Work Begins to Rebuild Burned Rescue Mission

Over at the Ventura County Rescue Mission, they say they are finally headed down the road to recovery.

Four years after the shelter burned to the ground, work crews are clearing the way for construction of a 20,000-square-foot facility on East 6th Street in Oxnard.

Workers are expected to pour the concrete foundation next week and to begin erecting the wooden frame within three weeks, said Jerry Roberg, the rescue mission’s executive director.

“It’s been a long road,” Roberg said. “We had the fire four years ago and we’re now just getting around to building this thing. But we’re making progress, and hopefully within six or seven months this building will be up.”

A predawn blaze leveled the rescue mission in July 1992, hours after a celebration marking its 20th anniversary. The fire left 55 men homeless and turned the 68-bed dormitory into a smoldering pile of rubble and ashes.

Since then, the facility has continued to serve the down and out. Homeless men have been housed in a tent city on the property where the shelter once stood. The rescue mission also has continued to operate a residential recovery program.

But the focus has always been on putting up a new building, said Carol Roberg, Jerry Roberg’s wife and the rescue mission’s associate director.

“I can still remember standing there looking at the building going up in flames,” Carol Roberg said. “It was pretty devastating. But right away we started formulating a plan to rebuild.”

The heart of the rebuilding effort has been a campaign to raise $1.2 million to build a new facility that will provide shelter for 100 homeless people and have space for 50 recovering addicts. So far only about one-third of that money has been pledged. Anyone interested in donating time, money or materials can call the rescue mission at 487-7667.