Homeless families need emergency shelter. Stanislaus County has a new plan for them.
Stanislaus County supervisors on Tuesday could approve a five-year lease for a Ninth Street motel to serve as an emergency shelter for homeless families.
The motel lease is part of a larger plan for vacating the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter by the end of the year and increasing the capacity of temporary housing for the homeless.
Families and children would stay at the Rodeway Inn, which has 21 units at 1128 S. Ninth St., north of Hatch Road near Highway 99.
The county estimates 40 to 50 individuals would be sheltered at the motel. The families will have access to mental health and social services, and also will receive life skills training to help them become self-sufficient.
According to a county staff report, the same model proved successful at the cold weather family shelter operated last winter at a migrant center in Empire. About 60 percent of those families received mental health services and more than half found employment through the welfare-to-work program.
The report says 20 of the 22 families sheltered in Empire last winter were placed in permanent housing.
In another item on Tuesday’s board agenda, supervisors will consider approving a $1.4 billion county budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The proposed spending plan represents a 3 percent increase in all funds over last year’s budget.
The budget plan includes a $377.6 million general fund, which is a $21 million increase over last year, partly driven by 7 percent property-tax growth and solid sales tax revenue.
Early this year, an annual count identified 1,923 homeless people in Stanislaus County, including 250 who were younger than 18 years old. According to the report for Tuesday’s meeting, the homeless population at MOES includes “numerous” families.
Larger pieces of the plan for moving about 450 people living at MOES, a tent city underneath the Ninth Street Bridge, include a new shelter with 182 beds being completed at The Salvation Army’s Berberian Center, where an emergency shelter also will expand from 150 to 200 beds.
In addition, the county, Modesto and Stanislaus Regional Housing Authority are combining forces to purchase and convert the 103-room American Budget Inn & Suites on Kansas Avenue for supportive housing for the homeless.
The annual lease for the Rodeway Inn is expected to cost $348,000. The county also would spend $525,600 for family supportive services, bringing the total annual cost for the emergency housing to $873,600.
The county will use funding from the state Housing Support Program or budgeted funds through the Community Services Agency.
The Board of Supervisors will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, at 1010 10th St., Modesto.
This story was originally published September 15, 2019 at 11:01 AM.
