Stockton’s largest shelter will soon double its housing capacity for families in need, the city of Stockton says.
St. Mary’s Community Services’ long-awaited Carol and Henry Zeiter Navigation Center is slated to open early next year, and officials say it will be able to house twice as many families.
Most of the Stockton City Council and other city officials showed up to the center’s unveiling recently under the I-5 and Highway 4 interchange near downtown Stockton. The event marked the completion of a project nearly 10 years in the making and one that faced several obstacles along the way.
“Through our City Council, we are proud and thankful to have been able to contribute almost $8 million to this project,” City Manager Harry Black said to applause at the West Sonora Street ribbon-cutting. “Currently, families are the only population this shelter is turning away due to lack of capacity.”
The three-story, nearly 12,000-square-foot Navigation Center project survived permit delays before St. Mary’s Community Services — formerly St. Mary’s Dining Room — agreed to take over in September 2023.
Unhoused Stocktonians need the Navigation Center’s anticipated beds more desperately than ever after the City Council and San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed laws this fall against camping on almost all public property. The county law lets police fine or jail unhoused people for sleeping outside more than an hour.
Broad camping bans became legal across the U.S. after a controversial June decision by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order urging local governments to clear encampments.
Nearly 3,000 Stockton residents and roughly 4,700 San Joaquin County residents were unhoused at the latest count in January. The county had 1,869 homeless shelter and supportive beds — most usually occupied — that month, according to a city presentation in August.
The Navigation Center should add 68 more beds, Black said. Previously, the Stockton Shelter for the Homeless predicted the project would add 180 beds.
The difference is due to a decision by St. Mary’s and the city to use the center specifically for unhoused families, city spokesperson Connie Cochran told Stocktonia by phone.
“There has to be more space for the families (…) and they need a little bit of more storage and living space,” she said.
St. Mary’s didn’t immediately respond to questions about how many people the center can fit, and about any other changes to the center’s specifications since taking the project over from the Stockton Shelter.
During a tour for media and officials last week, the Navigation Center’s sleeping space appeared fully constructed but lacked beds, furniture and privacy barriers. The furniture should be in by February, Black said.
Beyond beds, the center will offer rooms for family reunifications and restrooms with showers, according to Lana Lozano, a program director for homelessness for the city. Families with up to four children may stay, she said.
The “navigation” part of the Navigation Center will be located on the ground floor, according to Black. There, St. Mary’s staff will have space to help people enroll in benefits programs, find rapid rehousing and more.
“I always hear people say, you know, all these human beings have choices,” Paul Canepa, who represents Stockton on the Board of Supervisors, said at the ceremony.
St. Mary’s and its staff epitomize the type of organization that offers people those better choices, Canepa said.
“Giving these people health and dignity is part of my job, and it’s part of their jobs,” he said.