Don’t Hinder Those Who Help

When Ventura police ordered a charity group to stop distributing baked potatoes to homeless people in a downtown park last week, the irony was overwhelming. “Hot potato” is exactly how the homeless are being treated in the bureaucratic standoff between city and county.

As shelters run by the Salvation Army, churches and other nonprofit groups have opened for the winter in Oxnard, Ojai, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and elsewhere, in Ventura the homeless have nowhere to turn.

The Ventura City Council decided three months ago not to provide funding to organizations that serve homeless people and those with substance abuse problems, saying the county should pay for such services.

Now the city is taking a step toward providing short-term shelter while an equitable long-term solution is negotiated. Two council members and the city manager plan to meet with county officials to pursue a joint, interim detoxification shelter. It would provide temporary lodgings, with food provided by area churches, staffing by volunteers from the nonprofit Project Understanding and social services assistance from county staff.

Yet Ventura continues its campaign to build an image as the county’s least welcoming city for the homeless. A few days after police stopped the food distribution in Mission Park, city officials reiterated that they will require churches to get conditional-use permits before they open their doors to those in need.

Ventura may be correct that in the past it has borne more than its share of the countywide responsibility for housing homeless. We welcome any progress toward a fair long-term solution. But for now, if city officials refuse to help those in need they should at least get out of the way of those who would do so privately.