It may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but the opening of the City of Manteca’s third homeless dorm at the emergency shelter next week will be taking pressure off of both municipal police and fire services.

The impact on fire services can mean engines are available when other emergency calls come in as often happens when they are tied up on a call.

In recent years, 9 percent of all fire calls have been homeless related.

In 2021, as an example, 878 of the department’s 10,230 overall calls were homeless related with the vast majority being medical calls.

That also usually triggers a Manteca District Ambulance unit being dispatched.

In terms of actual fire calls, 173 of the 470 fires in Manteca in 2024 were homeless-related. They were usually cooking or warming fires.

Over the years, more than a few of those fires got out of control and burned abandoned buildings, or in the case of a nighttime warming fire near the entrance to the former county health office downtown, structures that were temporally unoccupied.

His Way Recovery, that operates the city’s emergency shelter at 555 Industrial Park Drive, is now setting up beds and moving other items into the portable sleeping dorm that will accommodate 25 men.

At the same time, eight free-standing container houses also are ready for occupation.

Between the two existing dorms, the emergency center will have a sleeping capacity of 83.

Opportune time for the

homeless dorm opening

The opening of the third dorm happens to be timed right after the first major storm of the weather year will be hitting the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

As City Manager Toni Lundgren noted, it is an opportune time to step up the city’s ongoing efforts to get the homeless off the streets to access services and programs needed to get them to stay that way.

“Bad weather when it’s rainy and cold and their (belongings) are all getting wet is enough to finally get some of the homeless to (take advantage of the shelter),” Lundgren said.

Once they are in the shelter accessing services and programs, His Way has been effective in putting a number of homeless on various paths that will allow them to stay off the streets.

There is a waiting list for the 25 beds that will become available next week, although it won’t fill them entirely.

Besides being able to accommodate those on the waiting list, it provides volunteers the opportunity during outreach efforts in the coming weeks to have more success at coaxing homeless into the shelter now that the weather is turning bad.

Lundgren noted getting more homeless sheltered and into various programs takes pressure off of police, fire, and public works.

It also eases demand for ambulance and emergency room services as homeless that are sheltered aren’t subjected to conditions that aggravate health problems.

In addition, it gets more homeless off the street that reduces community quality of life issues throughout Manteca.

The city is expected to start physical work next year on the 55,000-square-foot Qualex building at 555 Industrial Park Drive to convert into a homeless navigation center.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com