Ventura Council OKs Year-Round Homeless Shelter

The Ventura City Council has approved a proposal for what will be the city’s only permanent, year-round shelter for the homeless--but it could still be years before the shelter becomes a reality.

“Obviously, we are very pleased and are looking forward to moving ahead with the project,” said Richard Pearson, executive director of Project Understanding, the faith-based nonprofit organization that proposed the shelter.

Councilmen Neal Andrews, Sandy E. Smith, James J. Friedman, James L. Monahan and Carl E. Morehouse and Mayor Ray DiGuilio voted in favor of the proposal; Deputy Mayor Brian Brennan was absent.

The city has twice rejected earlier versions of the proposal, which has been in the works for three years. The council approval now paves the way for the county to consider the plan. If the county approves it as well, the proposal and grant request will be submitted to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for consideration.

“There has been some pain getting to this point, but I think we have a much better product,” DiGuilio said. “Now we are ready to start.”

At Monday’s meeting, about 40 people stood in support of the shelter, drawing applause from the council. Representatives from other social service agencies, including Catholic Charities, spoke in support of the homeless center.

Plans for the shelter include emergency and transitional housing and other services for the homeless, including help in finding permanent housing. Pearson estimates there are 2,000 to 4,000 homeless men, women and children in the county.

The only concerns raised by the council were over deadlines. The city is requiring that a site for the shelter be acquired within a year. Forty-five days after that, Project Understanding must submit a funding plan for operation of the center and show that it has made agreements with other social service providers.

But those requirements shouldn’t pose any problems, Pearson said.

“To a large degree, those things are site-contingent,” he said. “We’ve been in conversations with [service providers] for years. Before they make an agreement, they want to know where the shelter is going to be.”

He also pointed out that many grants require that a site be identified before a funding request is made. The HUD grant is one of the few that don’t, he said.

Peter Brown, Ventura’s community services manager, will head the city’s site search committee, which will be formed after May 15. City staff then will put together a team of community members to generate criteria for the site and discuss possible locations. The city staff will serve as facilitators, Brown said.

“We want this to be a 100% community-driven process,” he said.

Pearson and city officials said they hope the process will take less than a year.