Solutions, Not Posturing

If Mom and Dad are arguing over whose turn it is to feed the kids, should they let the children starve while they work it out?

Of course not. And the homeless people of Ventura County should not be left shivering in the winter chill because the city of Ventura has chosen this moment to hand responsibility for sheltering them back to the county Board of Supervisors.

The City Council recently decided not to give money to organizations that serve the homeless and people with alcohol or other drug problems. As a result, Project Understanding, a nonprofit group that helps the poor, did not receive a $10,000 grant it had counted on to open a cold weather shelter in Ventura next month. Federal funds for the shelter won’t be available until January.

Mayor Jim Friedman says it’s time to change a county policy that places the homeless in low-rent motels throughout the city, arguing that this policy has dumped a countywide problem on the city. He has a valid point. Some other cities simply refuse to accept the motel vouchers. When the county closed its emergency cold weather shelter at the former Camarillo State Hospital, it offered no substitute.

Handing out vouchers for a night in a cheap motel is a pitiful approach--bad for the neighborhoods as well as the recipients. It offers no solution; it merely keeps people alive until morning. At best it’s better than nothing--but as long as the city and county bicker and posture, nothing is what the homeless have to keep them warm and off the street at night.

Two years ago, a countywide task force delivered a Regional Plan on Homelessness for Ventura County. Making it work will require cooperation, money and serious effort from all of the county’s government entities.

That is exactly the sort of regional teamwork the Ventura Council of Governments (VCOG) was created to encourage. VCOG should immediately come together to end the bickering and find a fair and equitable way for the county and all 10 of its cities to share this burden.

As added incentive, we suggest that this session be held under a bridge on a cold and windy November night.