Homeless May Be Out In the Cold

VENTURA —  At dusk, Francene Schwarz rolls out a sleeping bag on the gritty concrete floor of a public restroom near the beach and settles in for the night.

When the security guard comes in to check the restroom and bolt the door, she stands on a stall toilet to hide. Until dawn, when the guard comes back to open the restroom, Schwarz is a prisoner.

“It feels like being in jail, locked up for so many hours,” said Schwarz, 52, a onetime commercial fisherman whose drinking problems forced her into the streets. “But it’s better than being out in the cold.”

Schwarz may have her refuge, but lots of other homeless people could be out in the cold this winter because there may be no shelter for them in Ventura.

The City Council decided recently not to provide funding to organizations that serve homeless people and those recovering from substance abuse.

*

One of those organizations is Project Understanding, a 21-year-old agency that hoped to receive a $10,000 grant to open an emergency shelter next month. While Project Understanding also receives $25,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the city funds were crucial because the federal money won’t be available until after the first of the year, said Executive Director Rick Pearson.

“The city action was very distressing,” Pearson said. “As it stands right now the shelter is on hold. There may be one, but when it will happen and where, I can’t tell you.”

Homeless people are angry with the city. “I fought for this country, and this is how they treat us,” said Jake Lopez, 49, a Vietnam veteran who was born and raised in Ventura.

He said he will not move if there is no winter shelter in Ventura.

“I’ll find the nearest bridge if it rains, or a tree to sleep under,” said Lopez, who is an alcoholic and does not work. “They can’t run me out, this is my home.”

*

But Mayor Jim Friedman said the city has already done its share. Over the past decade, Ventura has allocated about $1 million for year-round shelters. Now, the city wants the county to start shouldering the cost, in part, Friedman said, because county policies brought the homeless to Ventura in the first place.

“Clearly, the city of Ventura carries a disproportionate number of homeless people,” Friedman said. “We feel that this is unfair. Homelessness is a countywide problem.”

Of 3,240 housing vouchers given by the county to the homeless mentally ill last year, 2,288 of them, or 71%, were issued for motels in Ventura. Each voucher is good for a night’s stay in a motel. The vouchers are given to clients who complete rehabilitation programs at county-run agencies or Catholic Charities in cities throughout Ventura County.

A total of 203 homeless people used the vouchers in Ventura. By contrast, 72 people stayed in Oxnard motels for 702 nights with county-issued vouchers; 10 people stayed in Ojai motels for 138 nights; five people stayed in Santa Paula motels for 72 nights; and one person stayed in Thousand Oaks for eight nights.

*

Jerry Blesener, the county’s director of adult services, said the county does not intentionally ship homeless people to Ventura.

Before the vouchers are given out, county workers determine the city the clients consider to be home. They are placed in that community, he said.

“No effort is made to move anyone from Thousand Oaks to Ventura, for example,” Blesener said. “We place the people in the community where they are from.”

But Friedman said many homeless people now feel Ventura is their home because they’ve repeatedly been bused to city motels from county programs elsewhere.

Making the problem worse for the homeless was the county’s decision last year to shut down the emergency cold weather shelter at the former Camarillo State Hospital, now a Cal State University campus.

Each afternoon, a bus carted people from Ventura to the facility, then returned them in the morning. Blesener said the county decided to put its resources toward serving families and others nearing self-sufficiency, rather than the hard-core homeless and drug-addicted.

Friedman said any transient who doesn’t want to spend cold nights on the streets of Ventura “needs to go to the county and express their concerns.”

“Yes, the county gave fair warning that they were walking away from the responsibility,” Friedman continued. “But who suffers from that decision?”

The county began urging cities to start opening their own shelters some time ago, Blesener said.

Except for Ventura, all other major cities in Ventura County--including Oxnard, Ojai, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks--have contributed some funding for an emergency shelter in their cities this winter.

Still, Friedman believes the city is not skirting its responsibility.

*

“We have our motels that keep people warm,” Friedman said. “Why would it be said that we’re not stepping up to the plate?”

But Blesener, said motel rooms are no substitute for shelters. Emergency shelters typically serve single men, many with drug and alcohol problems, often accompanied by mental illness. The vouchers program is available only to people who have taken steps to improve their lives.

“I don’t want to aggravate the situation and get into a feud with the city,” Blesener said. Homeless people are “a population that needs service, and we’re all genuinely concerned.”

While city and county officials grapple over who should provide for them, homeless people in Ventura say they are caught in the cross-fire.

*

“Homeless people don’t cut the mustard in this town,” said Timothy John, 46, who has been homeless since the state of Washington took possession of his trailer four years ago after he missed child support payments. He sleeps in parks and bushes around Ventura.

“Ventura is trying to turn into Santa Barbara. They’re trying to make it upper class, so the city of Ventura wants us all out,” he said. “It ain’t going to happen, man. I like it here and I’m going to stay.”

Some say they need to stay in Ventura because they are using its social services, such as Turning Point’s rehabilitation center on East Main Street, which provides therapy and job training.

“I got a nice down jacket for $5 at a garage sale,” said Linda Breton, 36, a recovering drug addict and Turning point client who is now on the streets. “But that won’t keep my legs warm.”

For many years, homeless people in Ventura didn’t have to worry about spending wintry nights outdoors.

Beginning in 1987, when Gov. George Deukmejian ordered the California National Guard to open armories across the state to provide overnight shelter, the Ventura County chapter of the American Red Cross ran a shelter at the armory in Oxnard.

Three years ago, Project Understanding took over the day-to-day operations, but the county administered the effort. Last year, when Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a request for $1 million that would have kept the 10-year-old armory program alive for another year, the county moved the shelter to the Cal State campus in Camarillo.

Anticipating the heavy El Nino-fueled storms last winter, the county established the River-dwellers Aid Intercity Network (RAIN). The temporary program helped relocate those who camped in the Ventura and Santa Clara rivers to a shelter in Camarillo.

*

From Dec. 1 to March 31, the four months the shelter was open, 441 people stayed there.

With enough room at the Cal State campus to open a wing for families, the county opened a transitional living shelter for that homeless population last winter, and has kept it open. Officials are now searching for funding and a permanent location for that program.

Some people question Ventura’s motives. “What is the message Ventura is really trying to send?” asked Kathy Jenks, the county official who oversaw the RAIN program.

In mid-September, the homeless and officials with organizations serving them watched as the Ventura City Council allocated $210,000 to 20 nonprofit agencies for AIDS care, adult literacy, child abuse and senior nutrition programs--but nothing for the homeless.

*

Responding to questions, Friedman pointed out that the city had set aside $40,000 for a countywide shelter. The money would be spent on construction only if other cities and the county contributed their shares.

“People are portraying that we’re totally turning our backs against the homeless, and that’s simply not the case,” Friedman had said.

Donna De Paola was the only council member who dissented in the vote.

“Here we are trying to clean up downtown, and we’re not dealing with the homeless and mentally ill issues,” she told her colleagues. “It’s like if we don’t deal with it, it will go away. That’s just not going to happen.”