8 Evacuated at Group Home for the Mentally Ill

VENTURA — Eight residents have been evacuated from a group home for the mentally ill after living for months in a structure city fire officials say was on the verge of collapse, a problem critics say illustrates the ongoing shortage of adequate housing for the county’s mentally ill.

State officials admitted Friday they knew about the hazardous conditions at Ventura Garden Manor a year ago, but said they failed to report them because they thought the city was monitoring the facility.

Now, the group home on Santa Clara Avenue is threatened with permanent closure, worsening the housing problems for the mentally ill.

“To me, that shows you how bad the situation is for the mentally ill,” Supervisor Frank Schillo said. “There’s no place for them to go, let’s face it.”

The Ventura Garden Manor consists of five residential facilities housing up to 61 clients on less than an acre in downtown Ventura.

The problems at the facility began with good intentions.

Because the dining hall was unheated and overcrowded, Dom Nicolas, the chief executive officer of Ventura Garden Manor Corp., decided to dig out a dirt basement in one building to make room for a new dining hall.

“We initially thought of providing better care for the clients by giving them a better dining and activity area,” he said. “We thought since we weren’t changing the structure it would be OK.”

Four day laborers from Glendale and three diagnosed schizophrenics who lived on the site were hired to do the work, he said. By the time they had shoveled out 75% of the home’s foundation, one of the walls inside the house began collapsing.

That was when Cliff Shinault, an inspector for the state Department of Social Services, visited the facility and issued a scathing report describing the building as “a dangerous work site.”

The April 2, 1999, report noted that a client “had to move the bed in his room because an area of one of the walls is collapsing. . . A large area of the interior wall of the room has busted open and is in need of repair right away.”

Shinault ordered the group home to stop work and obtain a building permit. He also blasted Ventura Garden Manor’s management for using clients as laborers. They were working “in the dark, late into the night without safety equipment and without supervision,” Shinault reported.

*

Shinault contended clients were “being taken advantage of as they are being allowed to do much of the work for an activity room for $5 for three hours of heavy digging.”

Nicolas, the facility’s CEO, said Friday the clients had volunteered to work. He paid them so little because the job served a therapeutic purpose, he said.

“It’s an incentive for them to be physically and mentally active,” he said.

Nicolas said he halted work and filed for a permit when he received Shinault’s order. The process continued for months. Meanwhile, the damaged building continued to be occupied.

Finally, in February, Ventura contractor Mike Ortado of M.H. Construction was asked to bid on finishing the job. Ortado inspected the damaged structure and immediately reported it to the city.

Fire Chief Dennis Downs ordered the building evacuated two weeks ago.

“The foundation footings along the eastern wall had collapsed,” Deputy Fire Marshal Brian Clark said. “There was nothing holding that side except some plywood.”

A second building was also evacuated for alleged fire safety violations, including nonworking sprinkler heads, leaky roofs, carbon monoxide gas seeping through heating vents and blocked fire exits, officials said.

The owner has until next Friday to submit plans to repair the property or face closure, officials said. And since the Fire Department has revoked safety clearance on the site, the state operating license for Ventura Garden Manor has been suspended indefinitely.

*

Ironically, just weeks before the city would evacuate the buildings, the state inspector recommended a new license for the facility.

While some outsiders fault the state for not reporting the hazardous conditions at the group home, Blanca Barna, spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services, said Shinault had no reason to believe the city was not inspecting the property.

Shinault and his supervisor, Myron Taylor, “didn’t even know to report it,” Barna said. “Their understanding was that the licensee was getting the proper building inspection and fire inspection. We certainly don’t want any lives to be in danger.”

Barna said state inspectors sometimes notify city officials of hazardous conditions. In this case, however, Shinault “placed the burden of responsibility on the licensee,” Barna said.

On the other hand, Lou Matthews, board member of the Ventura chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, suggested the failure to notify city officials was deliberate and aimed at keeping open the Ventura Garden Manor complex. It provides about 25% of the county’s 260 beds for the mentally ill.

“People do desperate things when there are desperate needs,” Matthews said.

Barna acknowledged that could have influenced the inspector’s behavior. “We are dealing with clientele that it’s very difficult to find homes for. If we don’t have these kinds of facilities, where will these people go?”

Nicolas is also suspicious. He said most of the problems on his property have existed for more than 30 years and that the fire chief’s interest now is curious.

“That’s why I feel there is politics going on,” he said.

Clark denied any politics are at work. He said Ventura Garden Manor didn’t receive its annual inspection last year because “we’re behind.”

*

Matthews, an activist for the mentally ill, said she wasn’t surprised by the oversight. Matthews speculated city officials neglected the group home to have an excuse to close it and force the schizophrenic residents to go elsewhere.

Of the residents evacuated, four returned to their families and four others have been moved to undisclosed locations.

Ventura County Behavioral Health Director Dr. David Gudeman said the housing crisis may ease if the Board of Supervisors grants the health agency’s request for $1.3 million to fund about 200 new beds

But, he added, “There are no easy answers.”

Matthews is worried this may be the beginning of the end for Ventura Garden Manor.

“Now I’m concerned they’re going to hit this place so hard that they’re going to go out of business,” Matthews said. “Housing is so scarce that if this place closes, more people are going to become homeless. If the city has a heart, if the county has a heart, they’ll do something to save those beds.”