Homeless shelter in Modesto is ready. ‘A place to be inside is really a great thing’
More than 100 people gathered Tuesday by The Salvation Army’s Berberian Center to celebrate a big step in helping homeless people — a 182-bed low-barrier shelter that will take couples, pets and belongings and an access center staffed with workers who will help people find housing and other services.
Stanislaus County is working with The Salvation Army and Modesto on these facilities, which the county is paying for with state homeless funding. The shelter will open Nov. 15, and the access center will open in January.
City and county officials as well as officials from nonprofits and other groups that help homeless people gathered for Tuesday’s ceremony, followed by tours of the 182-bed shelter, which occupies part of The Berberian Center. The Salvation Army operates a 170-bed traditional shelter in the other part of the center at Ninth and D streets near downtown.
Officials spoke about the courage and perseverance required to deal with the homelessness crisis in the face of opposition and setbacks. And that this effort started about five years ago with the county’s Focus on Prevention, a broad-based community initiative to find answers to homelessness and other vexing problems.
“It’s been a long process, I tell you, it’s been a long haul,” county Board of Supervisors Chairman Terry Withrow told the audience. “And I can’t thank enough everybody who has been involved, and this has been such a joint effort for us to be here, to be standing here today in front of this building and to be opening this. It hasn’t been easy.”
The Salvation Army will operate the shelter. Homeless people cannot just show up and get a bed. Instead, they will be screened through the access center for placement. The expectation is that after six months of getting help, the people living in the shelter would take the next step in their lives, such as moving into permanent housing.
The access center will help all homeless people, not just those living at the 182-bed shelter.
Salvation Army Maj. Dianne Madsen said the shelter is not just about 182 safe and comfortable beds. “It’s about access to opportunities ... ,” she said to audience members. “Shelter guests will be able to access a variety of services, such as housing resources, addiction treatment, physical and mental health services and so much more.
“I’m so excited because it’s not just one entity that can do it all ... We are together in this. We all need to be part of the puzzle to figure things out to support people. Homelessness is not just a one-size-fits-all situation ... It’s very particular. It’s very personal. We need to do all we can to help people in this situation.”
The shelter is one of the projects officials are completing to increase homeless services as the city closes the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter, a tent city underneath the Ninth Street Bridge in the Tuolumne River Regional Park.
It is home to about 400 people. Officials opened the outdoor shelter in February as a temporary solution until more facilities and services came online. The shelter is expected to close Nov. 30.
County Deputy Executive Officer Becky Meredith said in an interview that officials are confident they will fill the new 182-bed shelter based on what Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter residents are telling outreach workers. Workers have been interviewing and assessing residents to help them find shelter.
Meredith said about 250 outdoor shelter residents had been accessed as of about a couple weeks ago, and 80 to 90 percent of them said “they want to come to shelter.” She said officials are working to find other options for those who want shelter once the 182-bed shelter is full.
That includes new projects, such as the opening of the Ninth Street motel the county is leasing that will provide housing for families and can accommodate about 50 people and a Housing Authority project to turn the 103-room American Budget Inn & Suites at Kansas Avenue and Highway 99 into permanent supportive housing for homeless people.
The Housing Authority expects to open the converted motel, which has been renamed Kansas House, in February, according to Barbara Kauss, the authority’s executive director.
“We are confident that the county and the city are throwing all our resources at this to get folks housed,” Meredith said.
Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter residents Margaret Aherne, 60, and Joseph Jerrue, 45, were among those lined up to tour the 182-bed shelter. They said they have been interviewed and assessed and will be moving to the new shelter when the outdoor shelter closes.
“It’s really good,” Aherne said. “I just got out of the hospital a couple days ago, and I can’t be outside in this cold this year. So having a place to be inside is really a great thing. It really is.”
Aherne said she is glad she can take her dogs — Chihuahua mixes named Moxie and Butters — with her and that she and Jerrue, who is her boyfriend, will receive services. She just wishes officials at Tuesday’s ceremony had thanked Turning Point, the nonprofit that has coordinated services at the outdoor shelter. “They are the ones who believed in us,” she said. “I knew they would catch me if I failed.”
Jerrue likes the new shelter but wishes he and Aherne could sleep in the same bed. Instead, he said, they will share a bunk bed. That’s OK with Aherne because she said at least they will be warm, safe and comfortable.
