Visalia Navigation Center to offer housing, services to homeless

After years of planning , Visalia's Navigation Center will soon begin to provide services to Tulare County's unhoused residents.

A grand opening will be held at 10 a.m. on Oct. 4 at the facility located at 3525 N. Court St. in Visalia . The event will include a ribbon-cutting, guided tours of the facility, and remarks from community leaders and stakeholders.

“The Visalia Navigation Center is a comprehensive center where individuals who are experiencing homelessness will be able to stay and receive services,” said CSET Executive Director Mary Alice Escarsega-Fechner. “They’ll be able to stay at our location for six to nine months where they're able to access all of these services through partnerships that CSET has in the community."

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The center is designed to focus on addressing the root causes of homelessness through specialized services and individualized care, according to staff. In addition to temporary housing, the center will offer meals, healthcare services, employment assistance, mental health support, and connections to long-term housing solutions.

“The intention is that we are able to begin to stabilize people’s lives and connect them to resources, and hopefully transition them to permanent or other types of housing that will assist them off the streets,” Escarsega-Fechner. said.

The Visalia Navigation Center is a low-barrier living facility, meaning that common barriers to entry are removed.

“Individuals, in order to receive services, don’t have to jump any hoops, such as participate in specific activities,” Escarsega-Fechner said, but noted that people can’t get services just by showing up.

“The navigation center is not a drop-in center,” she explained. “They have to be referred to us by an agency. Typically, they would be referred to us by the Kings/Tulare Homeless Alliance. This is not a place where you get in line to receive services in any shape or form.”

Enrollment is done through the Homeless Management Information System.

A community effort

The Visalia Navigation Center was built at a cost of $11.5 million, according to Escarsega-Fechner.

Funding included “dollars from the city of Visalia, Tulare County, some fundraising efforts through TC Hope, and also other philanthropic dollars that were able to come in to support the building of the Visalia Navigation Center, as well as grants,” she said.

Community organizations, healthcare providers, government agencies, and individual community members are also participating in the effort.

“We have Kaweah Health and Family HealthCare Network, which will connect individuals to healthcare services, and then we have the county that will be providing healthcare services. They also will be providing some of the other general services – access to general aid, access to behavioral health through some of their contracted partners, a variety of safety net services that will assist individuals in getting back on their feet,” Escarsega-Fechner said.

Other key partners include the Kings Tulare Homeless Alliance, Visalia Senior Housing, and the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency.

“CSET will bring in an array of services, from employment training services to safety net services that will also assist the individuals and even families that are seeking services at our site,” Escarsega-Fechner said. “We will also be connecting individuals with safety net services like NA classes and AA classes, and working with local churches who would like to provide services at our site.”

Individuals staying at the center can spend their days working or taking advantage of the services the center will provide.

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“We will have full services there Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. We also have opportunities for them," Escarsega-Fechner said. "We run six litter-abatement crews, which is our back-to-work program, as well as the ECO (Environmental Cleanup Opportunities) program that is funded through the city of Visalia and the Workforce Investment Board, where individuals who are experiencing homelessness would have access to jobs.

“So there’s part-time, potentially full-time work, and we're working on creating a cafeteria transition training as well because we do have a commercial kitchen onsite,” she added.

The Visalia Navigation Center also has work opportunities for volunteers, including kitchen assistants, reception assistants, and in laundry services.

“On our website, there is a place for folks to let us know if they are interested and then we can follow up with them, and there’s an application on the website as well,” Escarsega-Fechner said.

For more information about the Visalia Navigation Center or to RSVP for the grand opening, visit www.cset.org/vnc .

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Visalia Navigation Center to offer housing, services to homeless