Homeless Program Expanded : Shelters: A $1.1-million HUD grant will provide round-the- clock housing. But downtown Ventura neighbors protest.

A daytime assistance program in downtown Ventura will become a round-the-clock shelter for mentally ill, homeless people, providing needed housing but upsetting the agency’s neighbors.

The transformation at the Turning Point Foundation will be made possible by a $1.1-million grant from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department, announced Monday in Washington.

“We’re really very excited about it,” said Clyde Reynolds, Turning Point’s executive director.

He said the center will install showers and 10 beds in its building on East Thompson Boulevard near California Street. The program now operates six hours and serves one hot meal each day; Reynolds said the grant money will fund 24-hour-a-day service and three meals a day.

“That means people will have a place to sleep in the evenings,” Reynolds said, promising that the shelter, combined with an additional 10 beds already planned for the second floor of the building, will make a “big dent” in the city’s homelessness problem.

As Ventura upgrades its downtown, city leaders have struggled with what to do with the homeless men and women there. January’s floods washed them out of their campsites along the Ventura River, and the city has sought grant money to find jobs and homes for them.

Reynolds said the Turning Point program will provide a “safe haven” for the mentally ill, who he estimates make up between 25% and 35% of the local homeless population. Workers at the shelter will try to steer the visitors eventually into mental health treatment, he said.

“This is a very vulnerable population,” Reynolds said. “Even in the summer months, there is a need to temporarily house people while they get back on their feet.”

The agency won City Council approval for the shelter plan last year over neighborhood opposition. News of the grant and the expansion plans were met with trepidation on Monday by some neighbors, who have complained of problems created by the existing program.

“As their next-door neighbor, obviously that is going to cause more problems,” said Ventura Superior Court Judge William Peck, who owns an adjacent apartment complex. “It’s the kind of thing that shouldn’t be next to apartment buildings.”

Sue Maday, bartender at the Barefoot Bistro, across the street from the center, said that fewer Turning Point clients have been begging for food at the restaurant recently. But she feared an expanded program would bring additional problems.

“It’s not going to be good for the business,” she said.

Reynolds said his program has broad support from downtown businesses.

“I think most people view it as, actually, a resource to the business community rather than a blight,” he said, arguing that if mentally ill homeless people are inside his shelter, then they are not on the streets scaring away customers.

Even with the grant money, Turning Point will not be able to accommodate all the mentally ill homeless people who need services, Reynolds said.

He said Turning Point may apply to the city to allow more people to live in the building. The agency will also continue to work with the city and county governments and other nonprofit groups to seek ways to help the homeless, he said.

“We’re definitely going to need some more housing,” Reynolds said.

Peter Roberson of States News Service contributed to this story.