Winter Shelters for Homeless Opening, but Not in Ventura

While rain pounded down on his old Pontiac, Herb Martinez curled up on a bucket seat with a blanket and tried to get some shut-eye.

Kicked out of his apartment, Martinez said he attempted to check into the Ventura County Rescue Mission in Oxnard, but arrived too late. He slept in his car as a last resort.

“It was cold, it was miserable and I was stiff as a board,” Martinez, 47, said of his Monday night experience. “I’m too old for this.”

On Tuesday morning, Martinez helped lug 100 canvas cots into the Salvation Army at 622 W. Wooley Road. The out-of-work construction worker said he was grateful he would be sleeping on one of them that night.

Martinez and other local homeless people can now seek a warm meal and refuge during wintry nights at warming shelters that have opened in most cities throughout the county. The Salvation Army facility in Oxnard opened as a cold-weather shelter Tuesday night to take in mostly homeless families and single women until March 15.

In the Conejo Valley, six churches in Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Westlake Village also began Tuesday taking in homeless individuals and families for the night. That program, sponsored by Lutheran Social Services, runs through April 30.

A month ago, six Simi Valley churches were the first in the county to open their doors to the homeless and will continue to offer them shelter until March 31. Churches and temples in other communities, such as Ojai, began taking in the homeless on a rotating basis beginning Nov. 15.

Only in the city of Ventura do homeless people have nowhere to go for shelter this winter. Saying the county should shoulder the cost of such services, the Ventura City Council decided three months ago not to provide funding to organizations that serve homeless people and those recovering from substance abuse.

The nonprofit group Project Understanding was counting on the $10,000 it had requested from the city to open a winter shelter by Tuesday, Executive Director Rick Pearson said. Federal Emergency Management Administration funds that will allow the shelter to open won’t arrive until after the first of the year, he said.

On Tuesday, Pearson was still scrambling to find a Ventura landlord to donate a facility to accommodate homeless single men. His organization has already found six churches and temples willing to take in homeless families and single women, beginning Dec. 14.

Despite a steady stream of private donations since the public furor over the city’s decision in September, Pearson said the agency is still several thousand dollars short of the amount it needs to provide for the homeless this winter.

The dilemma in Ventura worries Capt. Norman Patton, who oversees the Salvation Army operation in Oxnard. Since it began to rain several days ago, most of the 78 beds reserved for single, transient men at the Rescue Mission in Oxnard have been filled. And Patton says his facility can’t handle the overflow.

“We’re deeply concerned that we don’t have a large enough facility to accommodate everyone,” Patton said. “There’s a problem before we’ve even opened. That’s why we’re a little stressed.”

Although rain is not forecast in the county today or Thursday, Jeff House, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said another storm system is expected to arrive Friday. Also, overnight temperatures in Ventura County are expected to drop to the 40s tonight, House said.

The Salvation Army was able to open its shelter only with the help of the city of Oxnard, which contributed $48,000 toward the effort.

Patton said he hoped city and county officials will work together to find a solution to the shelter problem by next winter.

“Next year, we are not expecting to do this,” Patton said. “The county and the cities need to figure out how to provide for a winter shelter. We and other nonprofits cannot continue to carry the whole thing on our backs. We just don’t have the resources.”

Patton said single men turned away by the Salvation Army are being referred to the Rescue Mission at 234 E. 6th St. Typically, single men are segregated from women and children at homeless shelters.

But Martinez is glad Salvation Army officials are making an exception with him because he is a regular volunteer who has asked to stay at the Salvation Army shelter with his girlfriend, who is also homeless.

“This is the first time in my life that I’ve been homeless,” said Martinez, who lost his construction job last year after a bicycling accident prevented him from working for several months. “Thank God I have a place to stay and I don’t have to sleep in my car.”