Cots but No Funds for Shelter : Oxnard: County officials say there is no money to open the armory every day for the homeless this winter.

Despite a new state order that opens National Guard armories to homeless people all winter long, Ventura County officials say they do not have enough money to operate Oxnard’s armory every day for three consecutive months.

Gov. Pete Wilson announced last month that homeless people could sleep at about 40 armories statewide every night this winter, foul weather or not.

The order, however, came with no extra money. So county social service officials plan to recommend to the Board of Supervisors today that the armory program not be expanded in the county.

“Certainly having the shelter open every night is the ideal situation, but we can’t identify where the money would come from,” said Nancy A. Steinhelper, chief of adult services for the Public Social Services Agency. “We don’t have a contingency fund.”

As in the past, the recommended county policy would allow the homeless to sleep at the Oxnard Armory only when temperatures are expected to drop to 40 degrees or when forecasts call for a 50% chance of rain combined with a low of 50 degrees.

“When I lay in bed at night and it’s 45 degrees, it feels pretty cold to me,” Steinhelper said. But to keep the armory open daily for three months would cost an extra $45,000 and nearly double the county’s current $47,500 armory budget, she said.

Supervisor John K. Flynn, whose district includes Oxnard, said he will press today to find the extra money somewhere in the county’s $400-million general fund budget.

“People who own animals certainly find shelter for them when it’s close to these temperatures,” Flynn said. “Now the governor has set a less rigid standard, and I’d like to try to meet it if we can.”

Area homeless activists said the county should juggle its budget to make the armory program a top priority.

The Rev. Jim Gilmer, director of the Zoe Christian Center in Oxnard, said the number of homeless families coming to his 200-bed shelter has at least doubled in a year because of jobs lost in a soured economy.

“It would seem to me that this would be a No. 1 priority,” he said. “More and more people are going to be on the streets this winter. We’re being overwhelmed right now. And we’re talking about kids too. It’s a scary situation. It’s a sickening situation. . . . It’s an emergency.”

The county’s current budget will keep the 100-bed Oxnard Armory at 351 S. K St. open for 70 nights this winter, 12 more than last year, Steinhelper said.

But it falls short of the 90-night minimum under the governor’s plan, which calls for armories to be open daily from mid-November through mid-February. After the Feb. 15 shutdown of the daily program, armories would still be required to provide shelter during bad weather for another six weeks.

That could mean that the Oxnard Armory probably would be open for more than 100 nights over the next four months, Steinhelper said. Higher costs--primarily for food, bedding and extra workers --would also be accrued because daily operation probably would mean that the shelter’s 100 beds would be filled each night, Steinhelper said.

The local program, administered by the county and the American Red Cross, has grown steadily since then-Gov. George Deukmejian sanctioned its model statewide in 1987.

Last year the armory was open for 56 nights and provided beds for an average of 62 people a night. The year before it was open for 51 nights, and about 57 people slept there nightly. The figures in 1988-89 were 38 nights with an average of 52 people getting beds.

The indigent receive food, a shower and a cot at the armory, Steinhelper said. They must be off the armory premises by 8 a.m., so National Guard activities will not be interrupted, she said.

Under the inclement-weather program, homeless people each morning can call a variety of toll-free numbers from throughout the county to learn whether the armory will be open that evening.

The armory programs are run with local, state and federal funds--and with private donations. Last winter, homeless people took shelter in about 40 of the California Guard’s 100 armories.