Santa Ana, Calif. – June 28, 2021 – C.W. Driver Companies, a premier builder serving California since 1919, today announced the completion of the Yale Navigation Center, a 64,000-square-foot, two-story emergency homeless shelter in Santa Ana.
Spearheaded by HomeAid Orange County, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building new lives for families and individuals experiencing homelessness, the new facility will provide refuge for 275 single men, 100 single women and 25 couples who are experiencing homelessness. The new navigation center will deliver on a critical need for a permanent year-round, 24-hour shelter designed to help homeless individuals achieve permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
“Through its wraparound supportive services, the Yale Navigation Center is creating a pathway to permanent supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness and serious mental illness,” said Supervisor Andrew Do, Chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. “The Center meets a critical need in our communities by addressing a social issue that has impacted our local businesses and neighborhoods for years. This is part of the System of Care program that the County began in 2016.”
Located at 2229 S. Yale Street, the center will offer temporary lodging, basic needs including meals and sanitary amenities, and access to support services such as case management, employment and housing assistance, behavioral and mental healthcare support and substance abuse treatment, among other services. Key spaces include women and men’s dorms, restrooms, showers, a dining hall, kitchen, a large patio for recreation and outdoor dining, a lobby, security station, clinic space and classrooms for support services. The center will also offer workstations and a large breakroom for shelter staff as well as a 105-stall, ground-level public parking lot.
“We’re honored to partner with HomeAid Orange County to create a navigation center with wraparound care for individuals facing homelessness in the central part of Orange County,” said Karl Kreutziger, president of C.W. Driver Companies. “The new center is designed to provide local individuals and couples with access to clean and safe lodging as well as the appropriate resources to help improve their physical and mental wellbeing and reach stability so they can transition out of homelessness as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
The Yale Navigation Center was designed to provide residents with a sense of personal space and belonging and offers living accommodations complete with furniture and storage space. The facility features two options for living and sleeping space, including 6-by-6-foot single cubicles for individuals and 8-by-9-foot stations for couples. All stations include twin-sized beds and storage cabinets and meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards for accessible design.
“The Yale Navigation Center will help meet a need for adults experiencing homelessness in the Central Service Planning Area of Orange County and will provide these individuals and couples with a safe and dignified place to end their homelessness, ” said Gina Scott, executive director of HomeAid Orange County. “HomeAid is grateful to C.W. Driver Companies for their partnership on this critical development to help those most vulnerable in our community.”
The shelter will be operated by PATH (People Assisting the Homelessness), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization with a mission to end homelessness for individuals, families and communities throughout California. To protect the safety of shelter residents and the local community, the facility will provide 24-hour security and enforce strict no walk-up, no walk-out and no loitering policies. To be eligible for shelter, individuals must be experiencing homelessness in central Orange County cities and referred to staff by outreach workers, law enforcement or a hospital. Background checks will also be performed and those with outstanding warrants or sex offenses will not be granted access.
“Ending homelessness in Orange County is attainable with a housing-first approach,” said Jason Austin, director of care coordination at the County of Orange. “Achieving this goal becomes possible through projects like the Yale Navigation Center, where people have access to the tools and resources needed to overcome physical, emotional and mental health challenges, stop substance abuse, reenter the workforce and find employment opportunities – ultimately leading them on a path to permanent housing.”
C.W. Driver Companies worked with architecture firm, IDS Group, Inc. to complete the project. Other local and notable projects completed by C.W. Driver Companies include HomeAid OC Family Care Center in Orange; City of Laguna Niguel Crown Valley Park Community Building; City of Westminster Community Cultural Center and the City of Newport Beach Civic Center and Park, among others.
