Owes $20,000 : Homeless Shelter, Behind in Rent, Battles for Home

The only homeless shelter in Ventura County faces eviction unless it can scrape together $1,000 a day to bring $20,000 in back-rents current, both landlord and tenant said this week.

“It’s a really bad situation, and it keeps us from doing the job we’re supposed to do, which is giving shelter to homeless people,” said the Rev. Fred Judy, chairman and founder of Oxnard’s Zoe Christian Center.

Donations from individuals and churches have enabled the shelter to stave off eviction, Judy said. But a spokeswoman for the property owner said she would start eviction proceedings unless “a substantial amount, at least $1,000,” continues to be received daily.

“We’re running a business and . . . they were getting far behind,” said Marci Wear, district manager for the Santa Barbara-based MacElhenny Group, which owns the property.

Still, Judy expressed optimism. “I think we’re going to see a miracle take place,” he said. “I think we’re going to see something that really sets a standard.” On Monday, for instance, Judy said the Zoe Center received contributions of $1,300. On Tuesday, it received $1,500. The center’s monthly rent is $4,400.

If the fund-raising effort falters, the center will not shut down immediately. Under the law, eviction takes at least four weeks.

The nonprofit, nondenominational Zoe Center feeds, clothes and boards 180 people in Oxnard, runs a shelter program for an additional 180 people at Hamilton Hotel and Mission Hotel in downtown Ventura and is renovating a women’s shelter on Hayes Street in Oxnard that will accommodate 30 women and children. Its $45,000 monthly budget is cobbled together from federal, state and local grants and contributions from religious organizations and individuals.

Permit to Expire

But the Zoe Center must find a new home by April, 1989, when a special-use permit issued by the city of Oxnard runs out. It now occupies a Rose Street site zoned for industry and manufacturing and sits next to a fertilizer plant where hazardous chemicals are stored. In recent years, Zoe leaders have often been at odds with Oxnard’s government, which they accuse of thwarting their plans through restrictive zoning.

Zoe leaders also blame their fiscal woes on Oxnard. They claim that the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development rescinded a $22,000 grant earmarked for back rent after Oxnard submitted a “biased and exaggerated report” about the shelter’s proximity to dangerous chemicals. The $22,000 was eventually applied toward mortgage payments at the Hayes Street shelter, but Zoe officials fear that the city’s report may jeopardize another $190,000 in federal funds.

Oxnard officials deny harassing the center and say they are only enforcing the law. In June, Oxnard’s assistant fire chief urged in a report that the Zoe Center be relocated because it sat within a half-mile of numerous industrial health hazards, such as poisonous chemicals. The city also is concerned that it might be held liable in case of explosions or accidents involving those materials.

Former Labor Camp

In 1986-87, the Ventura County grand jury also recommended against allowing the Zoe Center to remain on Rose Street permanently. For almost five years, the shelter has stood on a three-acre site that formerly housed an agricultural labor camp.

Zoe leaders concede that there are potential hazards but maintain that Oxnard officials exaggerated the dangers.

“They painted a picture for HUD as if we’re surrounded by all these chemicals that might explode any day and it’s just not like that,” Judy said.

Judy said that workers at a nearby farm labor camp and several factories might also be in danger and added that the Zoe Center is being singled out for discrimination.

Plan in Preparation

Zoe leaders said they have enlisted some Oxnard community leaders to draw up their own study addressing the chemical dangers and that they will present the results to the Oxnard City Council in about a month.

Meanwhile, the search for a permanent shelter site limps on.

“We’ve looked all over the place for years and we just haven’t come up with an answer that we can afford,” Judy said.

He predicts that Ventura County’s homeless population of 4,500 will swell by the end of the year.

“We already have to turn people away, we sure do. We are filling up at our facilities in the summer months, which means in the winter months it’ll be twice as bad.”