Musician Karl B. Keller figures one fix for homelessness is preventing it in the first place.

So a task force he leads has started an emergency fund to prevent evictions. It would benefit qualified residents of Ventura, who could use it once a year for extraordinary circumstances.

"Occasionally, someone has an emergency and they just can't pay the rent," said Keller, who is chairman of the Ventura Social Services Task Force. "Once someone becomes homeless it becomes quite a bit more expensive for them to get back into housing. Because they were evicted their credit is trashed."

The fund would aid hardworking, low-income people who get hit with a car repair bill or the medical bill for a sick child, leaving them short on rent, he said.

Housing advocates know of no other program in the county quite like the Ventura Homeless Prevention Fund. Some nonprofit agencies have emergency shelter funds, but this effort is unusual in that the money will come from community donations, officials say. The task force aims to raise $60,000, potentially aiding 50 to 60 households yearly.

Keller said he hopes other communities in Ventura County will pick up on the idea.

"It doesn't require any buildings, and there's no 'not in my backyard.' It's a lot easier than getting other things done that we need to do," the Ventura resident said.

Under Ventura County's 10-year strategy for ending homelessness, prevention tops the list of 22 recommendations. The others include building housing and taking social services programs to homeless people rather than asking them to come to an office.

Newly released data showed that almost 2,000 Ventura County residents were living in shelters, transitional living programs and on the streets when a count was made in late January. Prevention programs would keep at least 1,000 households in their homes who would otherwise lose them each year, the 10-year strategy says.

Social service and housing officials say they don't know whether evictions are going up in high-cost Ventura County, but it takes more to pay both the rents and the deposits. Even a blip on a person's credit record can lead landlords to double the required deposits, said Karol Schulkin, who oversees programs for the homeless in the county Human Services Agency.

"The deposits are astronomical," Schulkin said Monday. "Pretty soon you're up to $4,000 to $5,000."

United Way of Ventura County is the fiscal agent for the Ventura Homeless Prevention Fund. Catholic Charities, Project Understanding and the Salvation Army will assess applicants to determine whether they are qualified. Susan Englund, the United Way manager overseeing the fund, said no money has yet been donated.