Regional Plan Offers Ideas to Put Homeless on Their Feet : Coalition: Group’s recommendations range from subsidizing bus service to encouraging development of low-cost housing.

Seeking to break the grip of homelessness choking scores of Ventura County residents, a countywide coalition offered the first look Monday at a regional plan aimed at improving the delivery of shelter, medical care and other vital services to the homeless.

The first draft of the plan--the most comprehensive report ever compiled on the needs of Ventura County’s homeless--offers a variety of recommendations for battling homelessness, ranging from subsidizing bus service to encouraging the development of boarding houses and other low-cost housing.

The plan is the result of five months of work by members of the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition, and highlights areas where the delivery of services falls short. A future section of the plan will prioritize recommendations and identify ways to pay for new programs.

Ultimately, coalition members intend the plan to be used as a guide for local governments and service agencies to set goals and seek grants.

“We felt it was necessary to come up with a plan that encompasses the whole region in order to truly have a comprehensive, collaborative approach,” said Kathy Sube, the coalition’s program coordinator.

“For so many years, homelessness has been addressed on an emergency basis,” Sube said. “But after people are past the emergency, after the crisis is over, there is a lot of work to be done before they are ready to rejoin the mainstream.”

The idea of crafting the regional plan goes back many years, but only recently has it picked up steam.

First, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development asked city and county governments last year to prepare a plan identifying the needs of low-income residents for housing and social service programs.

“The problem with the consolidated plans is that the county put one together and the individual cities put theirs together, but there was no single plan that addressed the entire region,” Sube said. “In order to get programs funded, HUD or anyone else that provides funding wants to see how those programs fit into the big picture, and you have to have a very clear big picture.”

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The push to hammer out the regional plan was boosted earlier this year when floodwaters ripped out homeless encampments along the Ventura River bottom, leaving more than 100 squatters scrambling for shelter and focusing widespread attention on the needs of the homeless.

“I think any time you have a disaster, it certainly brings issues to the surface,” Sube said. “This is one of those things where the timing was right.”

The draft regional plan lays out dozens of recommendations for helping the homeless get back on their feet, including:

* Homeless prevention efforts should be at the core of any effort to battle homelessness. Outreach workers should visit food distribution sites and should be in contact with schools and utility companies to offer information about homeless prevention.

* Few homeless people have access to reliable transportation. The report recommends that homeless providers issue passes to public bus systems. In order to do so, the providers must be able to purchase the passes at drastically reduced prices, which means bus service needs to be subsidized, as it is for the elderly and the disabled.

* There is a lack of emergency shelter, transitional housing and permanent housing for the homeless. Recommendations include the creation of eight- to 10-bed shelters in Simi Valley, the Conejo Valley and Ojai. In Oxnard and Ventura, where the need is greater, the coalition recommends a 25-bed facility in each city, or a single facility with 50 beds if adequate transportation can be arranged.

In addition, the county and the cities should consider crafting zoning laws that make it easier to open boarding houses and provide other low-cost housing.

The regional plan is being distributed to coalition members and other interested parties for review and comment. A second, more complete draft is expected to be ready for more widespread review--in libraries and other public places--by the end of November.

The final report is expected to be completed in December.

“The regional plan is going to be a summary of what is, a little bit of what has been, and more of what needs to be,” said Karen Ingram, a coalition member and vice president of Lutheran Social Services of Southern California, which has an office in Ventura and programs in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

“The purpose of the plan is to try to define as clearly as possible some of the key elements of homelessness . . . and to have a document that public and private agencies can use to bring more funds into the community for our work with the homeless.”

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Ventura County Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, chairwoman of the coalition’s advisory committee, said the regional report was desperately needed to draw a clear picture of the problems faced by the homeless.

“We need to know who these folks are, where they are, what condition they are in, and we need to know that throughout the county,” Lacey said. “Those folks who have a very clear picture of what, where and who are going to be the folks who are going to get the money. From that point of view, everyone should be interested.”

For more information or to offer suggestions, write to VCHHC, 2355 Portola Road, Ventura, 93005, Attn: Regional Plan.