Penniless, often mentally confused and unable to work, Maria Sutton said it was comforting as night fell this winter to be able to count on a hot meal and inflatable mattress at the West County Winter Warming Shelter in Oxnard.

The shelter, however, closed Monday, and Sutton said it's back to the streets.

"I'm going back to the river bottom to be miserable, like everyone else," said the 20-year county resident who has battled homelessness and struggled with alcohol most of her adult life. "What's my other choice?"

She's not alone. A record 637 people stayed at least one night this year at the no-frills shelter at the Oxnard National Guard Armory, a 50 percent increase over a year ago. Law enforcement and social service providers now are bracing for an influx of cash-strapped people returning to makeshift beds in alleyways, vehicles, and illegal camps among the dense brush of river bottoms.

"We estimate we will probably see 60 new people on the west end of Ventura alone," Ventura police Lt. Craig Stadler said.

In Oxnard, many in need are able-bodied residents and working families without savings who simply can't afford the area's high housing and living costs, said Will Reed, the city's homeless program coordinator.

The county's largest winter shelter provides a vital service from December to March, he said, and until a year-round shelter and additional housing options are available in both Ventura and Oxnard, the growing numbers returning to the streets every spring are unlikely to diminish.

A surge in local home foreclosures and a sagging economy contributed to this year's higher-than-anticipated demand, according to Reed.

"Hopefully, someday soon we will be able to site and fund a year-round shelter," he said.

"From February to the first part of March, we were averaging more than 140 people a night," shelter manager Tom McLaughlin said, citing a single-night high of 159. The shelter alternates each year between National Guard armories in Oxnard and Ventura.

"In the last six years," he said, "the high was 119 on one night, and the next highest was 107. We rarely broke 100."

Most regular users were adult males, he said. The mood in the shelter shifted in the final days, particularly among some of the parolees who told him they had no place to go.

"They started to get very depressed as we neared the end. You could see it," said McLaughlin, a member of the nonprofit Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which was contracted to run the facility. "And sadly, when that happens, they're more inclined to go back to abusing alcohol or drugs and making some of the bad decisions that got themselves into their situations."

A bright spot this year, he said, was Oxnard housing officials' increased success at getting homeless families into traditional housing or subsidized lodging, he said.

Meanwhile, Ventura city firefighters have responded to at least five fires in local river bottoms in recent weeks, and authorities say they will continue periodic sweeps to cut down on illegal encampments. Ventura police don't have the manpower or resources to do more sweeps, officials said.

The river-bottom fires are difficult to extinguish and can be costly because they are isolated from roads and fire hydrants, Ventura Fire Marshal Brian Clark said. And personnel face a greater risk of injury, he said, because of uneven topography, poor lighting and even occasional booby traps.

"It's dangerous for everyone involved," he said.

Sutton, like many other homeless individuals, said she resorts to panhandling because it's the only way she can occasionally afford a motel room. Usually, she covers herself in blankets.

Ventura police, with the aid of a city-hired social worker, try to differentiate between those who truly need help and repeat panhandling scofflaws, Lt. Stadler said.

They try to connect the needy, often the mentally ill or drug abusers, with services aimed at improving their health and self-sufficiency, and enforce only the most egregious offenses, he said.

One alternative, the sober and drug-free River Haven tent camp in Ventura, is at capacity. City officials last week granted an extension to the camp, praising its self-governed community and supporters for several advances, such as on-site drug testing. Every member has a social worker, pays rent and must contribute to the camp.

There have been virtually no police or fire issues in the camp in its 2 1/2 years, said Peter Brown, Ventura's social services manager who oversees the group's contract.

All involved agree living on a secluded patch of land near the Ventura Harbor is not ideal. The city, residents and their supporters continue to pursue a better home.

"Absent traditional living beds in the community, River Haven has impressively transitioned 30 percent of their residents into permanent residency," Brown said.

Ending the continuous shelter-to-streets pattern will require dozens of new units of permanently affordable housing for low-income people with on-site services, he said.

Helping households keep their housing so they don't become homeless is also part of the solution.

"People need to understand a well-run facility — and the key word is well-run — will not have a negative impact on their neighborhood," Brown said. "We have to educate our community so when we try to build those units, they recognize the benefits."