Year in review: Navigation Center starts offering path out of homelessness

The City opened a new Housing Navigation Center on Nov. 18, providing transitional housing and services to people living on the streets, in encampments or otherwise experiencing homelessness in Hayward.

The Navigation Center at Whitesell Street and Depot Road offers short-term housing for up to 45 people at a time in dormitory settings with one meal a day, on-site restroom, shower, laundry and kitchen facilities, and intensive case management geared toward long-term housing placements.

The Center is being run by Bay Area Community Services (BACS), a local nonprofit organization that runs a successful City of Berkeley Navigation Center on which the new Hayward program is modeled.

Hayward Navigation Center outreach workers visit encampments and other locations, and work with Alameda County, social service groups, police officers, paramedics and City maintenance crews to identify suitable program participants.  The Center does not accept walk-ins, and all residents will have to go through an intake process.

The City Council authorized the Navigation Center on City property in January as a pilot project in response to a growing homeless population and corresponding emergency shortage of shelter space.  The Center has been developed and furnished through a combination of state and local funding, and private donations.  For more information on accessing Navigation Center services or supporting the program, visit the City’s website.