County to Put More Aid Recipients in Driver’s Seat

After three years of delay, Ventura County officials are kicking into high gear a program to help welfare recipients buy low-cost cars so they can drive to work.

So far, the county’s CalWORKS welfare-to-work program has helped only seven of the county’s 6,000 recipients acquire cars.

But officials say they are starting a streamlined phase of the program that could provide 25 to 30 more vehicles by the end of the year.

“The low number so far is typical government,” said Supervisor Frank Schillo, a principal backer of the program. “We got three people through the test program and it took an eternity. But we broke new ground and we’re glad to see Many Motors get going.”

Many Motors is an offshoot of Many Mansions, a Thousand Oaks nonprofit agency that provides low-cost housing to the poor. It takes in donated cars, fixes them up and offers them to welfare recipients screened by CalWORKS.

“We are helping people who are working toward changing their lifestyle,” said Julie Gutierrez, a CalWORKS manager.

To qualify to buy a donated car, recipients must be able to pay about $75 a month toward the auto loan.

Trina Luleich, 36, is one of those trying to improve her life. The Simi Valley mother expects to buy a CalWORKS car within a month, so she won’t have to walk everywhere, including home from work in the middle of the night.

When she moved to Ventura County about a year ago, she expected to get around by bus as she had in Las Vegas, where the buses run 24 hours a day.

“I had heard Simi Valley was so small,” she said, “and I thought even if the bus wasn’t as good I would be able to walk a lot of places.”

She and her 17-year-old pregnant daughter take the bus to doctor’s appointments. But there are many places the bus doesn’t go.

She rides her bike or walks the 7 1/2 miles to her job as a health aide in a private home. And sometimes she takes a cab home from the supermarket or Laundromat.

“The best thing about having a car will be the freedom,” she said. “I could go to work and not get wet from the rain like the last couple weeks.”

Luleich will be allowed to pick out her car--with a maximum value of $4,650--if she passes a welfare fraud check.

If Luleich defaults on the auto loan, Many Motors would try to find someone to take over payment. As a last resort, the county would back the loan from the Ventura County Federal Credit Union.

Cars now available are a 1987 Nissan Sentra, 1991 Honda, 1986 T-Bird and a 1987 Toyota Corolla.

The cars are donated by county residents, and some autos are worth more than $4,650. That amount is set by the state, requiring recipients to drive cars valued under the limit.

“It is humorous actually, because people don’t like the idea of someone on welfare driving up in a Mercedes,” Schillo said. “But you don’t want to tell them not to donate, so Many Motors has an auction.”

Many Motors received two Mercedes in the last few months, but can’t sell them to low-income residents because they are too valuable. The agency will auction the luxury vehicles off at the Camarillo Airport from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Mercedes bids will start at $5,000, and the money raised will go to Many Mansions, not Many Motors, for the rehabilitation of affordable housing, said Many Motors administrator Aurora Alvarez.

Gutierrez said the streamlined program will move quickly from now on.

“If we could get 25 to 30 this year we would meet our goals,” she said. “It’s not the problem of obtaining the vehicles, it’s getting the qualified participants. Sometimes we think we have nine eligible and all of a sudden it whittles down to three.”