With the opening of Ventura County Winter Warming Shelter in Oxnard, Community Action of Ventura County (CAVC) will be extending the hours of the daily transition center to provide additional access to services during day time hours, when the shelter is closed. The new hours began Thursday, Dec. 3 and the center will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Oxnard is expecting to see a rise in homeless individuals, as many will come from around the county seeking warm night time shelter during this forecasted harsh winter. CAVC is hoping that during the day their case managers and center staff may be able to provide access to services that may lead individuals out of homelessness.
“Services in our transition center range from basic needs, such as showers, bathrooms, and basic hygiene, to being an entry point back in to society by helping the homeless secure identification, social security documents, and basic healthcare,” said Ron Irwin, Director of Community Services. “During these extended hours we are also looking to work with our community partners to offer, expanded services.”
Irwin said CAVC is grateful for the community and business support CAVC has been receiving as we work together to address the issue of chronic homelessness.
Peter Brown, Community Services Manager City of Ventura stated “Now we need to put our collective heads together to work toward some sort of shuttling system/service to get folks from CAVC to the shelter on “K” Street each weekday evening after the 4:30pm closure of CAVC. This service is not budgeted as part of either the newly extended CAVC day service, or the winter warming shelter (so please don’t suggest our friends at Gold Coast Transportation). We need vans and volunteer drivers! Faith-based organizations? “
“Questions about the CAVC extended hours can be referred to Ron. Inquiries/ideas about shuttling can be referred to me at [email protected].”
