Another year, another homeless-shelter scramble
Ayear ago, lamenting what had become annual uncertainty over how and where a winter warming shelter for the homeless would be operated in west Ventura County, we editorialized, “We are not optimistic that we will not be writing the same thing at this time next year.”
Unfortunately, our pessimism proved prophetic.
For the third year in a row, county and city leaders are scrambling at the last minute to figure out how to protect the homeless from winter’s cold and rain.
The county Board of Supervisors took up the matter Tuesday.
With the shelter’s usual Dec. 1 opening a little more than a month away, county staff members are asking the board for direction.
We could criticize our leaders for letting this crucial need get to this point yet again, but that would not be fair. This is a complex problem with no easy fixes, and we suppose the best we can hope for is yet another temporary solution this winter, while officials continue next year to work on a permanent plan.
The winter shelters traditionally have been housed at National Guard armories in Oxnard and Ventura, but it’s not an ideal setup.
They’ve only operated from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. nightly, meaning the homeless have to go somewhere else during the day.
It’s expensive, transportation to and from the shelters can be a problem and social-service providers don’t get much chance to truly help the homeless.
The good news this year, according to a county staff report to supervisors, is the Ventura armory would be available from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.
And Ventura and Oxnard have each agreed to chip in $100,000 for the shelter. Ventura and Oxnard gave $60,000 and $84,000 last year, respectively.
The bad news is those extra two hours a day mean higher costs. And no church, nonprofit or other group has been secured yet, to run the shelter.
In a perfect world, Ventura County would have multiple permanent, year-round, 24-hour-a-day, full-service homeless shelters — or at least one. County officials thought they might have space for one at the juvenile justice complex in El Rio, but that didn’t work out legally or costwise.
Ventura is moving forward on allowing a permanent shelter in an industrial area of the city, agreeing in April to zoning changes that permit an overnight facility to also offer social services during the day, but it’s a slow slog. Gov. Jerry Brown last month signed a bill levying a fee on real estate transactions, and 50 percent of that revenue next year will go toward helping the homeless.
But that’s next year.
You can argue about whether shelters are the right approach to the homeless problem.
What you can’t argue about are the numbers — more than 700 people spent a combined 10,699 nights at last winter’s shelter in Oxnard. We hope our local leaders can again find a way to give them a helping hand.