By Julia Foote
At the Fremont City Council meeting on September 10, residents came out in the hundreds to speak to the much anticipated agenda item: a proposal for a housing navigation center to support the city’s growing homeless population. After listening to three hours of public comment, councilmembers voted unanimously (7-0) to approve a new 45-bed homeless navigation center downtown behind City Hall.
The Sierra Club celebrates this as a huge victory! The navigation center will serve as an important tool to address the environmental, social justice, public health, and safety issues that homelessness presents.
The site near Fremont City Hall was ultimately chosen due to its proximity to public transportation, health care and social services which should be made accessible to residents of the center. While many Fremont residents felt like the navigation center does not go far enough to address homelessness, it is an important piece of a portfolio of solutions that cities can implement regionally to help address the crisis. The new center will help 45 people at a time and about 90 people a year.
With homelessness up 21 percent in two years in Fremont, city officials found the need to build a shelter is necessary and urgent, especially with the risk of losing critical state and county funding by delaying the project. With the site decided, it could take up to 11 months to complete construction and set up utilities. The city hopes to have it up and running by mid 2020.
A sincere thank you to all Sierra Club members and supporters who attended community workshops and city council meetings or contacted their city representatives to vocalize their support for the homeless navigation center! We are pleased that this social and environmental justice issue will be addressed with a navigation center site close to the services and transportation resources needed by the users!
Moving forward, the City of Fremont should identify and incorporate “best practices” at existing navigation centers, like in San Francisco and Berkeley, to make the Fremont navigation center a model of success in transitioning our homeless residents into permanent housing.
Support for the unhoused is just one part of what must be a larger strategy to confront the Bay Area’s housing crisis through dense, mixed-use infill development paired with a robust transit system. Read about our work in this area here.
