Senior Planner David Lopez presented at the March 27th City Planning Commission meeting about the Illumination Foundation’s request to reorganize the number of shelter beds used by the Navigation Center and the Recuperative Care Medical Facility it manages for the city. The request included moving 20 beds from the current Navigation Center to the Recuperative Care side of the facility, resulting in 110 recuperative beds and 40 Navigation Center beds, including wrap-around services. The change does not alter the original 150-bed Conditional Use Permit from 2019, which is considered minor. Staff recommended that the request be approved. Watch the full video here

Background: On November 5, 2019, Fullerton City Council voted to provide $500,000 of city funds to improve the building and contracted with the non-profit Illumination Foundation to run it. On December 11, 2019, the Planning Commission approved Conditional Use Permit Zone 2019-0131 to operate a human service agency that included 60 recuperative care beds and 90 Navigation Center beds for 150 beds with wrap-around service. The shelter, which can be accessed by referral only, is located at 3535 W Commonwealth Ave.  

Client intake arrivals and departures take place from the rear of the property. The entrance to the building at the front facing Commonwealth Ave. is limited to faculty staff and visitors, which is an appointment. The building also does not include any exterior signage to advertise the services offered within the building.

As part of the original CUP approval, the front of the property along Commonwealth Ave was improved. This included landscaping, removing a freestanding sign, replacing sidewalks and the driveway entering the site, and improving the rear of the property with a new trash enclosure and perimeter fencing with an access gate to the client intake departure area, which is not directly visible from the street. The parking lot was also restricted to 25 parking spaces, as required by code. The Illumination Foundation gets funding for recuperative care through CalOptima. The City of Fullerton has an operating agreement with Illumination Foundation to pay for 40 beds at $80 per bed, which would be approximately $1.19 million per year for the city. Those beds are for Fullerton residents who need shelter. 

The first floor of the building includes the recuperative care functions within the front portion. The floor plan includes: 

• A therapy room
• Medical offices
• Group counseling room
• Computer and lounge room
• Restrooms
• Shower facilities

A center portion of the building includes:

• The kitchen and dining room.
• Restrooms.
• Shower facilities for the Navigation Center and recuperative care.

The rear portion of the building is improved with separate men’s, women’s, and couples’ sleeping areas, a computer room, a lounge room, counseling offices for wrap-around services, a faith-based community room, and a client intake area, which is used by both the Navigation Center and recuperative care. 

The second floor comprises a medical clinic operated by the Illumination Foundation Medical Group. It includes counseling offices, full wrap-around services, staff offices, a staff lounge, laundry facilities, restrooms, and a counseling room. The facility continues to provide 24-hour staffing and uniformed security personnel. 

The request this evening includes A modification to the number of beds to reflect 110 beds for recuperative care and 40 beds for the Navigation Center, including the wrap-around Services. The requested modification does not alter the 150-bed count approved by the original CUP in 2019. The requested changes are considered only minor as they are still within the original findings of the CUP, and the request is also consistent with the goals and policies of the General Plan. The staff recommended that the Planning Commission approve this modification as conditioned. 

According to the Fullerton Navigation and Recuperative Care Center website, This state-of-the-art facility is the first of its kind in the United States. It was created through a public-private partnership and offers navigation and recuperative care beds under one roof. The facility offers clients diversion assistance, crisis evaluation, trauma-informed case management, housing navigation, behavioral health and substance use therapy, transportation services, group and individual enrichment activities led by local partners, accommodations for up to 20 pets, employment services, meals, laundry, security, and storage. Sixty recuperative care beds will provide high utilizers of local emergency rooms with a safe and restful place to recover after hospital discharge and/or illness.

Dr. Pooja Bhalla, CEO of Illumination Foundation, said, “Recuperative care beds are for individuals who have medical issues or health issues that need medical oversight. That’s the difference between a shelter bed and a recuperative care bed. These folks generally come from hospitals with medical issues that need 24/7 medical oversight. These folks come directly from the City of Fullerton, from their hospitals and emergency rooms, who have medical issues and would end up in the emergency rooms; instead, they’ll come directly to recuperative care. We oversee that they get back on their medications. We connect them back to medical services and then permanently to housing. That’s the goal.” 

 PUBLIC COMMENT

Tanya Hanna: I reside in Fullerton. My flock is the homeless people in this town. I am a reverend. My flock is out there. They are fighting the battle every single day. I have a member of my flock, and I won’t say his name is none of my business, is none of your business, but he has end-stage cancer. When the Hope Center took him for the first time, he was admitted to Saint Jude and diagnosed with the stage 4 cancer that he has. Unfortunately, the care that he received was inadequate. Not nice. Not good. And he decided that he would rather be homeless instead. And so, while he was out here on the street in Fullerton, he had his chemotherapy, medication, and a shopping cart because all of his belongings were taken from him. 

The Fullerton Police Department arrested him and held his chemotherapy medication hostage for six days, so he was out without chemo for six days. When we called the Hope Center again, the Hope Center took him to the Illumination Foundation. Where he’s receiving recuperative care, he’s not some drug addict out on the street. He’s a person, he’s a brother, he’s an uncle, and he’s my friend. He deserves good care that these people are giving it to him. Please help them. 

