bottom.

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The committee’s proposal, however, has strong support from the downtown merchants who complain that the river homeless wander downtown during business hours and disturb their customers.

But some homeless advocates say the plan may violate river bottom dwellers’ civil rights by moving them out of their settlements but giving them nowhere else to go.

At first, the housing committee worked with homeless advocates and city police on a plan for a homeless campground away from the river bottom. That would have given the displaced transients a roof over their heads and access to crucial social services.

But this fall, committee members decided that Ventura could not afford to pay for a campground, and they scaled the plan back. As it stands, the relocation would move about 200 squatters out of the river bottom encampment in a phased plan.

The first phase, which could begin as early as this winter, includes advertising available services and notifying river bottom residents that they must soon leave the area.