Homeless Numbers Show Little Change

Friday, August 1, 2008
Kathleen Wilson
VenturaCounyStar.com

Despite new federal figures showing chronic homelessness down by 30 percent nationwide over the past two years, Ventura County has not shared in that success, officials said Wednesday.

"I don't perceive in our county a big change one way or the other," said Rick Pearson, executive director of Project Understanding, a Ventura agency aiding the homeless and poor.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported this week that the number of chronically homeless people had fallen from nearly 176,000 in 2005 to fewer than 124,000 last year, based on counts in more than 3,800 counties and cities.

In California, the number had fallen from almost 65,000 to a little under 44,000, the federal housing agency reported.

Reports for all areas of Ventura County except Oxnard showed 301 chronically homeless people last year, down slightly from the 330 reported in each of the previous two years. Oxnard reported 100 in 2005 and 154 in 2006, but there was no separate breakout for last year, according to HUD's Web site.

Both Pearson and county homeless coordinator Karol Schulkin said it will take more time to assess results because last year marked the first time the county had conducted a comprehensive count. Volunteers went out on the streets and to shelters and transitional living programs to find every homeless person at a point in time.

That count yielded 1,961 people, with a follow-up survey of 273, showing that 43 percent were chronically homeless.

Around the nation, major cities have the resources to both make comprehensive counts and institute programs, social service officials said.

San Francisco and other cities have moved to end chronic homelessness, partly by making low-rent rooms available to street residents.

HUD has focused funding on the chronically homeless. They are defined as disabled people who have been homeless for more than a year or who have had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years. Many cycle into emergency rooms and jails, then back to the streets, raising public costs and, according to critics, deterring business.

"By focusing in on helping those people transition into a self-sufficiency program of some kind, it will free up, dollar for dollar, more money for other homeless people," said Larry Bush, a spokesman for HUD.

Since 2000, hundreds of communities have adopted plans to end homelessness. Ventura County adopted a 10-year plan last year. That plan focuses on all homeless people, including the chronically homeless.

"I'm not saying we're not doing as good a job," said Cathy Brudnicki, chief of the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition. "We just started later."

Pearson said big cities may have faced more pressure to reduce chronic homelessness with complaints that the visible homeless were deterring tourism and business profits.

"That's what drove it in San Francisco to a large extent," he said.

Still, he said, the county's 10-year plan is promising.

"Certainly people are getting involved in homelessness who were not involved," he said.

Brudnicki said cities have to build more housing as well as figure out ways to prevent homelessness to solve the problem. Public officials believe the situation has only worsened over the past year, with the rise in foreclosures putting some renters out of their rooms and onto the streets.

Housing affordability will continue to be a major issue as the county tries to solve chronic homelessness, said Will Reed, who coordinates homeless programs in Oxnard.

"The coast of California is one of the most expensive places to live," he said.

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