Workshops seek to reduce homelessness

Representatives from the Conejo Affordable Housing Workgroup are asking those interested in fighting homelessness in the area to attend a series of meetings to discuss strategies.

Subcommittee meetings will be held at Thousand Oaks City Hall at 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. in the Acorn Room and will take place the first Wednesday of every month. The Transitional Housing/Shelter Beds Subcommittee will meet from 4 to 5 p.m., followed by the Homeless Prevention Subcommittee from 5 to 6 p.m.

Cathy Brudnicki, executive director of the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition, is a cochair of the Homeless Prevention Subcommittee.

"Our committee is going to be looking at some of the approaches we can take to be proactive," Brudnicki said. "It is far more cost effective if you can keep someone from losing housing as opposed to getting them back in after they've been evicted."

Brudnicki said the group will be setting up a homeless prevention program in the Conejo Valley and will look to inform more people about where to find help.

"One thing that happens that we are seeing a lot of right now is if you are a person who has never really needed assistance and maybe recently lost a job or something, people don't really know where to go," Brudnicki said.

"We want to help people know where they can get help."

For details about the 10Year Strategy to End Homelessness or the Conejo Affordable Housing Workgroup, call Alex Russell, senior project manager for Many Mansions, at (805) 496-4948, ext. 220, or send him an e-mail at alex @manymansions.org.

- Joann Groff