MODESTO, Calif. — Stanislaus County is preparing to open its new 182-bed shelter Tuesday morning, after about a week and a half delay.
They will gradually be moving people out of Modesto's Outdoor Emergency Shelter (MOES) under the 9th Street bridge to their new indoor shelter.
Many people staying at MOES told ABC10 they are feeling pretty resistant to leave this home which they've known for the past year. Still, some others are excited about a new opportunity that could bring them one step closer to permanent housing.
"We're trying to better our lives," said Jack Eldridge, a foreman of Modesto's Downtown Streets Team.
Eldridge has been living at MOES for the past year and to keep himself busy he serves as a foreman for the Downtown Streets Team, which helps clean up Modesto in exchange for gift cards.
"I could go downhill with it or I could go uphill and get on top and I'm trying to be on top, not trying to go downhill. I'm 48 years old. Half of my life is already done with," Eldridge said.
Eldridge and his streets team will be among the first to move into the county's new 182-bed shelter attached to Modesto's Salvation Army on Tuesday morning.
"[The new shelter is] a lot better, a lot... warmer for the wintertime," he said.
But others are not so willing to leave the tent city they've called home since February 2019.
"Truly to get everybody out here by then is going to be a challenge, but what they ought to do is let us go ahead and stay here," said Daniel, who did not want to give his last name.
"I'm not going. It looks like jail. It looks like downtown jail, so I'm not going. I'm going back to the river," said Julie Jensen.
Jensen says she was told she could only bring one of her two dogs.
"I didn't get them to get rid of them. I didn't get them fixed so that I could get rid of them," she said.
And others are worried about the tight living quarters, transitioning from individual tents to bunk beds in a warehouse, with nowhere else left to go.
"I can't bother my daughter. My daughter's got my grandkids and she's up in Sonora," Daniel said.
The city of Modesto says whether people choose to go to the new shelter or not, they do have to be out of MOES by December 11 so they can restore the property and turn it back over to the Tuolumne River Trust by the end of the year.
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