Domestic Violence Shelter coming to Ventura’s Family Justice Center
A new Domestic Violence Shelter will open at the Ventura County Family Justice Center, thanks to partnerships between the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, the Coalition for Family Harmony, the Ventura County Community Foundation, county supervisors and Congressman Salud Carbajal.
The Family Justice Center is located on county property at 3170 Loma Vista Road in Ventura, and the new 1,500-square-foot shelter will provide six bedrooms and four pallet shelters, making a total of 10 beds for the facility.
The shelter will celebrate its grand opening on April 6. Services will begin the following day, with stays expected to last between 15 and 20 days, according to Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko.
“I wasn’t sure this day would arrive, but it finally has,” Nasarenko said during the Ventura County Board of Supervisors meeting on Feb. 10. “This was formerly the home of physicians and doctors who used it for short-term housing during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The cost for rehabilitating the existing space was estimated at roughly $1.07 million and was funded through Economic Development Initiative grants secured by Carbajal.
Utilizing the existing space, the Domestic Violence Shelter will have six bedrooms to accommodate six adults and any children, along with the four pallet shelters and a detached restroom facility, which were funded by the Ventura County Community Foundation’s $440,000 grant.
“This will expand housing to those who have pets, who have special needs and accommodations,” Nasarenko said of the pallet shelters, adding that most of the furniture in the facility was acquired from the Ventura County Medical Center.
Support staff will be onsite 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and operations are expected to cost $601,109 for two years, which will be covered by the remaining Economic Development Initiative grant funds.
Staffing will include one onsite full-time housing manager, two onsite full-time client specialists, two onsite full-time support staff members, one marriage and family therapist, and other staff as needed.
An onsite private security guard will also be present Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
“You can imagine; they go to the Family Justice Center, they undergo services, they obtain a restraining order, but they need somewhere to be physically housed,” Nasarenko said. “They can now literally go across the parking lot into the pallet shelter homes and the former medical suites and find dignity, find some level of case management and, really, an environment that helps them heal, recover and get back on the journey of hope.”
Before this facility, there were only 24 dedicated domestic violence emergency shelter beds serving all of Ventura County, according to the District Attorney’s Office. And based on data provided by the Family Justice Center, there are roughly 7,000 allegations of domestic violence each year in Ventura County, and 3,200 allegations of child abuse or neglect. The Family Justice Center shared that 76% of children who grow up in homes with domestic violence end up becoming perpetrators of domestic violence as adults.
Acceptance into the shelter is based on immediate needs for safety and stability, which are evaluated by onsite staff.
“For 50 years, we have devoted our time, and our resources, to the safety of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault,” said Caroline Prijatel-Sutton, executive director of the Coalition for Family Harmony, which will operate the shelter. “And what started as one shelter in Ventura back in the ’80s has now become multiple forms of housing, including an indigenous shelter and transitional housing, to meet the ever-changing needs of survivors.”