Manteca Police Chief Stephen Schluer calls it “the triple nickel.” The 174 people that once worked there called it Qualex. Now upwards of 75 homeless people call it a temporary home.

Call it what you want, but the 55,000-square-foot former Qualex building at 555 Industrial Park Drive — hence Schuler’s “triple nickel” moniker — is the Mother of All Rorschach tests.

In the past 20 years since a previous City Council acting as the Manteca Redevelopment Agency bought the building to “save” money by remodeling it into a police station instead of building a new one from scratch, the Qualex structure and adjoining parking lot has:

*been the lightning rod for a community-wide fight that latest for years over even if Manteca should have a “drop-in” homeless shelter.

*pitted Manteca Unified against the City of Manteca when the City Council passed on it in 2020 as a homeless shelter site and the school district wanted to buy for a warehouse only for the city to change their mind.

*revealed arcane and superfluous state and federal rules that required determinations whether there was everything from indigenous American artifacts on the site to whether it is in the flight pattern for Stockton Metro Airport before it could be used as a homeless shelter despite such issues being addressed when Qualex was originally built.

*for all practical purposes, means the city is now buying the building a second time.

*has exposed the ineptness at the state level when it comes to dealing with the homeless.

And no one knows that better than Mayor Gary Singh.

Back in 2019 when he was still a councilman, he took the lead for elected officials in pushing an idea rooted in common sense.

Since the city was trying to buy the Qualex building for a homeless shelter and Gov. Gavin Newsom has just declared homelessness as the state’s No. 1 challenge and was proposing spending more than $20 billion over the next five years to address it, why not get the state to sell it to the city for $1?

Keep in mind the state made the rules for RDA and how their successor agencies were allowed to dispose of surplus property after then Gov. Jerry Brown in 2010 pulled the plug on them to divert revenue to Sacramento to avoid the need to slash thousands of state bureaucratic jobs at the height of the Great Recession.

The city was faced with a $12 million or so bill to remodel Qualex for use as a homeless shelter. If it could avoid buying the building more money could be freed up to address homelessness.

Assemblyman Heath Flora, R-Ripon, thought it was a sound idea. So did State Senator Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, who signed on as co-sponsor.

Singh appeared before committee hearings at the State Capitol to make the pitch.

Legislation to allow the successor agency to sell the Qualex building to Manteca for the purpose of remodeling it into a homeless navigation center passed both the California Assembly and California State Senate on unanimous votes.

The proposal made that much sense and was that sound.

But then a funny thing happened on the way to Newsom’s desk.

The governor killed the measure without comment. Months later, he launched the state’s $20 billion plus homelessness spending spree.

Singh didn’t throw up his hands and walk away.

Instead, he started working with then State Senator Susan Eggman and her staff to successfully secure $16 million for the city from the $20 billion Newsom was doling out to combat homelessness to establish a navigation center in Manteca.

What started as a way to avoid Manteca taxpayers from having to pay for the building and then fund the remodel, led to Singh’s effort to secure the $16 million grant to cover acquisition and remodeling costs.

It was completely nuts for Newsom to veto the legislation since it undermined his demand for “fast tracking” homelessness solutions.

For what ever reason — and one must assume it was bad advice from advisors — Newsom was the only one in the room that thought the transfer of Qualex to the City of Manteca with the condition all other local tax entities would forgo their share of the market value of the property’s value was a bad idea.

It has now been 8 years since the city started its effort to get control of 555 Industrial Park Drive that they have occupied much of that time without paying a penny in rent.

A lot of blood sweat and tears from countless people have brought Manteca to this point in its effort to address ongoing homeless issues in the community.

But in term of making it work with minimum burden on local taxpayers and at the cost of providing other municipal services such as police and fire, Singh is in a league of hi