It may not be the topic of the upcoming homeless summit June 4 that deals with the nuts and bolts issues of trying to get the homeless off Manteca streets.

But a growing number of people are asking why progress hasn’t been made on getting a homeless navigation center in place.

And by that, they mean construction of a facility.

After prerequisite work required before they could move forward  — the development of operational plans and such — the city was expected to put out design and build proposals for the project to allow for groundbreaking by year’s end.

But then two things happened.

The city started looking at ways to leverage the $16 million more effectively to reduce the short- to mid-range need to tap into city funds to operate the facility.

That meant not investing most of the $16 million into a new building and looking at options for the emergency shelter site at 555 Industrial Park Drive.

Such a move may involve more portable buildings in the parking lot or possibly remodeling all or part of the 55,000-square-foot former Qualex building that is part of 555 Industrial. That would free up money to fund operations of a navigation center for several or so years in addition to helping get facilities in place.

The operating costs is not a minor concern. In operating just an emergency shelter, Manteca is spending almost $1.2 million annually.

Most of that is now covered by state and federal funds. There was a concern that the city needed to leverage the $16 million to reduce the need in the future for general fund dollars to run the navigation center once it is established given state and federal money may not always be available.

The second thing that happened is the city decided to build the new police station on the 8 acres it bought at 680 South Main where the navigation center would have been placed in the back.

Instead, the rest of the parcel not needed for a police station could be used to build a community center/library.

The homeless summit takes place on Wednesday, June 4, at 9 a.m. at the Manteca Transit Center,  220 Moffat Bld.

It will bring together community-based groups as well as county agencies, and city staff — including the police department — that work on a daily basis to address homeless issues and concerns.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com