HASC partner National Health Foundation’s (NHF) Ventura recuperative care facility remained open through last month’s Thomas Fire providing a safe refuge for a dozen people experiencing homelessness.

The facility was not directly threatened by flames, but smoke prompted staff to take safety measures such as distributing breathing masks to clients. Due to the fire’s volatile and unpredictable nature, the facility decided not to release anyone during the blaze’s height, NHF President/CEO Kelly Bruno said.

“We didn’t know where they would go,” Bruno said.

Operated in conjunction with the Salvation Army, the 12-bed recuperative care facility gives people who are homeless a place to rest and heal following release from hospitals. It opened in July, joining other NHF facilities in Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley city of La Puente.

NHF is now working towards opening its biggest recuperative care center yet — a 62-bed facility at 18^th Street and Union Avenue near the intersection of the 10 and 110 freeways in Los Angeles.

Five Ventura County hospitals are supporting the Ventura center’s annual operating costs. Gold Coast Health Plan contributed an additional $38,000 to help launch the project. Funding is secured through the summer of 2019, and expanding the number of beds is a possibility, depending on whether additional space is secured, Bruno said.

NHF’s recuperative care centers also work to secure permanent housing for clients. Recent statistics for the Ventura facility show that about half of former clients now have homes.

“The program did, for 50 percent of the people, the ultimate — which is to eliminate their homelessness,” Bruno said.

Contact:
Kelly Bruno
(213) 538-0708
kbruno@nhfca.org