Fresno City Center will be a centralized location for the coordination of an array of supportive services for individuals experiencing homelessness.
The City of Fresno, like many other communities in California, is facing a homelessness crisis driven by spiking housing costs and the COVID-19 pandemic. A point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness showed an increase of 45% of homeless individuals from 2019 to 2020 (the 2021 count was cancelled due to COVID-19).
The Fresno Mission serves homeless men, women, and children in the Fresno community. With the construction of a high-speed rail, the Fresno Mission needed to move its operations. The City Center project will ultimately serve as the new headquarters for the Fresno Mission.
City Center is an 8.9 acre former hospital site that includes 7 buildings with over 160,000 sq. ft. of space—about half the area of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The City Center aims to create a community for children, families, and individuals facing life insecurities related to homelessness and poverty, and to address barriers, burdens, and beginnings through a shared campus model.
The new campus will provide space for many community partners to provide a holistic array of supportive services. This New Markets Tax Credit project is Phase 1 of City Center, which includes the main headquarters building of the Fresno Mission and a school serving grades 7-12 with a focus on at-risk youth.
The headquarters building will host job training programs, a food market where clients can select their own groceries, a family clothing closet, substance abuse recovery programs, childcare, and facilitate placements into permanent housing.
Project Community Impacts: 60 FTE permanent jobs projected to be created or retained (36 for low-income individuals, all paid living wages), 90 projected construction jobs (50 for low-income individuals, all paid living wages), 5,800 projected unique individuals served annually (91% low-income and 61% minority).