Weakening Donations Threaten Aid Groups : Thousand Oaks: If $585,000 is not raised to pay off the mortgage at the Human Services Center, 18 nonprofit help agencies face paying rent.

Sagging donations are threatening the viability of up to 18 Thousand Oaks nonprofit groups that offer public assistance ranging from legal advice for impoverished residents to therapy sessions for troubled youth.

For almost five years, the social service agencies have provided housing, employment and counseling programs from rent-free offices at the Human Services Center, a modern sandstone building at 80 E. Hillcrest Drive.

But unless it can raise $585,000 to pay off the mortgage within the next 18 months, the nonprofit group Community Conscience, which runs the Human Services Center, may have to start charging rent.

And that could crush some social service groups.

“If we had to pay rent, we would be out of business, absolutely,” said Ruthanne Begun, executive director of Conejo Youth Employment Service, which places about 3,000 teen-agers and young adults in jobs each year.

Surrounded by posters advising job-seekers on proper interview protocol, Begun added: “I’m always bragging about how wonderful this building is and how lucky we are to have it. If it weren’t for this building, we wouldn’t be around at all.”

Begun estimated that the Human Services Center’s no-rent policy saves her group almost $16,000 a year. Like the other nonprofit groups, Youth Employment Service pays only its utility bills, and enjoys free use of the conference room.

Because they can devote their entire budgets to providing services, rather than lining a landlords’ pockets, most groups are able to expand programs and reach more clients. All told, the various nonprofit groups housed in the Human Services Center took care of 30,000 Thousand Oaks residents last year.

“This has been a real break for us,” said Grethe Rivera, executive director of Hospice of the Conejo, as she showed off her suite, with its boxes of toys for visiting children and educational videos for relatives of the sick.

To safeguard the agencies’ rent-free status, Community Conscience has embarked on a three-year, fund-raising campaign to pay off the mortgage on the Human Services Center.

But almost halfway through the “Prevent Rent” drive, the group has raised only about a quarter of its $800,000 goal, said campaign director Jennifer Anderson. Still, although potential donors have been hit hard by the economic slump, Anderson remains confident that Community Conscience will reach its target.

“We know we’ll do it,” she said, standing in the lobby next to bronze plaques honoring key donors. “We’re not going to give up. A lot of people see this building up and assume (the fund raising is) completed, but we’re not finished yet.”

Ironically, Community Conscience staff members must compete for dollars with the very groups their Human Services Center supports.

But Community Conscience plans to boost the visibility of its “Prevent Rent” drive by inserting solicitations in residents’ August water bills.

“We don’t want people to feel that you have to be a millionaire to donate,” said Marion Schillo, the fund-raising campaign’s coordinator. “Every dollar helps. And we want people (as well as corporations) to give so this center truly becomes part of the community.”