VENTURA : Homeless Center to Stay Open Till July 31

A Ventura assistance center for homeless people, scheduled to close Friday, will be kept open for four more months.

The Ventura City Council decided Monday night to spend $57,500 to keep the Ventura Avenue one-stop service center open until July 31.

But the center, which has served more than 285 homeless people since January, will have to move at the end of March because the Catholic Charities-operated site is no longer available.

Officials hope to rent a small office later this week.

“We allowed them to live down there by turning our heads, so I think we have a commitment to try and help them get out,” Councilman Gregory L. Carson said. “We’ve been part of the problem.”

The City Council also decided to apply for nearly $1 million in federal funds to establish a permanent center after July 31.

The federal department of Housing and Urban Development has set aside $900 million to help communities develop innovative, long-term ways to provide shelter to homeless people.

City officials established the assessment center days after the Jan. 10 flood washed away the shanties of hundreds of people who lived in the Ventura River bottom.

Of the 286 people who applied for help at the assistance center, 110 had lived in the riverbed.

Ventura officials also hope that Ventura County and other cities will offer to help by funding a countywide system to provide housing for the homeless.

Representatives from the county’s nine other cities have been invited to an April 19 meeting to detail plans for a regional assistance center.