Supervisors OK $207,000 for Shelter for Homeless

Ventura County supervisors agreed Tuesday to help operate a winter homeless shelter in Oxnard, but rejected that city’s request that the county kick in $57,000 to cover a shortfall in start-up costs.

Supervisors voted unanimously to sign an agreement with the state to open a cold-weather shelter at the Oxnard National Guard Armory on Dec. 1. In a partnership with Oxnard, Ventura and Camarillo, the county will provide mental health case workers, social workers, public health nurses and other staff at a cost of $207,000 through March 31.

Oxnard will spend $43,600 for operational expenses, Ventura will contribute $40,000, and Camarillo is expected to approve about $5,000. That still leaves a shortfall of about $57,000 of the operating costs, said Sal Gonzalez, Oxnard’s housing director.

He asked the supervisors to ante up the extra funding and then attempt to recover the costs through federal emergency grants early next year, grants that a county official said are virtually assured. But supervisors refused, saying the county had already done its part to help homeless people find a place to stay during cold winter nights.

If more money is needed, Ventura County’s other seven cities should be approached to contribute, said Supervisor John K. Flynn.

“Homelessness knows no boundaries,” Flynn said. “I make an appeal to the other cities to do this. Every city in this county will have someone in that shelter.”

Representatives from the county and its 10 cities have been meeting for months to find regional solutions to provide overnight shelter for the hundreds of homeless who live in Ventura County. The committee hopes that each city will eventually provide its own shelter operated by government or private groups. Some cities, such as Thousand Oaks and Ojai, offer shelters run by churches, temples and nonprofit groups.

But with night temperatures dropping into the low 40s and no solution in sight, the Oxnard warming shelter is being opened as an interim answer this year.

Gonzalez said he is disappointed by the board’s vote. The county’s offer of staff time is helpful, he said, but what is really needed right now is cash.

“We need money to run the shelter,” he said.

Oxnard will work with the Salvation Army, which will run the shelter at 351 S. K St., to figure out how to make the operation work, Gonzalez said. It is possible the shelter, which is able to accommodate up to 130 people a night, will have to reduce its hours or close earlier than anticipated next spring, he said.

Supervisor Judy Mikels said she is worried the county might be held liable for any physical damage to the armory and could be made to pay the $57,000 if the federal emergency grants are not approved. But Barbara Fitzgerald, the county’s social services agency director, assured supervisors that the federal funding was virtually certain, noting it has been granted for the past several years.

Fitzgerald warned supervisors the county could see other costs, such as an increase in its General Relief caseload. County social workers will be recruiting shelter users to sign up for General Relief, a monthly subsistence payment to people who have no other support, adding a potential $65,000 to the county’s overall costs.

Supervisor Kathy Long, chairwoman of a countywide group studying the homeless problem, said the county has an obligation to help run the Oxnard shelter this year.

“Last year, we got into a lot of finger-pointing,” Long said, referring to squabbles among the cities and the county over who should shelter the homeless. “Now we have a regional dialogue and I don’t want that to fall apart.”