http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/4557527/detail.html

Project Would Cost $2.5 Million

POSTED: 3:47 pm PDT June 1, 2005
UPDATED: 6:31 pm PDT June 1, 2005

STOCKTON, Calif. -- Because farm workers make up many of the homeless in San Joaquin County, there's a new proposal to build a hotel to house the migrant workers. But the proposed downtown Stockton location is stirring up some controversy.

Migrant Workers

A recent survey showed that San Joaquin County has 500 homeless people, 300 of which are farm workers who sleep -- among other places -- under bridges and freeways. And according to officials, about half the people who bed down at the Stockton Homeless Shelter at night work in the fields during the day.

Proponents of the migrant hotel idea say it would help the shelter find more room.

"We will sometimes have 200-plus (people) in a building that is meant for 150," said Stockton Homeless Shelter spokesman John Reynolds. "We sometimes have a drop-in center with a mat on a floor. But I tell you, a mat on the floor is not the same as having a comfortable bed."

The $2.5 million hotel would be just south of Worknet, which is building a new facility on Lincoln and Washington streets. That proximity worries some.

"One of our concerns is location, not discounting the fact that there is a need for a facility like this in our community," said Stockton Mayor Ed Chavez. "We have some other significant projects in the pipeline for that area as well."

But the hotel is also only a block from St. Mary's dining room, which provides meals to the poor and other services.

"Health care, they can receive dental care, use our shower and clothing facility to receive clean clothing," said St. Mary's spokesman Edward Figueroa.

The San Joaquin Housing Authority, which plans to build the hotel, has most of the funds but is asking the city and county to help with about $500,000 in costs.

The Housing Authority has conditional approval from Caltrans to build on the site, pending an environmental impact report and zoning approval. It hopes to build the hotel within a year's time.

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