City Manager Toni Lundgren stepped through the door and into the spartan 20-foot long, 8-foot wide, and 8.5 foot high transitional housing unit on Wednesday morning.

If the dimensions sound familiar, it’s because it is a 20-foot shipping container designed to move goods by truck, rail, and ocean going ship.

It had been converted by Vault of Stockton into sleeping quarters for two, complete with door, two sliding glass windows, flooring, and an air conditioning unit that provides heat when needed.

The only furniture for now are two basic beds and nightstands. Nothing fancy.

It is a long way from a Motel 6, even farther from a communal “circus tent” that once was all that graced the parking lot at 555 Industrial Park Drive, and light years from an illegal encampment hidden behind shrubbery along freeway right of way.

Lundgren gave the unit a thumbs up.

That’s because that unit — and seven others like them — has the ability to change the trajectory of not such individual lives but the overall quality of life in Manteca in its own way just like the 500-room Great Wolf indoor water park resort hotel has.

“We’re not simply opening the door to (transitional) homes; we are opening the way for a better life,” Pastor Sean De Leon, director of His Way Refuge Center, told a gathering of 50 on hand Wednesday for a ribbon cutting for transitional housing and dog kennel containers.

The event — celebrating the donated facilities that are about to open for use — took place at 555 Industrial Park Drive in the parking lot of the former 57,000-square-foot Qualex film processing facility.

That building is in the initial stages of renovation as the city’s permanent homeless navigation center with a $16 million grant secured, in a large part, through the efforts of Mayor Gary Singh.

“Thank you for believing homelessness can be addressed with compassion and accountability,” De Leon said.

He was not just referring to the services and housing offered at the city facility, but Manteca’s outreach efforts in the streets balanced with a measured enforcement effort aimed at reducing homeless efforts around the city by enforcing the laws and working to steer individuals to the navigation center to start their journeys to get off the streets.

“It’s not just about a ribbon cutting today,” Mayor Gary Singh noted. “It’s about creating opportunity, dignity, stability, and providing a path forward.”

Singh noted the city in their bid to address homelessness that one of the biggest barriers to get some off the streets were their dogs.

“Their pets are their family,” Singh said.

Other speakers noted the homeless take better care of their dogs than themselves.

As such, it means they don’t want to see their dogs “held” in the animal shelter or even in confined small cages with a blanket on top at 555 Industrial Park Drive.

“We shouldn’t force anyone to chose between seeking help and their families,” Singh said.

That is where the donated kennel fashioned from a shipping container comes into play.

The air conditioned and heated container has 12 dog kennels connected via a “small door” to separate outdoor dog runs.

The homeless are able to take their dogs out but at night they will sleep in the kennels. The homeless also will continue to care for their own animals.

Fresh Start CEO founder Nathan Crum who oversees the non-profit that arranged for the donation of the transitional housing to the city, noted the importance of the kennels.

“People go through tough times,” Crum said. “These (the dogs) are their friends. They are their guardian angels.”

San Joaquin County Supervisor Sonny Dhaliwal lauded Manteca’s holistic approach to handling the homeless issue. He also celebrated a countywide accomplishment.

Dhaliwal notes since 2024, the available housing for the homeless based on beds has increased 30 percent. At the same time, the county has enjoyed the third largest drop in terms of percentage among the state’s 58 counties for homeless numbers based on the point in time count conducted every two years.

Dhaliwal pointed out that is verified by windshield surveys showing the “number of tents in Manteca on the streets has dropped” as it has in Stockton, Lodi, and elsewhere.

Councilman Dave Breitenbucher, who serves on the council’s homeless subcommittee along with colleague Mike Morowit, notes a lot of dedicated workers and volunteers have gotten Manteca from offering just one large tent to the point it now has portable dorms for up to 50 men and up to 25 women as well as the eight new transitional housing units that can accommodate another 16.

And although the units will be shared with another and are simply basic bedrooms with the need to still access showers, bathrooms, and dining elsewhere at the 555 Industrial Park Drive complex, those that work with the homeless note transitional housing is key in readjusting to living away from the streets and large scale communal setting in order to take the next step to permanent housing.

“I remember coming out here on Christmas one year when there was just a large tent with (people) sleeping on pallets,” Morowit said in pointing out the progress the city has made so far.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com