Housing Navigation Center opens in Hayward to help people experiencing homelessness

HAYWARD, Calif., Nov. 14, 2019—The City of Hayward will celebrate on Monday the opening of a new Housing Navigation Center to provide 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 will offer 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 will be 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 will visit encampments and other locations, and work with other social service groups, police officers, paramedics and City maintenance crews to identify suitable program participants.  The Center will not accept walk-ins, and all residents will have to go through an intake process.

The City Council authorized establishment of 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 Homeless Emergency Aid Program and Proposition 47 dollars, City funding and private donations.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the start of Navigation Center operations will begin at 3:30 p.m. Monday.