Some Winter Shelters Postpone Opening

Preempted by National Guard troops leaving for Afghanistan, Ventura County’s largest cold-weather shelter failed to open on schedule Thursday, for the first time in nearly two decades of operation.

National Guard armories in Oxnard and Ventura take turns operating the shelter, which traditionally stays open from Dec. 1 to the end of March. Although it is Oxnard’s turn this year, National Guard officials said they need the space this week as a staging area for as many as 150 troops.

The shelter, which provides 120 beds for homeless people in western Ventura County, now will not open until Dec. 9, even though overnight temperatures in some areas have dipped into the 30s and the forecast calls for rain.

Oxnard Homeless Assistance Coordinator Carlos Jimenez said he only recently learned that troops would be using the armory. He had hoped to open the shelter before the rain arrived.

“It certainly is a problem for people living outside,” said Karol Schulkin, head of the county’s homeless services programs. “It has become something people count on and look forward to.”

In Los Angeles County, three winter shelters, in South Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Clarita, delayed opening. In the Santa Clarita Valley, officials were rushing to prepare a county-owned flood control maintenance yard to house homeless people after Castaic residents objected to locating a shelter in the parking lot of the Pitchess Detention Center.

Los Angeles County’s $3.3-million publicly funded program operates 18 shelters and aims to provide beds and meals for about 1,800 homeless people through mid-March, said David Martel, program coordinator for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county agency. The shelters operate from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily and provide not just meals and beds but medical care, mental-health and substance-abuse counseling and assistance in finding jobs and housing. Most of the shelters pick up homeless people at designated sites each evening and drive them back to the locations in the morning.

In Compton, first-time winter shelter operator Another Chance Outreach Ministries still was finalizing paperwork and hiring attendants but expected to open its 60-bed facility Thursday night.

“We keep seeing the needs for homeless people,” said Lem Wafer, the organization’s vice president. “Compton officials documented more than 2,500 homeless in the city. We’ve got a Katrina right here.”

The five Los Angeles County winter shelters housed in armories -- in Culver City, West Los Angeles, Sylmar, Glendale and Pomona -- were due to open as scheduled Thursday.

In 1987, Gov. George Deukmejian ordered the California National Guard to open armories across the state for overnight shelter. Initially, the state would allow armories to open only when temperatures dropped below 40 degrees, or 50 degrees with a 50% chance of rain. By the mid-1990s, the armories were open every night from December through March.

In Ventura County, the armory program is the oldest of four emergency shelters. The Oxnard armory operated the shelter every year until three years ago, when Oxnard and Ventura began alternating years. The four-month program costs about $230,000 and is run by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Ventura, Oxnard and Ventura County pay the lion’s share, while Port Hueneme and Camarillo contribute smaller amounts.

Nearly 300 people used the shelter last year, and the facility was at capacity many nights, as near-record-setting rainfall hammered the area last winter.

Another Ventura County shelter already is open.

The nonprofit Samaritan Center in Simi Valley kicked off its seasonal shelter Nov. 1, with a network of churches taking turns each day to open their doors to as many as two dozen homeless people. Similar faith-based networks in Thousand Oaks and Ojai were set to open to the homeless Thursday evening.

J.R. Jones, executive director of Lutheran Social Services in Thousand Oaks, said nearly 40 churches and synagogues join each winter to operate the city’s rotating shelter, which serves more than two dozen homeless people each night.

Times staff writer Carla Rivera contributed to this report.