City Manager Eric Levitt gave a brief update on two agreements at the City Council meeting on March 5:

1) The City Council approved the purchase of 3535 by the Commonwealth using legislative money, an earmark of about $9.5 million.

2) An operating agreement with Illumination Foundation, which operates and is a current tenant of the Navigation Center. The Navigation Center operating agreement must be approved before it is tentatively scheduled to occur by the end of this week. One key financial aspect of the operating agreement is that the city would pay for 40 beds at $80 per bed, which would be approximately 1.19 million per year for the city. For more information, visit www.ifhomeless.org.

The cost would be offset by approximately $390,000 a year in rent from the Illumination Foundation. So that would be an offset credit, which would cost the city about $800,000 a year to operate this facility for those 40 beds. It would also guarantee 40 beds per day, per night for the city.

“As you’re aware, when someone goes into a bed, they may be in there for a long term. That would be one of the 40 beds that we continue to operate. We would use our HMOs and our community development department to continue monitoring and ensuring we had those beds available,” said Levitt.

Public Comments

Curtis Gamble said, “Overall, I think it’s a good contract. I’m very happy to see a Navigation Center shelter in Fullerton. We have about 14 shelters throughout the Orange County. First of all, it should be a walk-up facility. It should be based on first come, first serve. We also need more beds. Now that Senate Bill 4 has passed, we have churches right around the block from the Navigation Center that want to put beds in, and there are 30-plus churches that we have in Fullerton. Those churches should be included in this contract, and it would give all the churches an opportunity to see how to do things properly. I noticed that $80.00 per bed per night could go to some churches with beds available and who want to participate. We can expand that again to the churches so that our 300 homeless people can have a place to stay. And we all work together.”

The motion passed unanimously 4/0; Mayor Pro Tem Fred Jung was absent.

For more information about this topic, read the Fullerton Homeless Plan Committee Strategic Plan for Addressing Homelessness Report to the Fullerton City Council. (see below)