To the City Council and City Manager of Ojai:

We, the undersigned residents, neighbors, and community members of Ojai, call upon the City of Ojai to immediately restore access to the bathroom, shower, and kitchen facilities inside LITTLE HOUSE for the residents of Ojai Tent Town.

LITTLE HOUSE was donated by a local family for the benefit of Ojai’s seniors. It contains fully functional bathrooms, showers, and a working kitchen—basic facilities that support health, dignity, and daily living. These resources now sit locked and unused, while senior citizens living at Ojai Tent Town are prohibited from accessing them.

This decision has created a situation where elderly and vulnerable residents—people the City of Ojai has accepted responsibility for by housing them on City property—are left without access to the most fundamental human needs:

A sanitary bathroom
A safe place to wash
A kitchen to prepare food
No community that values compassion, decency, or basic human rights can accept this.

The City’s choice to deny access to existing, functional facilities raises serious concerns about the City’s duty of care toward the people living on its grounds. When a municipality knowingly restricts access to sanitation and hygiene for individuals in its custody or under its direct oversight, it exposes itself to significant moral and ethical liability. Many in our community view this situation as a form of criminal neglect in the everyday sense of the term—a neglect so severe that it violates the basic standards of humane treatment.

Ojai has always prided itself on being a caring, humane, and community‑centered town. Allowing seniors to go without showers, without bathrooms, without a kitchen—while the facilities sit locked and unused—does not reflect who we are.

We ask the City of Ojai to act immediately:

We call for LITTLE HOUSE to be reopened to Ojai Tent Town residents without delay.

This is not a political issue. It is not a budget issue. It is not a bureaucratic issue.
It is a human issue.

Is it acceptable that elderly residents living on City Hall grounds—residents the City has chosen to house—are denied access to a shower.
Is it acceptable that they have no kitchen to prepare food.
Is it acceptable that they must rely on a single porta‑potty for months or years.

We believe the answer is no.

We urge the City to honor the spirit of the original donation, uphold its responsibility to the people living on its property, and restore access to the facilities that already exist—right now, today.

Dignity is not optional. Hygiene is not optional. Human needs are not optional.

We ask the City of Ojai to do the right thing.

Reopen LITTLE HOUSE.