Spreading Warmth in Hard Times : Homeless: Students help serve holiday meals. As winter nears, a handful of shelters and other programs begin providing hot food and warm beds.

Like most students in Jill Docalich’s fourth-grade class, 9-year-old Dustin Wilson’s excitement turned to worry.

Docalich took her 25 students from Blanche Reynolds elementary school in Ventura to the Ventura County Rescue Mission on Wednesday to assist with the annual pre-Thanksgiving lunch for the homeless and needy.

As the students rode from Ventura to Oxnard on a public bus, carrying the paper pilgrims and turkeys they had fashioned to spruce up the tables, they grew fearful about the people they would soon meet, Docalich said.

But after a few minutes happily handing out platters of turkey, stuffing and yams outside the crowded mission, Dustin and his classmates said their concern disappeared: Those who are homeless and needy are just like anybody else.

“I think it’s nice that we can give the homeless people food,” Dustin said, shuttling pieces of pecan pie to the lunch tables. “At least they can have a nice Thanksgiving like us.”

Dustin was one of about 130 volunteers--ranging from Navy workers to musicians to schoolchildren--who helped prepare and serve more than 500 meals at the mission Wednesday, the first in a series of seasonal meals for the down-and-out.

As the Steve Hill Country Band belted out country rock and blues, those looking for a little taste of Thanksgiving ate heartily--much impressed by the food and the jovial service of the volunteers.

“It gives me a decent feeling about humanity,” said Don Royce, 45-year-old homeless man. “It gives me a sense of optimism. A lot of people in our predicament don’t have a lot of friends to turn to anymore.”

Across the county, the Simi Valley Police Department’s reserve unit and the Simi Valley Council on Aging sponsored an annual pre-Thanksgiving dinner at the Simi Valley Senior Citizens Center for more than 350 people from throughout the city.

“We started out doing it for the homeless and found out that there were a lot of people who had nowhere to go,” said organizer Steve Sampson, a reserve sergeant in Simi Valley. “There’s a lot of people in Simi Valley who don’t have enough money to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner.”

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Much of the food came from local merchants, and area restaurants helped prepare the meal--which included 30 turkeys, Sampson said.

Moved by the same holiday spirit, Ventura County’s largest cold-weather shelter--the National Guard Armory in Oxnard--opened its doors to the homeless Wednesday night.

The shelter, in its ninth year, joins a handful of programs from Thousand Oaks to Ojai now providing hot meals and warm beds to the needy.

The armory shelter is operated by Ventura-based Project Understanding, which took over the program from the Ventura County chapter of the American Red Cross.

“People can die of exposure in Ventura County and have died of exposure in Ventura County,” said Rick Pearson, Project Understanding’s executive director. “I think this program is mandatory. I don’t think there’s any choice but to offer it.”

The feeling is the same across Ventura County.

In the Ojai Valley, a network of churches will once again provide food and shelter to dozens of homeless people during the winter. In Simi Valley, homeless advocates are struggling to keep a similar system afloat after three area churches dropped out of the program this year.

And in Thousand Oaks, volunteers at the Conejo Valley winter shelter are in their seventh year of shielding transients from winter’s bone-chilling temperatures.

Last year, more than 20 people daily took advantage of the hot meal, cot and sack lunch the shelter provided. It is located at a different place each night.

Ultimately, homeless advocates say, warming shelters are only a temporary solution to the dilemma of Ventura County’s rising homeless population.

“This is obviously a Band-Aid, but it’s the best we’ve got in the Conejo,” said Karen Ingram, vice president of Lutheran Social Services, which coordinates the Thousand Oaks shelter program.

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“I think there’s a decided lack of affordable housing, and not a lot of effort is being made to remedy that situation, so we do what we can in the meantime.”

The lack of shelter--and increase in homelessness--is most clearly evidenced at the Oxnard shelter, advocates say. In the winter of 1988-89, 516 people sought shelter at the Oxnard Armory.

Last year, when powerful rainstorms wiped out a shantytown along the Ventura River bed, nearly twice that number sought refuge at the shelter.

Under an agreement with the state, the armory will be open before Dec. 15 only if forecasts indicate that nighttime temperatures will drop below 40 degrees or below 50 with a chance of rain. From Dec. 15 to March 15, it will be open every night.

Located at 351 S. K St., the armory is only supposed to accommodate 120 people but has held as many as 150 when the weather was at its worst.

“I think there’s a general consensus that yes, people need access to housing that they can afford, and people need meaningful employment that will support that,” Pearson said. “The question is, how do we get from where we are to where we need to be?”

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Winter Shelter

Showers, hot meals and overnight shelter are now available to Ventura County’s homeless. Volunteers and donations are welcome at the following locations:

Conejo Valley Winter Shelter, Thousand Oaks

The shelter is open through March 31 at a different location each night. Doors open at 6 p.m. Information: 379-5602 or (818) 564-0191.

Ojai Valley Family Shelter

The shelter is open until March 15 at a different Ojai area church each night. Registration opens at 6 p.m. and doors close promptly at 8 p.m. Information: 646-5226.

Action to Deliver Shelter, Simi Valley

The program offers shelter four nights a week through March 31, with the program site changing each night. Information: 579-9166.

Ventura County Emergency Winter Warming Shelter, Oxnard

The county’s largest warming shelter is housed at the National Guard Armory, 351 S. K St. Before Dec. 15, the armory will open if weather forecasts indicate nighttime temperatures below 40 degrees, or below 50 with a chance of rain. From Dec. 15 to March 15, the armory will be open every night. Transportation is available. Information: 652-1326.

Ventura County Rescue Mission, Oxnard

The only year-round shelter in Ventura County, the rescue mission offers overnight shelter at 234 E. 6th St. Registration is at 5 p.m. Information: 487-7667.