Construction to begin next month
By Brooklynn Wong
Progress is being made on the planning for Buena Park’s Navigation Center now that the location has officially been decided upon.
At this Tuesday’s City Council Meeting, the Council voted unanimously and enthusiastically to approve a contract with the company that will spearhead the construction.
The company is Griffin Structures, which the city has worked with in the past, chiefly on Station 61, the new state-of-the-art Orange County Fire Authority station that opened in Buena Park last year.
The Navigation Center, a temporary homeless shelter, is being built in Buena Park as the result of a lawsuit filed against many of Orange County’s cities. When efforts were made over the last couple of years to remove the homeless from public areas where they were setting up camp—namely at the Santa Ana riverbed outside Angel Stadium—it was determined that cities needed to do more to provide a place for them if they could not be in public places.
Per the lawsuit, there needed to be more shelter beds in place across the county before local agencies could continue enforcing anti-camping ordinances.
Buena Park and Placentia were selected as two strategic areas for shelters to be built, and the two cities and their residents have been navigating those processes ever since.
Buena Park city staff first identified a facility near the intersection of Knott and Lincoln as the location of choice. However this was met with much controversy, as residents said this was too close to homes and schools, and would have a negative impact on property values and safety in the area.
The city took this to heart and found an alternative site in an industrial area, at 6490 Caballero Blvd.
Residents were much more accepting of this location, and it was approved at a recent City Council Meeting.
Now all the logistics must be hammered out. And on an expedited timeline, so it can be opened as soon as possible.
Construction is set to begin next month, with a goal of having the Navigation Center open by the end of this calendar year.
The associated costs to be paid to Griffin are in the amount of $592,000. This was set to be allocated from the Homeless Emergency Aid Program fund, and City Manager Jim Vanderpool announced that in recent days, the city has in fact been awarded a $6.7 million grant.
And a Los Angeles-based company by the name of Crate Modular will provide the materials. They are a modular construction company that utilizes repurposed shipping containers.
The company recently constructed Potter’s Lane in Midway City, a housing facility for homeless veterans. Potter’s Lane was a similarly expedited project, and was constructed in nine months.
Potter’s Lane, a homeless veterans’ facility in Midway City. Griffin Structures and Crate Modular constructed this facility, and as of this week, they have been identified as the team that will develop the Navigation Center in Buena Park with similar materials.
Dustin Alamo of Griffin Structures said at Tuesday’s City Council Meeting that a structure made of repurposed shipping containers does not have to look industrial; it can in fact “be a warm, inviting environment.”
He and another representative from Griffin spoke, and showed pictures of projects they have completed in the past made of repurposed shipping containers, saying this is an environmentally smart choice, and that the materials are in fact very versatile and can have many different looks.
City Council members praised city staff for putting this together so quickly, and expressed excitement for the new center and the ways in which it will help the city and county.
