Nearly $2 Million in HUD Grants to Help the Poor

Federal officials have agreed to funnel nearly $2 million into Ventura County to bolster a variety of programs for the poor, including an effort to get homeless veterans off the street and the creation of a day-care center and job-training program for low-income families in the Conejo Valley.

Announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the three-year grants will help support half a dozen projects that have been in the planning process for months.

With cuts to federal welfare programs expected in coming months, advocates for the poor say the money is entering the county at a critical time.

“It comes at a time when there’s a lot of talk about services being cut and more being expected from the nonprofit sector,” said Rick Pearson, executive director of Ventura-based Project Understanding. The group received $329,000 to set up a transitional shelter in Oxnard for poor families.

“It really comes at a propitious moment,” Pearson added. “This is a great day for Ventura County and people in need in Ventura County.”

The lion’s share of the money--nearly $600,000--will support a countywide campaign to beef up services for homeless veterans.

In coming months, the Los Angeles Veterans Initiative plans to open a housing project that will help needy veterans land jobs so they can get back on their feet.

“There is clearly a need for it there,” said Tim Cantwell, executive director of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit group. “This is intended to create a pathway for folks who are at a place in time where they are ready to take financial responsibility for their lives, and they would if they had a job.”

Thousand Oaks-based Many Mansions will receive $412,000 over the next three years to create a job-training program and child-care center at an affordable-housing project the group is planning in Thousand Oaks.

Over the past year, Many Mansions has raised $1.6 million of the $1.8 million it will cost to build the 11-unit complex, which will be open to low-income families making the transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency.

Many Mansions hopes to break ground on the project by year’s end, said Dan Hardy, the group’s executive director.

“Our goal is to help people who want to be helped,” Hardy said. “We want to help people get back on their feet and get out on their own again.”

In previous years, Ventura County has been largely overlooked when it came time to distribute the HUD grants. But homeless and housing advocates this year joined forces to apply for the federal money, based on needs identified in a regional plan aimed at battling poverty and homelessness.

That effort paid off this week. HUD awarded $182,000 to help create a countywide one-stop social services network and $276,000 to help run a program that helps the homeless stay warm during the winter.

Also, the county’s social services agency received $186,000 to run an outreach program aimed at helping homeless people get off the street and into a shelter. That program will focus primarily on downtown business districts, program administrator Shirley Bush said.

“Over a three-year period, that’s not a lot of money,” Bush said. “But at least it’s a step in the right direction.”