How Modesto’s homeless could find a home in converted shipping containers

Officials are working on a plan to open Modesto’s first low-barrier shelter, which could be operating as soon as June and provide 60 beds for the homeless as well as a day center. Unlike traditional ones, these shelters take couples, pets and possessions.

But officials stressed they still have details to work out for the project to become a reality. “It’s not a done deal yet,” Stanislaus County Chief Operations Officer Patty Hill Thomas said.

The details include having the county Board of Supervisors and City Council approve a memorandum of understanding for the project at their Feb. 27 meetings.

The proposed location for the project is on Stanislaus Food Products’ land behind The Salvation Army’s Berberian Center at Ninth and D streets. The tomato cannery also would have to approve the memorandum of understanding.

Hill Thomas stressed that this is a temporary emergency shelter that is not expected to operate for more than three years. She said officials also will ask the supervisors Feb. 27 for permission to start the planning for this project’s replacement, a permanent access center, which offers temporary housing and a full range of services.

The low barrier shelter and day center are part of Focus on Prevention, the initiative the county launched nearly three years ago to engage the different sectors of the community in finding solutions to some of the region’s most vexing problems, including homelessness.

Focus on Prevention Leadership Council Chairman Brad Hawn provided an overview of the project:

He said the shelter will be constructed out of converted shipping containers. He said the 40-foot-by-8-foot containers will have four bedrooms, each with its own door, window, air conditioning and heating unit, and fire sprinklers. Interior walls will separate the bedrooms.

He said the plan is for homeless people’s dogs to stay with them in their rooms.

Containers also will be converted into bathrooms and laundry rooms and used by the homeless to store their possessions. He said the containers will meet building and fire codes and be accessible by the disabled.

He said the day center will have three classrooms (each made up of four converted shipping containers) and a 12,000-square-foot tent on a concrete floor.

Hawn said the day center can accommodate as many as 120 people so homeless people who are not staying at the shelter also can use it. He said the homeless who use the center can take a class, access services, do their laundry and get something to eat. They also can hang out and read a book.

The county also plans to move its outreach and engagement center from its current downtown location to the site of the low-barrier shelter. The center is housed in a modular office building and its workers go out and work with the homeless.

County Deputy Executive Officer Ruben Imperial said the homeless people who use the low-barrier shelter will not be required to use the services.

“But part of the low-barrier shelter strategy is this idea of engagement (with the homeless),” he said. “We know building relationships, trust and rapport with people leads to people saying, ‘Yes.’ ”

Hawn said the site will have security guards 24-7 and other security measures. He said Stanislaus Food, the city, county and law enforcement will meet on an ongoing basis to discuss any problems or concerns with the shelter and day center.

Hawn said if everything falls in place the project should open in June.

That’s also another detail that needs to be worked out.

“We are in discussions with Focus on Prevention and the county and there has been no deal at this point,” said Stanislaus Food Products Senior Vice President Bill Hudelson. “Currently, there is not enough detailed information to form a conclusion.

“We are working to make sure there are no adverse impacts to our business or surrounding neighbors, especially during our canning season.”

When asked why the cannery is considering this, Hudelson said: “We want to be a good corporate citizen. At this point, no one else has stepped forward to even consider it.”

Hawn said nonprofits would play a big role in the project. He said one would serve as the fiscal agent for the project and lease the land from Stanislaus Food Products. The nonprofit — which he declined to name — would hire another nonprofit to operate the shelter and day center.

The Stanislaus Community Foundation has committed $1 million toward building the center and day center. The money would be from the $1.4 million the foundation received last year from local business leaders to further the aims of Focus on Prevention.

And the Board of Supervisors would be asked to commit $2.5 million to cover three years’ of the project’s operating costs (that does not include the outreach and engagement center). The $2.5 million is what Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, helped secure in this year’s state budget for Stanislaus County to tackle homelessness.

Modesto is not providing funding, but Hawn said the project will rely on the police department for help if problems or concerns develop with the shelter and day center.

This story was originally published February 15, 2018 at 5:50 PM with the headline "How Modesto’s homeless could find a home in converted shipping containers."