About C.W. Driver Companies
C.W. Driver Companies is a premier builder serving California since 1919. In 2019, the historic company proudly celebrated its 100-year anniversary. As a leader in general contracting and construction management services, C.W. Driver Companies are on the cutting edge across a broad spectrum of industries, including education, commercial/office, technology, healthcare/biomedical, mixed-use, assisted living, entertainment, retail, industrial and civic. Ranked in Engineering News Record’s Top 150 General Contractors and Top 100 Construction Managers, C.W. Driver Companies has the ability to build a variety of projects, from large tenant improvements to small renovations and specialized projects through its affiliates Driver SPG and Good & Roberts. C.W. Driver Companies has offices located in Los Angeles, Irvine, Rancho Cucamonga, Anaheim, San Diego and Carlsbad. For more information, please visit www.cwdriver.com. Follow C.W. Driver Companies on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
This place is nothing but a drug bed you can get any drug you want in the shelter and the drivers David he does drugs I stay there and I told him what was going on the first night I was there I got bedbugs and when I tried to tell the staff I had bedbugs they told me they were mosquitoes I have a mental diagnosis they didn’t care I ended up Odine on my medication and when I tell them about the driver and the other driver who try to be a psychiatrist to me when he’s just a driver they don’t believe me and the driver David told me to F off but nothing happens to me but yet in the rules if you say anything to staff in vulgar language you get kicked out but it’s all right for the drivers in it say anything they want you and it’s a joke I mean I I had I would mop my own dorm because it smell like butt and ass before even went to the restroom but the people in there would get mad at me for cleaning and they would complain and they told me I was stupid for doing it without even getting paid it got me more depressed and get this my case manager she got Kovic and displaces are they call you guess you know why it’s not a shelter it’s a hotel why she had Kovic they usually would test us on Tuesdays but she was gone for a week and are in my dorm and the beds there’s a lot of empty beds which is bad for business when you’re a hotel and does somebody got that testing people to come in on Tuesday or Monday I’m sorry instead of Tuesday because my case manager tested negative on Sunday two weeks ago so the managers at the hotel got everybody herded him on Monday to get tested that way we gave everyone gave a negative test and they were could be opened back up for business in the motel in our dorm was for that with stinky drug things since I’ve been here in the last two weeks we’ve had four people OD and it smells like marijuana all the time and there’s people here that shit and don’t and don’t have to clean it up all over the floor and they don’t care and the staff doesn’t even do anything about it this place is just it I mean you could stand out front and sell drugs to everybody that lives there and make a lot of money and if you don’t believe me you contact me before you call the staff and tell them to cover it up because that’s how it goes I’ve told the staff everything and they don’t believe me just because I have a mental diagnosis you know half the people that work there are mental and if they’re not mental they stayed in a shelter before they even got their jobs at security this is I can’t give you my name or my email because your rat me out and I’ll be kicked out I came here thinking I was going to find a place to live and all I got was a bunch of dope fiend and X toppings on staff and drivers that wanna tell you how to live and tell you how to be when they’re just doping themselves do you want to meet me somewhere and I’ll prove everything I’m saying it’ll be no problem I’m on Harbor and Warner I can’t give you my phone number or my email because then you’ll just screw me over and you guys aren’t out to help me you’re out to help the hotel and I can’t trust you just like I couldn’t trust the staff because they don’t want people like me that are trying to get out of there they want people that are dolphins that are never gonna want to leave that way the hotel stays open that’s what they call us guest what a joke I got nowhere to go I’ve been homeless 30 years I came from Long Beach thinking I was going to find a place to be without drugs and alcohol I’ve been shot three times and I’ve been stabbed nine times I just wanted to get a place to live but that Sarah Jones at OCHA told me I had to be in one of the shelters and Rosa Pollifax at County of Orange care coordinator stuck me in this hole now I got nowhere to go sometimes out I wish I was dead
Also the people that cook the food at the young navigation center are some of the nicest people also they’re very respectful and when they talk to you they look in the eyes not like some of the staff who just rolled her eyes at you and look don’t even look at you when you’re talking I mean they should take sensitivity training they don’t even care
Sounds like every other homeless center. Good luck.