Zoe Officials Pin Hopes on New Site in Oxnard’s Business District : Homeless: A letter of intent is signed for the shelter to lease a downtown building. Funds from the city are also sought.

Founders of the beleaguered Zoe Christian Center, which was all but shut down last month, are hoping to revive their program smack in the middle of Oxnard’s downtown business district.

This week, officials of the homeless shelter signed a letter of intent to lease a 12,500-square-foot stucco building on South A Street. They also have sent a letter to city officials seeking $100,000 earmarked for the poor.

“We think this is an ideal location,” said Zoe co-founder Jim Gilmer, standing in front of the proposed site at 325 South A St. “You’ve got the library, parks, transportation, easy bus service.”

But Zoe officials face formidable challenges in their effort to reopen Ventura County’s only year-round homeless shelter.

They must obtain a special permit from the city to open a shelter in the commercial district and find a way to pay the monthly rent. The letter of intent gives the shelter 30 days to do both.

Also, Zoe still owes $43,000 in unpaid water and trash bills for its former shelter site on Rose Avenue and it has renewed its long-running legal battle with the city.

Gilmer and Zoe’s other co-founder, Fred Judy, said they expect to qualify for additional grants if the city approves the new site.

Planning Director Matthew Winegar said he has not seen Zoe’s specific plans for the South A Street site, but he expressed concern that the building lacks an outside play area for children and adequate parking.

“I would have concerns about long-term shelter activity,” Winegar said. “It would seem more appropriate for single persons as opposed to families.”

Until last month, the city leased the South A Street building. The two departments that used the space have since merged with other city departments and the building is vacant.

The building, which has 10,000 square feet downstairs and 2,500 feet upstairs, is owned by a partnership. Bob Lunde, one of the partners, said the owners had planned to offer the space at cheap rent to nonprofit groups even before talking with Zoe. The rent Zoe would pay was not disclosed, but both sides said it was about half the market value.

Judy said he envisions the shelter as a “social service mini-mall” for the homeless, with residential space for families upstairs and offices for counseling and job training programs downstairs.

He said the building might house five to seven families at a time on a short-term basis, probably with a 30-day limit.

“We want to get people in and get people out,” he said.

Judy said he picked up the paperwork to apply for the special permit and plans to submit his application next week. It would then be reviewed by city planners and voted on by the Planning Commission.

Zoe’s Rose Avenue facility was shut down in late May when the city cut off its water, citing health hazards and zoning code violations. The city moved 68 shelter residents to permanent housing and posted signs declaring the building unlivable. Nevertheless, 20 people still live there, drinking bottled water and using portable toilets.

The move came after a decade during which the city gave more than $100,000 to Zoe while battling with the facility over bills and health and zoning regulations.

In a lawsuit, Zoe accused city officials of conspiring to close the shelter by preparing a false environmental report, and said the report caused them to lose more than $300,000 a year in grants. A Ventura County Superior Court judge dismissed the suit, but Zoe has refiled it.

Despite the continuing legal battle, Zoe operators see their plans for South A Street as a way to mend fences with the city and reopen the shelter.

“I’m hoping they’re just as anxious as we are to get rid of the problem on Rose so we can get out of their hair and get on with the job of helping the homeless,” Judy said.

Judy also said the city’s reaction to Zoe’s application for a zoning permit and for funds will reveal the city’s true attitude toward the shelter.

“We’ll find out if the city was just trying to get rid of us or if they really wanted to help,” he said.

To win the support of downtown merchants, Zoe’s founders plan to hold a meeting in the next few weeks to explain their plans to potential neighbors. They say their facility would bring foot traffic and new business to the area.

“We don’t want to take away from what’s already downtown,” Judy said. “We want to enhance it with our program.”

That might be a hard-sell.

“If it’s going to look the way it looked over there (on Rose Avenue), with old sofas on the outside of the street and rummage sales . . . I’d be totally against it,” said Debbie Henry-Bills, president of the Oxnard Downtowners, a merchants group.

Mina Cabrera, who owns a bridal shop two doors from the proposed site, said she was not totally against the idea.

But she added: “I just think people would be afraid to come downtown because of all the people it would attract.”