By Dianne Anderson

More help for the homeless is underway at a new Wellness Center in Victorville, a program providing a minimum of 170 beds for interim housing and wraparound support services, rehabilitation, and a variety of free health services.

Built mainly with a $28 million Homekey Grant from the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the sprawling center boasts numerous community spaces, including a garden, recreational sports courts, and industrial kitchen.

Victorville Mayor Debra Jones described the local center’s offering as a result of a tremendous collaboration of community, task force members and service organizations to break the cycle of homelessness.

“We are thrilled to have high-caliber operators with the know-how and reputation of Hope the Mission and Symba Center join us to bring their skill and professionalism to our Wellness Center in Victorville,” said Victorville Mayor Debra Jones in a statement. “With the operators in place, we are one step closer to opening this one-of-a-kind facility to combine non-congregate living units with wraparound support services like medical and recuperative care.”

Sue Jones, spokesperson for the city of Victorville, said that if needed, more housing capacity can be increased to include bunk beds and extra bedding in some of the units. With 25,920 square feet of new construction on 4.5 acres of City-owned land, the center has plenty of room and services.

Modular housing offers 110 separate single, double, and family-sized units.

“When fully operational, the medical services and select supportive services, [such as] housing navigation and case management, will be available to members of the Victorville community who are at risk of homelessness,” she said.

With its grand opening held last month, the center also features medical and recuperative care, which she emphasized is an extremely challenging component of wellness for individuals who lack proper shelter and access to ongoing medical care.

From a competitive bid process, two nonprofits were selected to operate the center, the Symba Center, a local non-profit founded by Dr. Shawn Smith and Dr. Brian Nyamwange, and Hope the Mission, which held a job fair last month, filling job openings and positions. It is located at 16902 First Street.

At last glance, San Bernardino County 2023 Homeless Point in Time Count reported that Victorville had a total of 607 sheltered and unsheltered homeless. Whites represented 50% of the homeless, while Blacks were overrepresented at 27.4 % and Latinos made up the next largest homeless population at 24.1%.

She said the center serves the entire community in need.

“To my knowledge, we aren’t working with any nonprofits that work with the African American community specifically. The nonprofits engaged to work on this project have missions to serve the broader community,” she said.

Local hospitals will be able to discharge Victorville’s unhoused directly to the Wellness Center medical clinic to receive the recuperative care required to recover while freeing much-needed hospital beds.

Expenses will be reimbursed through Medi-Cal, and she said the medical clinic, supportive services and recuperative care will also be self-sustaining services. Currently, she noted that it’s hard to gauge how many will utilize services, but that data will be available in the future.

Besides the obvious critical needs of the unhoused community, such as access to shelter and housing, the center will also help with substance-use-disorder counseling, behavioral health service, behavioral disorder counseling and treatment, job readiness and placement.

“Our Wellness Center has been structured to offer all of these support and healthcare services on-site in one location. When clients are referred to the center, they will receive a thorough evaluation to identify their needs, then an individualized treatment plan will be created, and a case manager assigned to help guide them on their journey to wellness,” Jones said.

Among other offerings, the Wellness Center provides multiple restrooms and showers for men and women, three exam rooms at their medical clinic, a cafeteria and dining, a recreation area, office space, a kennel area, and more.

For San Bernardino County, the county lists Victorville as having the highest concentration of homelessness, but also notes that cities are also being sued in Federal court for criminalizing homelessness. Adequate shelter must be provided to address enforcement of anti-camping ordinances.

“In order to restore balance back to our community and public spaces like parks, libraries and recreation centers, we must have adequate shelter, beds and a collaborative solution to direct homeless individuals to resources and housing,” the city’s website says.

Dr. Shawn Smith, CEO of Symba Center, said the nonprofit will be providing healthcare and wraparound support services at the Center.

Some of the most common illnesses that they encounter are hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia.

“The Wellness Center medical clinic will provide primary care services including physical examinations, medication prescriptions, and vaccinations. Most chronic disease conditions will be treated onsite by the medical and mental health team,” he said in an email.

For more information on homeless resources in Victorville, see https://www.victorvilleca.gov/services/homeless-outreach/homeless-land-page-1027