There is a growing consensus based on remarks made by individual Manteca City Council members that the proposed homeless navigation center may only need to be between 50 and 120 beds.

That is based on separate conversations with Mayor Ben Cantu as well as council members Gary Singh and Dave Breitenbucher.

The exact number of beds for the proposed navigation center on the backside of the 8-acres the city is purchasing on South Main Street north of Industrial Park Drive has yet to be determined.

Interim City Manager Toni Lundgren noted the city’s conceptual plans for the site outlined several options based on bed count. They included 126 beds and 299 beds.

The $16 million grant obtained from the state locks the city into the Main Street site for the navigation center but it doesn’t lock the city into a specific bed count. That said it must be a navigation center with services aimed at helping the homeless get off the street and be able to support and house themselves.

Nowhere in the grant application or in the conditions of approval is it required that the navigation center be operated for the region.

Lei Ann Larson, a vocal opponent of a large navigation center, has characterized it as “regional.” Even though that is not the case, she has emphasized the size of the largest option the city has outlined at 299 beds is much bugger than the city’s need and would draw homeless from other cities.

It is a point that Cantu, Singh, and Breitenbucher share.

Breitenbucher noted the only reference to the center being for the “region” he has come across was in a Tweet from Assemblyman Heath Flora. There are, however, no conditions tied to the $16 million by the state that the money be used for a regional center.

Breitenbucher, who is not a big fan of the current site, believes not all of he services should necessarily be located there.

At any rate, he is leaning toward a 50-bed facility with perhaps five “extra beds” where police will have the ability to direct the homeless they come across sleeping illegal on the street to access.

If they don’t, the 9th District Court of Appeals ruling allows cities that have such beds available to pressure the homeless who are illegally sleeping on sidewalks and elsewhere to move on.

The latest point in time county conducted in January of this year pegged Manteca’s homeless at 129, down from 218 three years ago.

Lundgren said the city may consider working with Ripon and Lathrop to take in homeless that they direct to the center on a fee  basis for services accessed as they do with Lathrop for animal services.

The navigation center is not a drop-in center per se but will operate as a place where the homeless — who are willing to work to get off the street — will be taken to.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com