Manteca Councilman Mike Morowit liked what he saw during a tour of homeless navigation center operations in Southern California that the city hopes to replicate locally.
“They weren’t lining up around the block or anything like that,” Morowit shared at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
The areas the navigation centers were in were devoid of tents and other associated problems.
“The key is to operate it right,” Morowit said.
And by operating it right, Manteca’s navigation center being developed on the eastern portion of 8 acres the city bought along South Main Street that will be accessed from Carnegie Court in the Manteca Industrial Park will not operate as a drop-in center.
Instead, the homeless need to commit to work toward addressing issues that have made them homeless and developing the skills needed to transition to being able to support themselves without ending back on the streets.
Morowit said that is why Manteca needs to contact with the right vendor to operate the navigation center once it is completed.
Morowit said addressing mental health and addiction issues among other concerns at a navigation center is key to reducing — and ideally virtually eliminating — people sleeping along freeways and camping about town.
“If it (being homeless) was just hard luck we could help those people pretty quickly,” Morowit said.
The city is moving forward with its efforts to build a navigation center thanks to $15 million in state funding that Mayor Gary Singh played a key role in enlisting the help of State Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman to secure.
Morowit dismissed concerns that the city “will build it and they will come” referencing homeless from other communities moving here because of the navigation center.
The councilman noted nearby communities are also going the same route as Manteca. That includes Tracy and Stockton that are working on ways to not just house the homeless but to work to get them off the streets by tying shelter with services.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
