3 Cities Help County Fund Homeless Shelter

After last winter’s stormy debate among city and county officials about who should pay to care for homeless residents, the cities of Oxnard, Ventura and Camarillo have joined forces with the county to open a cold-weather shelter Dec. 1.

The partnership came after recent state legislation allowed for National Guard armories to be used as emergency shelters. The state will provide $395 a night--$48,190--to keep the Oxnard National Guard Armory open for 122 days, through March 31.

Today, supervisors are expected to approve $207,000 to provide staffing for the shelter. Ventura will spend $40,000 and Oxnard $43,600 for operational and transportation expenses. Camarillo is expected to kick in $5,000.

“It puts the message out there that it is going to take all of us to deal with homelessness,” said Supervisor Kathy Long, who chairs a countywide committee formed last winter after public outcry over the lack of an emergency cold weather shelter in Ventura.

“There has got to be a regional approach,” Long said. “And we hope this winter will be the last that we’ll have to accept this model in caring for homeless residents during the cold weather.”

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Long said the homeless committee, made up of city representatives who are devising long-term solutions, hopes that each of the county’s 10 cities eventually will provide its own shelter each winter.

The shelter debate exploded last winter, a year after then-Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a request for $1 million that would have kept a 10-year-old armory program alive for another year.

Arguing that the city was already taking in more than its share of the county’s homeless residents, Ventura officials refused to spend money to help open a winter shelter last year.

The county decried the city’s decision, but stopped short of supplying the $10,000 necessary to open a temporary shelter in Ventura.

Eventually, churches, temples and nonprofit agencies stepped up and took in Ventura’s homeless. Such institutions in other cities also opened their doors to the down-and-out during the winter months.

Only Oxnard spent $48,000 to help open an emergency shelter at the Salvation Army on Wooley Road, which last year took in 241 people--many from surrounding cities.

This year, Oxnard officials initiated the collaboration among cities and the county on the shelter issue. In letters, Oxnard authorities requested a contribution of funds toward the effort.

“Last year, we went at it alone,” said Sal Gonzalez, Oxnard’s housing director. “But homelessness is a regional issue. It’s not a city of Oxnard issue. It should be driven by humaneness to ensure that there is somewhere for the homeless to go when it’s cold.”

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Ventura Mayor Jim Friedman said the county should do more to provide shelter for homeless people.

“I’ve said that from the very beginning,” Friedman said. “The county receives state and federal funds to be the safety net for the homeless. The feeling is that we really are doing our fair share.”

But Friedman said he was glad that the debate would not be repeated this winter and that homeless people would have a warm place to go during cold nights.

“It’s a good-faith effort on the part of the city of Ventura and the city of Oxnard as we approach the cold weather season,” Friedman said.

Long said the county was providing funding to keep a transitional shelter for homeless families open year-round in Camarillo. She said all the cities needed to contribute to the effort.

“Next year, we hope to identify where most of the homeless people live,” Long said. “I think there is not a city in this county without a homeless problem.”