By Nancy Needham  nancy@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers SHADY NAP--Barely visible in front of the park benches are three men dozing under an oak near the intersection of Hillcrest Drive and Moorpark Road. Some of the homeless are reportedly creating problems for area pedestrians and neighborhood retailers. Services for the homeless that provide a cup of coffee, some soup and a shower may have attracted illegal campers to an area of Thousand Oaks. Some of the campers have appeared to be publicly inebriated and participating in lewd acts.

The problem has had two significant repercussions: Longs Drugs on Moorpark road has reported numerous incidents of alcohol theft, and seniors from The Hillcrest Royale on Hillcrest are afraid to use a nearby public walkway. Police presence in the area has been increased.

"Our drop-in center is not located in the perfect place. It should be in an industrial area, but this is what we have to work with," Lutheran Social Services shelter director Diana Ortuna said.

The organization has a small area where about 10 to 15 homeless people come by daily for help. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings they take turns using one shower, one washer and one dryer. They bring everything they own with them because they have no other place to put their possessions, Ortuna said.

While they wait, they're served coffee and soup that's been donated to the charity. For those who have no transportation to the nightly dinners offered at places of worship throughout Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Westlake Village, that could be their meal for the day, Ortuna said.

"All of these people belong to Thousand Oaks. They grew up here, went to school here, have families here," she said, adding that about 75 percent of those who come to her for help have a substance abuse problem.

From April 15 to Dec. 1, there is no overnight place provided for them in the Thousand Oaks area.

"They have no place to sleep. They go wherever they can lie down-under a tree, any place they can find. They drag their stuff around with them," Ortuna said.

She said she would not be surprised if some of the people suspected of stealing from Longs were among those her organization compassionately serves.

"We work with the police here. They check on us and make sure everything is okay," she said.

The social services area on Hillcrest is between Longs Drugs and The Hillcrest Royale, an apartment complex for seniors. Also between the seniors and the drugstore is a wide walkway lined with a green lawn and large oak trees. The $381,000 path built by the city was completed in 2004 and follows along the old Conejo Creek bed.

Seniors used to walk along the sidewalk and go to the shopping center with the drugstore, The Vitamin Shoppe and Westcom Credit Union.

"Now we provide transportation for them there, because we do what we need to do to keep our seniors safe," Hillcrest Royale director Inga Jakobovich said.

The senior apartment management has also added a hedge outside their building to shield the seniors from a group of drunken people who were being lewd, she said.

"I know it's not politically correct to say anything about homeless people, but it was not because they were homeless, it was because of their inappropriate behavior, drinking and rowdiness," Jakobovich said.

"The problem has been going on for about a year," said Dana Garcia, a Longs employee. "We've had people coming in here one or two times a day stealing about 10 or 12 bottles of liquor a week--whiskey, vodka, whatever they could put in their pants."

The city's public works department cut down hedges and trimmed back landscaping to discourage the camping, Garcia said. Also, the store has been working with the police.

"Police have been coming by more often," said Chris Hayden, manager of The Vitamin Shoppe.

Councilmember Dennis Gillette is looking into the matter, he said. This particular group of illegal campers used to live next to the Elks Lodge on Old Conejo School Road before that area was fenced for future development, he said. Now they're camping in the right of way, he said.

"It's a tough call when people are outside of the mainstream of the community," Gillette said.

The city currently has no plans to build the illegal campers a place of their own with flowers, picnic tables and restrooms as they did for day laborers, he said.

When the city issues a citation and moves them out, it just displaces them for awhile and soon they're back again or they move to another site, Thousand Oaks Police Chief Dennis Carpenter said.

But the police, the public works department and the district attorney's office are all working together to solve the problem. The police have increased bike patrols to the area and stepped up their overall presence.

Garcia has noticed an improvement, but still misses a lot of the senior customers who no longer come to the drugstore, he said.