PLAN SUBMITTED TO SAVE SHELTER.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

The transitional shelter Ventura County opened in the midst of El Nino's wrath is scheduled to close June 1, but a proposal calls for making the program permanent, saying it would fill a critical need.

The county-operated program at Camarillo State Hospital was originally a winter shelter for homeless people living in the Santa Clara and Ventura rivers. But families also have filled many beds, prompting officials to consider extending the program for them and others with a chance at turning their lives around.

``No one thought about it in the beginning because no one thought we would get the families we did,'' said Kathy Jenks, the county's Animal Regulation chief and coordinator of the shelter program.

``I knew we were in trouble when the first husband and wife came in the door with eight children,'' she noted. ``There was never a time from the first week that we weren't having to turn families away and putting them on waiting lists. They're still wanting in.''

Jenks will ask the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to continue the program through June and allow her to seek grants for a year-round transitional living program. Jenks also wants permission to prepare a budget for the 120-bed program that could cost $1 million or more.

The number of beds proposed for a permanent transitional shelter program would match what was offered nightly at the shelter the county operated inside the Oxnard Armory for a decade before moving it to four buildings at the former Camarillo State Hospital. The armory program primarily attracted homeless individuals who were allowed to stay in the barracks-type setting from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The new program has operated 24 hours, seven days a week. A total of 493 homeless individuals sought shelter in Phase One, which ended March 31, but were not allowed to remain for Phase Two, which ends June 1, Jenks said.

There were 105 adults attempting to make the transition into jobs and rental housing in Phase One and 21 remain with the end of Phase Two nearing. Many in this group came from encampments in the two rivers, Jenks said.

There were 200 men, women and children from families housed in the shelter in Phase One, and 31 remain.

Homeless advocates said the number of families seeking shelter was unprecedented when compared to their numbers in both the armory shelter and a one-time transitional shelter program operated by Ventura County and the cities of Ventura and Oxnard in the winter of 1995.

``We're hoping that something will come out of this that's more enduring,'' said Clyde Reynolds, a board member for the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition. ``Stability is very important, and support, the access to various kinds of services.''

Those families were known to be living in cars, motels or with families and friends. That they turned up at the new transitional shelter demonstrated that they need the type of coordinated mental health and substance abuse counseling, and job and housing services offered in one place that typically are spread across the county, Reynolds said.

``We found that this does really meet a gap in the system. People have more time to make a transition and return to the community,'' he said, noting that a transition can range from 30 days to two years.

A variety of nonprofit social service programs, Jenks said, offer a total of 43 transitional housing beds for either men or women across Ventura County.

If the supervisors give Jenks authority to seek grants and prepare a budget for a permanent program, she said it would initially operate from July 1 through June 30, 1999. That also assumes a site can be found.

The shelter must be moved even if the supervisors approve extending the current program through June. Jenks said the state needs to prepare the former state hospital for its transition to the California State University system as the expected future home of California State University, Channel Islands.

Jenks said the best temporary site would be the former county Fire Department headquarters on the grounds of Camarillo Airport, which the county operates.

The county, however, is out of the winter shelter business for homeless individuals not seeking a transition to more permanent housing.

``The (supervisors) made it very clear to the cities of Oxnard and Ventura that the county is not going to be operating a cold weather shelter for them any longer,'' Jenks said.

Reynolds said those cities are considering creating shelter programs similar to the rotating shelter program among churches in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Ojai.