City of Victorville selects nonprofits to serve needy at Wellness Center

Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press
·4 min read
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Two nonprofits have been selected to provide operational and support services at Victorville's Wellness Center Campus.

Located on First Street in downtown Victorville, the 170-bed interim housing, supportive service, and recuperative care facility will help stabilize the lives of families and homeless individuals, city officials said. The facility is scheduled to open by the end of 2023.

Victorville City Council approved the award of contracts to Hope the Mission and the Symba Center following a competitive bid process.

“We are thrilled to have high-caliber operators with the know-how and reputation of Hope the Mission and Symba Center join us to bring their skill and professionalism to our Wellness Center in Victorville,” Mayor Debra Jones said. “With the operators in place, we are one step closer to opening this one-of-a-kind facility to combine non-congregate living units with wraparound support services like medical and recuperative care.”

Hope the Mission

Hope the Mission will serve as the shelter operator of the Wellness Center, with services including client intake coordination, hygiene services, laundry, meals, security, janitorial services, transportation, and peer engagements.

Hope the Mission, formerly known as Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, is run by founder and President/CEO Ken Craft, who has 14 years of experience providing a variety of shelter operations.

Under its management, Hope has more than 1,000 shelter beds within Southern California.

A rendering shows the Wellness Center Campus, a facility that will provide interim housing for the homeless and support services, currently being built in Old Town Victorville near Eva Dell Park.
A rendering shows the Wellness Center Campus, a facility that will provide interim housing for the homeless and support services, currently being built in Old Town Victorville near Eva Dell Park.

Symba Center

Symba Center has been selected to provide wraparound services including recuperative care, medical and behavioral health services, job readiness and placement, financial literacy, case management, housing navigation, and substance-use-disorder counseling.

Symba Center, under the direction of Dr. Shawn Smith, has provided medical services to Victorville’s unsheltered residents as well as medical and mental health oversight to local homeless shelters, including the establishment of COVID-19 safety protocols during the pandemic.

One of the center’s most unique features will be the inclusion of medical services and recuperative care, an extremely challenging component of wellness for homeless individuals who lack proper shelter and access to ongoing medical care for wounds, illness, and other ailments, city leaders said. 

Local hospitals will be able to discharge homeless individuals directly to the Wellness Center medical clinic to receive the recuperative care they need to recover while freeing much-needed hospital beds.

With expenses reimbursed through Medi-Cal, the medical clinic and recuperative care will be self-sustaining services.

Victorville topped this year’s Homeless Point in Time Count with 607 people, an increase of 152 or 33% over last year.
Victorville topped this year’s Homeless Point in Time Count with 607 people, an increase of 152 or 33% over last year.

Enforcing anti-camping laws

In the case of Martin v. Boise, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled that cities cannot “criminalize” conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless.

Ultimately, cities cannot enforce anti-camping ordinances or public nuisance laws without showing they have adequate, low-barrier shelter beds available to house their individuals experiencing homelessness. 

“The Wellness Center will increase shelter and provide necessary services for our community’s most vulnerable in order to break the cycle of homelessness; but equally important, the center will help us minimize the negative impacts homelessness can have on residents and businesses and ultimately empower our city to enforce anti-camping laws in accordance with federal statutes,” Jones said.

When complete, the Wellness Center will increase the number of shelter beds in Victorville by 56%.

Victorville’s Wellness Center was envisioned three years ago with the help of the city’s Homelessness Solutions Task Force.

The facility is being constructed primarily through a $28 million Homekey Grant from the state of California on city-owned land located at 16902 First Street, between the BNSF railroad tracks and the Mojave River.

Homeless counts

San Bernardino County experienced a 26% increase in homelessness in the past year, according to the Homeless Point in Time Count which was conducted in January 2023. 

Victorville had the second-highest concentration of homeless persons in the county, the count revealed.

More than 76.9% or 3,226 of the 4,195 homeless adults and children in the county were counted within Barstow, Victorville, Colton, Fontana, Ontario, Redlands, and San Bernardino.

Victorville topped this year’s High Desert homeless chart with 607 people, an increase of 152 or 33% over last year.

In Victorville, 74 people, or 34.9% categorized themselves as chronically homeless, with 94, or 44.3% saying they were homeless for the first time in 12 months.

For more information about the Wellness Center Campus and its homelessness solutions strategy, visit VictorvilleCA.gov/HomelessnessSolutions.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: City of Victorville selects nonprofits to serve needy at Wellness Center