Josh Ferguson: I wanted to know how the people coming from the hospital get to Fullerton. “If you’re moving the numbers away from or towards recuperative care, it’s going to impact Fullerton people who are homeless and have problems.” 

Ferguson asked how effective the programs are. “The goals don’t matter if they don’t have results. And I don’t see anything that’s saying these aren’t the same people we see over and over and over again. These people have been in the Illumination Foundation or the shelter consistently for six months, a year or two. So if there aren’t results, then it doesn’t matter how many beds you have because you’ll run out.” He said, “If CalOptima is sending people who just came into Fullerton into the recuperative beds, those beds could be full. When somebody comes into the other side and needs the recuperative side, they can’t get to them. Where are people coming from initially? How many people are coming into Fullerton for the first time before they get treated and put into the CalOptima system? How many people have made it out because of this system? California gives billions of dollars away to the homeless sort of industrial complex. How many people are actually being removed from homelessness through these programs versus how many are we seeing over and over again?”

Curtis Gamble: First, I just passed you all the Fullerton Observer. Could you turn to page 7? I think up in the right-hand corner, there was an article on the Illumination Foundation. It’s just a small little article, but it may be helpful. 

One thing I want to know is who the owners are. Is it Mr. Paul Leonard Leon? Is he still the CEO or Founder? Because he was here when they first started. The other question is that the Long Beach emergency shelter is not renewing its contract with the Illumination Foundation, so if they could talk about that, I’d like to hear more. 

Maureen Milton: My questions are. How do the referrals get to the facility? Do they get there on their own, or are they escorted there? Is it a 24-hour service in the facility, and is it all night? Is it a wrap-around service included in the program, or is it just the critically ill and emergency shelter only? Entering the back, it seemed like it would be a long distance for the mobility challenge to get from the street to the entrance of the building. 

Commissioner Questions & Comments

Dr. Pooja Bhalla, CEO of Illumination Foundation: The referrals come directly from the City of Fullerton, the Homeless Liaison Officer, the street teams, and the outreach teams. Then, they come in, and they can come in 24 hours a day. It does have all the wrap-around services, case management, housing, navigation, and substance abuse services. As folks come in, we can start getting them on a pathway to housing. 

Commissioner Peter Gambino: There was a question about performance and how well you performed between the recuperative care and navigation services. Can you kind of elaborate on how successful you are?

Bhalla: When folks come into the Navigation Center, the goal is for them to get into housing and not go back on the streets. And I think we all know there is a shortage of housing. So we’re always trying to make sure we can get folks ready for housing. They come in, they work with housing navigation, and then we work closely with the housing agencies to get folks into housing and recuperative care. It’s the same thing. There is no permanent housing, but in many cases, we can get them into apartments or Single-room occupancy units.

Gambino: Do you have real data regarding the percentage of success you can share? Can you share real data for both bed types with us? 

Bhalla: So let me give you an example of a partnership we have with the healthcare agency in Orange County and Cal Optima and our program where everybody coming in through that program will be connected to a housing voucher will be connected through all the services and I can tell you in the last year plus. Out of the 74 folks that came in, 46 moved into permanent housing. That’s because we diligently work with them to ensure they can get into housing. The key thing to remember here is you can’t get someone into housing in 90 days. They don’t even have their documents ready. 

Gambino: This statistic is valid for over one year, so you only had 74 people in one year? 

Bhalla: No, I just gave you an example of a program we run. In many cases, and this is readily available data for any program [like this], anywhere from 30 to 40% of folks move into housing. But again, you know, if they’re in a shelter, they’re there sometimes for six, seven, or eight months. They’re waiting for housing. That’s the ideal. 

Gambino: So, regarding your data concerning navigation, how much of your need is for navigation, navigation only versus recuperative? 

Bhalla: Recuperative care is a big need because folks are on the streets. I’m sure you’ve heard about the CalOptima Street Medicine program. Some folks have medical needs and need to go directly into recuperative care. So we’re seeing more and more need for recuperative care. And there are some folks who just, you know, don’t want to come in, and those folks generally will come in and try the shelter for maybe three or four days. And you know if they want to be inside, then they’ll stay. But what we’re seeing more and more is recuperative care because of the medical issues that this population has, mental health, medical injuries, trauma, all of that. 

Gambino: And so, regarding the numbers you came up with, how did you derive the numbers to change from 60 to 40? How did you come up with those figures? 

Bhalla: Because that’s what the need is more recuperative care beds. 

Commissioner Douglas Cox: You have to report to the county, you have data, you have a rubric, and that goes to the County Health Care Agency, and they review it. Can the public get that information? The efficacy of programs is important.

Bhalla: Yes. There’s a website on the continuum of care. Some meetings happen just like this meeting, or folks can go in and ask questions similar to the healthcare agency’s reports on housed individuals and how many have moved into housing. How many are still out on the street?

 The motion to approve 40 Navigation beds for Fullerton residents down from 60 and 20 beds to the Recuperative side passed unanimously.

Point in time: https://www.everyonecountsoc.org/reports