There is a local effort sponsored by the Santa Ministerial Association, a cooperative group of representatives from the faith community in Santa Paula, to provide education on the realities of homelessness and what can be done together to end it.The forum is scheduled for Wednesday, February 27, from noon to 2 pm at El Buen Pastor Methodist Church at 1029 E. Santa Paula Street. Anyone is welcome to attend and enjoy a free soup and bread lunch.Featured speaker will be Cathy Brudnicki, Executive Director of the Ventura County Commission to End Homelessness, which just completed their study and the ten-year plan. Supervisor Long is the chair of this commission and a representative from her office will also be in attendance.Please RSVP to 805.525.7268.
Homelessness Summit presented in Santa Paula
February 22, 2008
Santa Paula News
There is a grain of truth to the statement that some people would rather live in the riverbed than in their own home.
There is a grain of truth to the statement that some people would rather live in the riverbed than in their own home. There is no truth to that statement if the homeless are a family with children who want to go to school, or the husband can’t find work and the woman just got laid off her job again.The greater truth is that in Santa Paula, we have approximately 100 known homeless people. There are probably a total of 400 people.With the economy the way it is and the housing market what we know it to be, homelessness is on the rise, and no one is happy about that.There are daily efforts by some who give money for coffee to those who sleep in stealth places; gasoline for those who live in cars and simple compassion to those who can find a bed and a meal at some local safe place. SB 2 now requires cities to designate a shelter somewhere. Almost every city has done that.There are 1,961 people on any given day without a place to live in Ventura County; 282 of them are children. Many of them are in our schools. Most of them are white; most of them are men. There are 141 families.People at risk of becoming homeless are not included in these numbers. My guess is that with the foreclosure rate rising, this number looms larger every day.
