Manteca has already spent millions on homeless-related issues over the years and is posed to spend millions more — including $15 million to build a homeless navigation enter.
It against that background that the City Council is being asked Wednesday when they meet at 6 p.m. to award a $92,600 contract to the RPM Team to develop a comprehensive plan to address and alleviate homelessness and prepare a five-year Homelessness Action Plan (HAP).
Such a plan is key in municipal efforts to try and avoid homeless-related expenditures from impacting local taxpayers as much as possible.
Funding to build to navigation center as well as the current homeless emergency services center at 555 Industrial Park Drive have almost all come from federal and state sources.
While state and federal grants don’t cover expenses such as close to $1 million annually in public safety hours by police and firefighters addressing homeless calls as well as working to get the homeless off the streets, the plan could set in motion additional steps that will help reduce the pressure on police and fire services.
Police and fire services are paid for through the city’s municipal general fund underwritten primarily by property and sales taxes.
In January 2022, the city participated in the biennial San Joaquin County Point in Time count, which found 129.
Primary causes of homelessness in San Joaquin County have been identified as job loss, mental health issues, substance use, evictions, foreclosures, and incarceration, as well as larger structural issues such as increasing rents and lack of affordable housing.
The city is seeking to develop a comprehensive Action Plan to address solutions to meet the city’s goals in reducing the incidence of people experiencing homelessness.
The plan will include:
*Review and summary of relevant documents
*Identification and summary of public and private sector programs serving the county
*Identification of current needs, programs and funding
*Robust community involvement, including; outreach and education through workshops, in plan creation and implementation, and participation and input of individuals with lived experience.
*Identification of challenges and gaps to meeting the vision and goals
*Creation plan for a sustainable navigation center
*Plan for the establishment of a committee/task force on homelessness
*Presentation of a strategy to the City Council
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
