Ventura to Weigh 4-Month Extension of Homeless Aid : Services: Program is currently scheduled to end Friday. City may seek federal funds for low-cost housing and help organize a regional network.

With displaced Ventura River bottom squatters a long way from self-sufficiency and emergency services for them set to run out in a few days, the Ventura City Council tonight will consider extending its homeless assistance program until July 31.

Ventura officials are recommending that the city’s emergency relocation program stay open beyond the closing date originally set for Friday. Since January, the program has served 286 homeless people, including 110 river bottom residents displaced by winter floodwaters.

The extension, which would require $57,500 from the city of Ventura, would allow the city to pursue federal funding for low-cost housing and enlist other cities to create a regional network that would provide services to homeless people, city officials say.

Ventura’s housing committee has invited the county Board of Supervisors and officials from the county’s 10 cities to attend an April 19 meeting on a proposed regional homeless center.

“We want to present the model that we think other cities in the county could participate in,” said Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures. “Looking at this as a pilot model, we have some good statistics telling us this has been a good outreach to those in need.”

The center, run in conjunction with Ventura County and several nonprofit agencies, currently provides the homeless with shelter, job placement, and social and medical services.

In addition to the money from Ventura, the county would spend about $76,000, the Job Training Policy Council would contribute $27,500 and Project Understanding would chip in $5,000 to run the center another four months.

Ventura Mayor Tom Buford said housing and services for the city’s homeless will be a long-term process.

“I don’t think the homeless situation is going to go away rapidly,” Buford said. “I don’t think we’re going to see people immediately off our streets.”

As of last Monday, only 24 of the homeless people who frequented the center had gotten jobs, according to a city report. Ventura has already allocated $79,500 to run the center.

City officials are negotiating with Camarillo State Hospital to expand its living quarters from 30 to 40 beds and allow homeless people to stay there for a maximum of 90 days. Many of the former squatters are living there while they look for better shelter.

Ventura also plans to apply for funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to house more homeless people. The city has already received 50 HUD housing vouchers, which could be used to house about 60 people.

“I feel very positive that we will be selected, because we can back our numbers up with people that are currently being helped,” Measures said.

City officials are also considering moving a homeless assistance center on Ventura Avenue to a smaller site in west Ventura. Ventura Avenue business leaders are concerned that their area is shouldering the burden of the city’s homeless problem when they are trying to renovate the area, Buford said.

Councilman Steve Bennett said the emphasis of the homeless program may need to change, so that a program intended as temporary does not become permanent.

“What’s going to happen during the extension that is going to prevent us from extending this again in another four months?” Bennett said. “That’s the question we will all be asking.”