Women From Rehab Center in Oxnard Fear Eviction

For the past 17 years, women of the Rainbow Recovery Center have made two old farmhouses in Oxnard’s College Park their home as they battled alcohol and drug addictions.

Now city officials are proposing to turn the structures into a farm heritage museum as part of a $12-million upgrade of the park.

Next month the city will unveil plans for the 75-acre property it recently took over from the county. Plans include new soccer and baseball fields, a dog park, jogging track and pool.

At the park’s north end, the Ventura County History and Art Museum hopes to convert the farmhouses now occupied by the recovery center into a museum celebrating the county’s agricultural history, with a collection of farm tools, machinery and photos. A children’s education center would also be included.

Plans do not include the Rainbow Recovery Center.

Tim Schiffer, executive director of the county museum, said evicting the center’s tenants was not his intention.

“We didn’t enter this with the idea of ‘let’s get rid of these Rainbow ladies and get rid of their house,’” said Schiffer, adding that the controversy “has been passed on to us.”

Now the “Rainbow ladies,” as they are known around town, are fearful of what might happen to them should the city move forward with its park plans. The City Council is set to vote on the matter June 18.

“The city needs us,” Nancy Williams, a counselor at the center, told the City Council last week. “We build human lives. You can’t replace that with machinery.”

Williams was among about 40 supporters who showed up at the council meeting to voice their concerns. The supporters received assurances from council members that they would explore alternative plans.

“My hope would be that neither development hurt the other,” Mayor Manuel Lopez said. But if a compromise cannot be reached, Lopez said he would suggest the museum find a different location.

One possible site is the old Oxnard High School near the city’s historic district, Lopez said.

“I would prefer to have the recovery center stay where it is because they have been there 17 years offering rehab,” Lopez said. “I think any time you cause them to move, there is a possibility the program could be disrupted.”

Keeping the center where it is also appeals to county Supervisor John Flynn, whose district includes Oxnard. “The Rainbow house serves a nice purpose,” Flynn said. “I think it should stay there. People are more important than anything else.”

Flynn has written letters to the council in support of the Rainbow center, but said that does not mean he wants to kill the museum idea. There are enough spaces elsewhere in the city to house the museum, he said.

“This should not be put into the context of the Rainbow center versus the museum,” he said. “That’s not productive to anyone.”

The recovery center appears to have time on its side. The city has yet to set a groundbreaking date and is still investigating ways to pay for the park improvements, including tapping into a $2.6-billion statewide bond measure approved by voters in March.

But the Rainbow center women won’t be at ease until they are included in the city’s official plan, center Executive Director Kathleen McQuillan said.

The center’s two farmhouses--which date from the early 1900s--sit at Channel Islands and Rose boulevards on the city’s south side. A huge red and white banner that hangs from the larger house reads: “Save Rainbow, Save Lives.”

The Rainbow center provides treatment--from 30 days to six months--for women who are alcohol- or drug-addicted. Services are offered on a sliding scale pay rate, though many of the women who approach the center are penniless, McQuillan said. No one is turned away, and funding comes from the county, United Way and private donations.

“We serve the population that no one wants to serve. It’s not just a house,” said Pat Williams, Rainbow’s program director. Finding another location for the center would be difficult because of the stigma against people with drug addictions, she said.

Twelve women now live in the larger house, which has more intensive counseling, while six reside in the smaller house, where they are expected to live sober and free of drugs on their own.

The women have filled the houses with tables covered in lacy cloths, pin-neat carpets and country throws draped over couches. The bedrooms have twin beds.

Next to each bed are photos of the women’s children. Since many of the women no longer have custody, the goal is to clean up and get the children back, McQuillan said. The center’s success rate of those who remain free of drugs and alcohol is about 65%, she said.

Tenant Sabrina Anne Garcia, 18, said she has lived at the center for more than a month. She said she had been homeless and had nowhere else to go.

“This is my home,” Garcia said. “It’s all I have.”