Panel Urges Year-Round Shelters for Homeless

More year-round emergency and transitional housing shelters should be provided for Ventura County’s homeless, a committee made up of local government leaders and homeless advocates has recommended.

In a report, the committee urged the county to phase out the motel voucher program and to expand housing for the mentally ill homeless. Members also suggested that a permanent homeless committee be formed to deal with the problem on a regional basis.

What is likely to be the most controversial recommendation concerned how the money to pay for these buildings and programs should be raised. The committee said city and county governments should share the financial burden.

Homelessness “is not a citywide problem,” said Ventura Mayor Jim Friedman, who co-chaired the committee with county Supervisor Kathy Long. “It’s a county problem, and participation and responsibility need to be shared by all the cities, not unfairly heaped upon a few cities. We’ve had enough.”

The bulk of the county’s homeless population is in Ventura and Oxnard, as are most of the motels that house the homeless.

But, as with other proposed solutions to the homeless problem, this one quickly ran into opposition. Simi Valley Mayor Bill Davis said his city shouldn’t have to pay for the homeless who live in other parts of the county.

“We take care of our own,” said Davis. “I’m not sure that my city would want to put money into a pot that would be used in Oxnard and Ventura. If each community pays for its own homeless, we wouldn’t have a problem.”

Some homeless advocates said they worry that such opposition will prevent the recommendations from being translated into buildings or programs.

The roughly 20 members of the committee, which has met half a dozen times since it was formed in February, are made up of representatives from the Ventura Council of Governments, the Commission on Human Concerns and the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition. The committee was established to find new ways of meeting the needs of the homeless.

Addressing the problem of funding, the report said some money to improve homeless services could be raised by using redevelopment funds. Local governments might also lobby for state legislation that would enhance housing and support services for the homeless.

Though advocates have been pushing for more transitional and emergency housing for the homeless for years, they say the committee’s suggestions are a good first step toward addressing the problems facing between 2,000 and 4,000 homeless in Ventura County.

“Some of us have been saying this for a decade, so I’m not expecting to see any money tomorrow afternoon,” said Rick Pearson, executive director of Project Understanding. “But it is encouraging to hear elected officials saying that this is a serious problem.”

Earlier this week, county supervisors approved spending $188,000 to continue operating a Camarillo homeless shelter that currently houses 54 people. The county’s dollars, along with funding from Oxnard and Camarillo, will allow the RAIN shelter--initially created to provide temporary assistance to homeless people in the winter--to remain open four more months.

Such transitional programs help homeless families get back on their feet and help them understand why they became homeless, said Turning Point Executive Director Clyde Reynolds. The RAIN shelter has helped dozens of homeless people find jobs and permanent housing.

Long said she is determined to keep the homeless issue on the front burner, and to urge her fellow elected officials to take a regional approach.

“We need to get away from this treadmill of cold weather shelters, and get into year-round programming and services to reduce the problem of homelessness,” she said.

Oxnard Mayor Manny Lopez agreed, arguing that homelessness is a problem 365 days a year, not just during the winter. He said cities and the county should share the financial burden, but they should also press state and federal legislators for more money.

But the biggest challenge, officials say, will be getting all 10 cities to agree to attack the problem both within their own boundaries and throughout the county.

Individual cities will take the recommendations to their council meetings this summer before the Ventura Council of Governments votes in September on the proposals.