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."
