County outlines expanded health services and beds at Lodi Access Center; contracts to return to board in August

San Joaquin County staff provided a progress update on the Lodi Access Center, outlining plans to colocate clinic services, add mental-health respite beds, pilot a sobering center and pursue additional grant funding.

Genevieve Valentine, presenting to the Health Care Services Review Project Committee, said the county has contributed “approximately $11,000,000 to date on the build of the access center” and proposed using an additional $1,800,000 in HRSA grant dollars to construct a health clinic inside the center.

Valentine said the proposed clinic would begin with 20 hours per week of wound care and other services and aims to expand to 40 hours per week. She said about 4,000 to 5,000 individuals are currently active beneficiaries of the county health clinics in Lodi and that colocating services at the access center could increase penetration of clinic services.

On behavioral health, Valentine said the county is proposing infrastructure funding through bridge-housing dollars to create eight mental-health respite beds and four post-crisis respite beds—a total of 12 beds—to move people out of emergency departments while they await housing placements. She also said behavioral health is negotiating a 40-bed transitional housing lease to provide longer-term placement after leaving the access center.

Valentine said the county and city have started contract negotiations; she told the committee that two different contracts are exchanging drafts between legal counsel for the health clinics (lease and site use) and for behavioral health. She said staff plans to bring contracts to the Board of Supervisors in late August to meet both HRSA and behavioral-health grant timelines.

The county is seeking to avoid duplication of Medi-Cal services at the site, Valentine said, and the city has agreed to allow county participation in drafting the RFP for the homeless services operator. “The agreement will actually say whoever is the homeless operator cannot provide the same Medi-Cal services as those that are colocated,” she said. Valentine added the RFP is expected to go out in December.

Committee members asked about building ownership and subleasing; Valentine said documentation cleanup is ongoing, including a memorandum of understanding that expires in September 2025 and an ARPA-related MOU that must be extended to complete capital work. “We are still working on some documentation,” she said, but added officials are “conceptually ... on the same page.”

No formal contract approvals occurred at the meeting; staff requested authority to return to the board with finalized contracts and updated MOUs.