Stockton to house homeless with mental health challenges

STOCKTON — San Joaquin County is transforming an empty lot in downtown Stockton into affordable apartments for unhoused people using a $2.1 million grant the state awarded it late last month.

The empty lot at East Sonora Street and the commercial building located at South El Dorado Street will soon be revamped as Sonora Square Apartments: two buildings of roughly 16,000 and 10,000 square feet and containing 21 and 11 units respectively. The units will be available for rent for those dealing with serious mental illness and who are homeless.

Occupants will likely be able to move in in the fall of 2023, Peter Ragsdale, the Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the County of San Joaquin (HACSJ), said in an email.

To be placed in a unit at Sonora Square, potential residents must receive incomes that are considered

“extremely low” or “very low” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ragsdale said.

In San Joaquin County, an annual income of $25,900 or less for one person is considered “very low,” and an income of $15,550 for one person is considered “extremely low,” according to county guidelines for admission to public housing.

Potential residents may include children dealing with serious emotional disturbances and their families, adults with serious mental illness, and those likely to need residential treatment or inpatient or outpatient care due to mental illness, according to a plan San Joaquin County Behavioral Health Services (SJC BHS) sent to the state. They must also be unhoused or at risk of chronic homelessness, the plan states.