Modesto’s outdoor shelter will cost $1.6M. But expert says that looks like a bargain.
The cost to set up and operate the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter — the tent city housing about 420 homeless people underneath the Ninth Street Bridge in the Tuolumne River Regional Park — is expected to be more than $1.6 million.
The outdoor shelter is expected to operate for 10 months. Modesto and Stanislaus County opened it in late February as a temporary measure and plan to close it by the end of the year as projects adding to the number of shelter beds and housing for homeless people are completed and open.
While the cost may seem high, one homelessness expert said the tent city appears to be a cost-effective way of providing shelter and services — about half of the $1.6 million is for the nonprofit that provides services at the shelter — to a population of people that can be difficult to help.
“It looks high until you do the math,” said Bob Erlenbusch, with the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. “It works out to about $13 a day per person.”
Erlenbusch has 35 years of experience working on homeless issues and is a board member of the Washington, D.C.,-based National Coalition for the Homeless.
His math is based on the outdoor shelter costing $160,000 per month over the 10 months it is expected to operate and dividing its monthly cost by 400 residents. That works out to $400 per month per resident, or about $13 per day.
Chairman Terry Withrow of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors said it is much more expensive to let people live on the streets, which he said includes the cost — in time and money — of police officers and firefighters responding to calls involving homeless people and their visits to the emergency room or jail.
“Calls for services are down,” he said. “There are fewer complaints about the homeless ... That’s a big savings.”
Withrow said having homeless people live at the outdoor shelter also makes it easier to get them help.
The city and county compiled the costs of the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter at The Bee’s request. The costs represent what has been spent and what is projected to be spent through the end of the year.
The $1.6 million does not include the cost of city and county employees who provide services at the shelter, including those from county Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, because they get paid no matter what they are assigned to do.
The $1.6 million also does not include the cost to restore the site of the outdoor shelter once it closes. That number was not available.
City spokesman Thomas Reeves said that while the outdoor shelter will close by the end of the year, the city will need more time to restore the site. He said city officials will inform the Tuolumne River Regional Park Commission at its Wednesday meeting about the need for more time, and city officials are expected to make a formal request at the commission’s October meeting.
The commission approved letting Modesto open the outdoor shelter on the condition that it close the shelter and restore that section of the regional park by no later than the end of the year.
The $1.6 million breaks down to nearly $270,000 for the city, slightly more than $1 million for the county and nearly $365,000 in donations.
Modesto expects to spend the nearly $270,000 on such costs as security, trash removal, temporary fencing and servicing the portable toilets and wash stations by the time the outdoor shelter closes. The city is using its general fund to pay these costs.
Stanislaus County expects to spend slightly more than $1 million, with $858,630 of that to the nonprofit Turning Point Community Programs for providing a range of mental health and other services to residents of the outdoor shelter. Turning Point staff is at the shelter on a daily basis.
The county is using state homeless funding and $250,000 from the Stanislaus Community Foundation to pay Turning Point.
Community contributes nearly $365K
Reeves said the city and county have received nearly $365,000 in donations of money, goods and services, including $210,000 from the Stanislaus Community Foundation for site preparation work and nearly $24,000 in wood chips from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for the outdoor shelter.
Reeves said that as of Thursday there were 419 people living at the outdoor shelter and 603 people had stayed there since it opened, with the stays ranging from days to months. Officials were able to track what happened to 87 of the 184 people who left.
Of those 87 people, 32 moved into permanent housing with family or friends or subsidized rental housing; 29 moved to emergency shelters, motels or transitional housing; and 26 were placed in “institutional settings,” including foster care, jail or prison, a substance abuse treatment center or a psychiatric hospital.
According to information provided by the city and county, 292 of the 603 people are chronically homeless, 354 are male and 249 are female. Forty of the 603 are at least 62 years old.
The 603 people also were surveyed regarding the issues they face. Some 249 reported a mental health problem, 221 reported a chronic health condition, 219 a developmental disability, 125 reported a drug abuse problem and 26 reported alcohol abuse. People could report having multiple issues.
Officials opened the outdoor shelter in response to a September 2018 federal court decision that said prosecuting people for sleeping in parks and other public property when there aren’t beds for them in shelters or similar alternatives is cruel and unusual punishment.
The outdoor shelter replaced another temporary solution: Letting the homeless camp in nearby Beard Brook Park and manage themselves. That took place from September 2018 to February 2019. Officials have said they would not repeat the experiment of letting homeless people govern themselves.
This story was originally published September 23, 2019 at 5:41 PM.
