Every night last week, nearly a dozen people, mostly men, could be seen huddled in sleeping bags or under heavy blankets on the dirt next to a Ventura parking garage by the ocean.
The makeshift camps are unsanitary and illegal but not unusual. On any given night, more than 600 people are homeless in Ventura, according to a recent count.
Kenny Sawada was not among them. The 70-year-old disabled Army veteran slept in his own bed — in clean sheets, near his private bathroom — inside El Patio Hotel on Palm Street.
His disabled-accessible apartment is among 41 affordable studio apartments at the 1921 hotel that have been renovated or are under construction by the affordable housing nonprofit Peoples’ Self-Help Housing. The top-to-bottom makeover is scheduled to be completed in December, and interviews are underway to fill the remaining rooms, of which 16 are reserved for people with mental disabilities.
Sitting on his bed with a cane between his knees, Sawata said his subsidized apartment is the biggest reason he’s healthy and not living among the others in the dirt. With his income limited to Social Security, he can’t afford a market-rate apartment. “I would be homeless, for sure,” he said, “and desperate.”
Serving people in need requires a variety of services, because each person’s situation is different and can be compounded by addictions and mental illness, but getting people into stable housing is critical, said Cathy Brudnicki, executive director of the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition.
Vulnerable and at-risk homeless families often are more responsive to interventions and social services after securing housing, rather than while living in temporary or transitional quarters.
With permanent housing, such families can begin to regain the self-confidence and control that they lost when they became homeless, said Peter Brown, Ventura’s social services manager.
A 10-year Strategy to End Homelessness adopted countywide in 2007 called for the creation of at least 300 permanently affordable units, particularly units suitable for individuals, by 2012.
To date, 178 units have opened countywide and 215 more are in the pipeline, according to a May status report by the Community Commission for Ventura County.
“The reality is that this is only a start. Much more is needed,” said Bill Finley, a captain with the local Salvation Army.
Finley said facilities like El Patio Hotel are essential in order to provide safe and affordable permanent housing for people who earn little money, are disabled or chronically homeless, but it’s just one part of the needed care. Ventura still lacks a permanent emergency shelter and sobering center that homeless experts say could best temporarily house those sleeping in the Ventura River bottom or on the streets near the Promenade at the beach before moving on to permanent housing.
Since purchasing the hotel last year, Peoples’ has brought in supportive programs for the existing tenants. Social workers visit them regularly, and FOOD Share of Ventura County is now helping to distribute food to the low-income residents.
Based in San Luis Obispo, the nonprofit group develops apartments for low-income households and helps people build their own homes. The agency has provided more than 2,000 units of affordable housing in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties during its 40-year history, Executive Director Jeanette Duncan said.
The renovations, largely paid for with city, state and federal affordable housing dollars, will preserve the hotel’s original glass and brass hardware, vintage skylight, and hallway door glass transoms. New additions include a community kitchen and wheelchair lift as well as improved parking, landscaping, fire sprinklers, plumbing, heating and electrical systems.
Interesting article about Ventura hotel renovation for the homeless.
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