The future of the public homeless shelter in downtown Modesto is up in the air, with ground-shaking changes potentially looming for both owner and operator.
The Salvation Army – the shelter’s only operator since it opened in early 2020 – could be headed out the door.
Its strained relationship with both sponsoring agencies providing most of the shelter’s funding – principally Stanislaus County, and also Modesto – have soured over finances and the parties may be headed toward divorce.
The city and county are negotiating to buy the shelter’s property at Ninth and D streets on the edge of downtown Modesto from the Salvation Army.
Simultaneously, the agencies are actively seeking bids for a new operator to run the ACES shelter, short for Access Center Emergency Shelter, at that site – as well as the Salvation Army’s adjacent private shelter.
The Salvation Army’s Major Darren Stratton stopped short of calling it a hostile takeover, saying his organization is focused on serving the 182-bed ACES shelter’s homeless clientele until negotiations conclude.
“There is no confirmed direction from any partner,” Stratton said. “While negotiations are being had, no decisions have been made. At this point our commitment is to those in the shelter.”
ACES is one of two shelters at the same location, both operated by the Salvation Army; the second, the private Berberian shelter, has another 180 beds, also at Ninth and D. (The Modesto Gospel Mission has a third shelter with 150 beds on Yosemite Boulevard.)
Stanislaus County and Modesto troll for suitors
An official request for qualifications posted by the city and county on government contract websites says the agencies seek an operator for a 400-bed emergency shelter.
“Eligible applicants should ideally possess ten years of experience operating emergency shelters and have managed at least one facility with a minimum of 150 beds,” reads the agencies’ request for qualifications. “A critical component of the evaluation is the operator’s capacity for financial sustainability.”
At the same time, both agencies’ top executives – County CEO Jody Hayes and Modesto City Manager Joe Lopez – are officially in negotiations to buy the Ninth Street parcel from the Salvation Army, according to closed-session agendas of the county Board of Supervisors and the Modesto City Council.
Both factors indicate the agencies are looking to move away from their partnership with the Salvation Army, take over both Ninth Street shelters and begin anew with a different operator running both.
Modesto City Councilmember Eric Alvarez, whose district includes downtown, said the request for bids is an opportunity for the agencies to test the water for other operators, and noted that the Salvation Army is free to join in the bidding.
“Whoever has the best proposal will be chosen,” Alvarez said. “We wanted to make sure to give other folks a chance to apply.”
But the Salvation Army was not among 11 companies expressing interest by a Sept. 25 deadline, according to websites hosting the application process.
Among the 11 are Uplift All Foundation and Outreach Ministries International, both of Stockton, according to Cleatus, a website tracking government contracts. Both nonprofit organizations provide homeless services but don’t run a shelter.
City and county yearn for more stability
Stratton said funding for the Modesto ACES shelter has been dicey since the COVID-19 pandemic.
A majority of ACES’ past funding came from Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention money, or HHAP. But state leadership, upset at slow progress, last year eliminated an HHAP source going to counties and large cities this year, and agencies expect only half the normal allotment next year.
Relations between the Salvation Army and the city and county appeared tenuous since The Modesto Focus first broke news a year ago that the shelter was quickly running out of money, potentially putting more people back on the streets.
Since January 2021, 2,575 people have stayed at the shelter and used associated social services for help hunting jobs and homes. In that time, 111 found housing, a success rate of 4.3%.
The agencies have scrambled since to cobble together enough money from various sources to keep the shelter going, extending its life a few months at a time.
The Modesto City Council last week approved $591,000 for the shelter. And county supervisors are expected Sept. 29 to approve an additional $762,850. Together, the $1.35 million should keep ACES open through the end of the year, the agencies say.
But city and county officials have tired of the hand-to-mouth uncertainty, as well as demands that they also pay rent to the property landlord – the Salvation Army.
Someone other than Modesto Gospel Mission must step up
The Modesto Gospel Mission last year rescued the former Modesto Downtown Streets effort, which provided help for homeless people volunteering to pick up trash, when the Downtown Streets’ parent organization went out of business. Working with City Hall and the United Way, the Gospel Mission created Hope Works and now pays participants for their work.
Jason Conway, the Gospel Mission’s chief executive, told The Modesto Focus that the organization, which runs other programs as well, considered entering the bidding to run the city-council shelter, but decided against getting spread too thin.
“We want to make sure we execute those initiatives well rather than take on an additional operation of this size,” he said.
ACES opened in early 2020, replacing a government-sponsored tent city known as MOES, or the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter, under the Ninth Street bridge.
Many unhoused people are reluctant to give up partners, pets and possessions, and rules requiring separation are considered barriers that keep some out of shelters. ACES has fewer such rules, so it’s known as a low-barrier shelter.
Said Alvarez, “If the (city-county) bureaucracy has a certain view of the Salvation Army, that’s not my lane – I stay in the governing lane and that’s their beef. Whatever squabbles they’re having is not my concern. I just hope whoever puts forth a proposal will continue to serve our most vulnerable people.”
Garth Stapley is the accountability reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact him at garth@themodestofocus.org.