3 Cities Join to Open Shelter for Homeless

After last winter’s debate among officials about who should shelter the homeless in cold weather, three Ventura County cities have joined forces to open a shelter beginning Dec. 1.

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

County supervisors agreed Tuesday to spend $207,000 to staff the shelter. Ventura will spend $40,000 and Oxnard $43,600 for operation and transportation expenses. Camarillo is expected to contribute $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 heads a countywide committee formed last winter after public outcry over the lack of a 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.”

Long said the committee, made up of Ventura Council of Government members who are devising long-term solutions, hopes that each of the county’s 10 cities will eventually provide its own warming shelter each winter.

Sketch of victim