Status Quo Works for All Except Ventura, Which Pays

A Nov. 2 Los Angeles Times article on the homeless verified many of the concerns of the city of Ventura. The headline should have read, “County Supervisors Halt Funding for Shelter in Ventura, Forcing Transients to Seek Other Alternatives for Winter Survival.” Because after all, that is what really happened:

* Ventura County has decided not to put its resources toward the “hard-core homeless and the drug addicted.”

* The homeless interviewed by The Times are not working because of addiction problems and therefore are ineligible for general assistance by the Board of Supervisors’ rules for the program.

* Clients of the county’s social service providers, such as Turning Point, are homeless and on the streets even though they are identified as mentally ill and should be eligible for assistance under county mental health programs.

Why is this important for the city of Ventura? In a recent survey of downtown Ventura businesses, 78% said the behavior of the hard-core homeless and the drug addicted is a significant problem for them and their customers. The City Council regularly receives letters and calls from people who say they will not return downtown because of the threatening and intimidating conduct of panhandlers. Midtown and west Ventura community councils have also voiced objections to their neighborhoods bearing the social costs of sheltering the homeless from throughout the county. And in a grant application, one nonprofit organization stated that the numbers of homeless has increased in the last four years.

This is especially troubling because the city of Ventura has spent more than $1 million on various programs, including last year’s RAIN (River-dwellers Aid Intercity Network) shelter, and has adopted the most stringent ordinances against aggressive panhandling and camping in the city limits. The Ventura Police Department patrols the river bottom, and encampments are removed regularly.

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Because of the increasing burdens placed on our city, the staff has been analyzing what has happened. Some disturbing patterns have been identified:

* The vast majority of the county’s homeless mentally ill are placed in midtown and downtown Ventura in seven motels: In Ventura for fiscal 1997-’98, emergency shelter vouchers were used a total of 2,288 nights. Totals for other cities were much lower: Oxnard, 702 nights; Ojai, 138; Santa Paula, 72; Simi Valley, 32; and Thousand Oaks, eight. Police respond to calls at these motels an average of once a day, compared to one call every 3 to 5 years for a typical residence or business.

* The county has cut funding for the general assistance program from $1.8 million in 1992-’93 to $603,100 in 1998-’99. The county receives state and federal funding for homeless families, the homeless mentally ill and for alcohol and drug abusers. General assistance is the “safety net” for people who don’t qualify for any of these.

* In the past seven years, the county reduced its general assistance caseload from 500 to 168, the lowest of all comparable California counties. Ventura only has 23 cases per 100,000 residents when Santa Barbara has 158 per 100,000 residents. Why? In a recent memo, the county staff credited aggressive efforts to qualify people for federally funded programs. Because the number of homeless is increasing and the number of general assistance recipients is decreasing, one must question whether people are receiving the general assistance help for which they are eligible.

* Ventura, Oxnard and Ojai have the highest per capita numbers of general assistance recipients. Ventura has 5 per 10,000 residents; Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley have only 1 per 10,000. County officials cite the low-cost motels in Ventura. County policy unwittingly impacts Ventura because the county will not pay for higher-cost shelters in other cities.

* General assistance rules, as set by supervisors, require that employable people work to receive assistance. Social services staff members realize that there are chronic drug and alcohol abusers who will not give up their lifestyle and so remain on the streets. Yet there is no countywide strategy to deal with this. The county has diverted resources from the hard-core homeless and drug addicted toward families and others nearing self-sufficiency. Supervisors decided this difficult population is now to be dealt with by the cities.

* The city of Ventura has been excluded from the federal government’s emergency shelter grant program funds by the county. This year, the county received $95,000 on behalf of 9 cities and the unincorporated area. Ventura was not consulted or even advised of funding alternatives. In fact, we were told that the funding was for the 5 smaller cities and not Ventura. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, however, has contradicted the county interpretation and advised the city to seek its allocation from the county.

* With only six beds, the county does not have detoxification capacity to house substance abusers. Instead they are left in our community for our city to cope with.

* Low-cost motels have been accepted by supervisors as appropriate housing for the mentally ill and disabled, instead of creating low-cost, professionally managed facilities throughout the county.

These observations frame the discussion that the City Council will continue to have as we work toward humane solutions to a problem that has so severely affected our neighborhoods and that cannot be solved without a truly countywide approach.

The City Council has set aside $40,000 for a countywide shelter program, but there has been no countywide response. This is because the status quo of Ventura housing the county’s homeless works for everyone except the businesses and residents of midtown, downtown and west Ventura. In fairness to our neighborhoods, the city must lead the effort to change the status quo.