Stanislaus County funds homeless center, shelter for six more months. Change may be coming

As the Salvation Army bell ringers raked in nickles and dimes for charitable services, Stanislaus County leaders committed a large chunk of government funding to support a center for reducing homelessness in the Modesto area.

County supervisors voted Tuesday evening to contribute $1.54 million to support the Access Center Emergency Shelter, operated by The Salvation Army Modesto Corps, for another six months.

The county’s Community Services Agency will negotiate a third amendment to an agreement for The Salvation Army to operate the South Ninth Street center, which provides 180 shelter beds and services to help homeless people get off the streets.

It pushes the total dollar amount to $6.1 million for operation and oversight of the Access Center from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2024. The Salvation Army has managed the center since November 2019, serving 1,227 homeless people and helping 61 to find permanent housing.

As the five-year mark approaches, the county is likely to seek proposals from organizations to run the Access Center and shelter in the coming years. The $1.54 million is for supporting operations through June 30.

“The six months gives us time to figure out and consider the future of the center,” Supervisor Terry Withrow said Wednesday. “We so appreciate The Salvation Army and what they do.”

Withrow said the Access Center and shelter needs to continue as a vital tool for sheltering the homeless population, getting people off the streets, into treatment and back into society. “We want to find the most efficient way to do that,” Withrow said.

Maj. Darren Stratton told the board Tuesday evening the organization appreciates the funding support for the next six months, but “it does make it very difficult to plan for long-term solutions when we’ve been in a six-month holding pattern. There has been no sense of direction yet in terms of the fate of this particular shelter for the last six months of 2024.”

Stratton said a current trend now favors providing single housing units for the homeless but the county needs a longer-term homeless strategy that includes emergency shelters. With a “request for proposals” (RFP) process, the county would consider whether The Salvation Army or another group would operate the access center and shelter and whether the primary focus would change.

In February 2019, the county entered a five-year agreement with The Salvation Army and Modesto to develop a system of care for the homeless. The Salvation Army has operated the access center and low-barrier shelter under one-year agreements.

A county staff report said the $1.54 million approved Tuesday is for covering expenses the last six months of the agreement for 2023-24, including $1.1 million for salaries, benefits and personnel services, $200,000 for operating expenses, $100,000 for food service and $140,350 for other costs.

An assortment of funding has supported the Access Center and 180-bed shelter, such as COVID-19 pandemic relief, CARES Act economic stimulus money, state Housing Homeless Assistance and Prevention funds and emergency solutions grants.

The state HHAP funding is the primary source for supporting the Access Center and shelter, but there has been a funding gap for the 2023-24 fiscal year. The county Community Services Agency threw a variety of one-time funding sources into the proverbial red kettle to cover the expenses from July to December 2023.

The county will use leftover funds, a final HHAP disbursement of $926,000, Housing and Community Development funds and possible community health need grants from Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health to support the center through June 30.

According to a county staff report, revenue shortfalls could happen due to timing delays in state funding and grants. If that were to happen, the county could seek alternative funding or dip into the general fund.

Withrow said he didn’t know when the county might release an RFP for running the homeless services. Much will depend on shifts in strategy at the state government level. Gov. Gavin Newsom is talking about “treatment, not tents,” getting homeless people into treatment for mental illness and substance abuse rather than just warehousing them, Withrow said.

“Without treatment, they are not fine and they won’t stay in the places we give them to live,” Withrow said. “The state is leaning in a new direction.”