When hospitals release homeless patients, California law requires they be discharged to a safe location. The trouble for hospitals is finding somewhere secure to send people. The trouble can also be finding a location that doesn’t upset neighbors.

In May, a new pilot recuperative housing project called Soul Housing quietly opened at Blackstone Avenue and Griffith Way in central Fresno. The goal: Helping homeless medical patients get healthy. The pilot program, which is primarily funded by health insurance providers such as CalViva and Health Net, is up for review statewide at the end of 2026.

Most of the conditions Soul Housing tenants deal with surround diabetes and hypertension, said CEO Casey Reinholtz. People with stable housing can manage those conditions more easily than someone trying to survive on the streets, he said. Discharged patients need a safe, controlled environment with adequate food, shelter, and medicine to help get them back on track, Reinholtz said.

Soul Housing and other recuperative housing projects can reduce the readmission rates amongst homeless to hospitals by 50%, he added.

“This doesn’t just help them on their forward progress through life and into their next transition,” Reinholtz said. “It helps reduce the amount of need of them being readmitted back to ERs for something that could simply just be taken care of.”

What’s more, while Blackstone businesses deal with blight, Soul Housing reached an agreement with the Blackstone Merchants Association to keep the area around the facility clean and to be accountable for its tenants.

Stability, Regularity Helps Breaks Cycle of Homelessness: Reinholtz

From the street, it would be difficult to tell what exactly takes place at the converted motel. High, solid walls keep the facility blocked off from view. That’s a design feature intended to do more than just keep people out, Reinholtz said.

Residents can come and go — until the 10 p.m. curfew — but limiting visibility means protecting people who may be human trafficking victims or former gang members. Separating the facility from the street also helps separate the mindset of living on the street, Reinholtz said.

“They do know that they are behind a fence and those fences are sealed from the public so that people aren’t just peering in or they can’t be found if they’re trying to protect themselves and get healthy,” Reinholtz said. “I think a lot of feeling in here creates Soul Housing as a neutral ground for people.”

Every time a resident enters the facility they go through a pat-down from guards specifically trained to be gentler. Guards are also encouraged to fraternize with the tenants.

Once inside, people get a mental and physical exam from a nurse practitioner. Residents get a regimented, 600-calorie, low-salt meal three times a day. Medication is also dispensed per doctor’s orders. Many discharged from the hospital don’t have clothes, so people get a new wardrobe when they arrive, as well as as toiletries and cleaning supplies.

Reinholtz said he’s seen people rambling to themselves change within a month.

“If you can keep them on their medications, they will get better,” he said.

The facility offers a variety of classes and multi-faith prayer groups.

Residents typically can only stay up to 29 days, but some health plans allow for longer stays. The goal is to move residents into other programs, temporary housing, or back with families. Case management at Soul Housing helps locate families or eligible programs for residents.

Reinholtz said between 35% and 40% find safe, stable housing after leaving.

Soul Housing is a for-profit venture with 16 locations statewide — most of them in the L.A. area. Reinholtz said profits from medical plans go back into facilities and operations.

“The goal here is to have every participant that comes into recuperative care to have a safe discharge into another program, whether it’s temporary housing, or it’s back with their families, or it’s onto school, or even getting them a job so that they can find their way into that housing,” Reinholtz said.

Rassamni and Reinholtz Collaborated on ‘Good Neighbor Policy’

Bringing shelters to Blackstone Avenue often come at the dismay of business owners. Operators up and down Blackstone Avenue told city leaders at a 2023 town hall hosted at by the Blackstone Merchants Association about vandalism increasing after hotels and motels were converted into transitional housing.

That problem still persists, Blackstone Merchants Association president AJ Rassamni told GV Wire. The H&R Block at Blackstone and Griffith avenues keeps its doors locked during the day, Rassamni said. The nearby Carl’s Jr. was once the busiest in the city, but the owner told Rassamni blight has driven people away and sales have collapsed.

Restaurant Jeb’s Blueberry Hill closed on Blackstone Avenue and moved to Old Town Clovis where the owner told GV Wire they are thriving. The owner said vandalism largely drove them to look for a new location.

Rassamni said he’s tried to get businesses to fill vacant spots, but they tell them they don’t want to go Blackstone.

“The area now has a bad reputation because of all the shelters over here,” Rassamni said. “And it’s ruining people’s lives — people that put their life savings to start the business, to have a better retirement, to have a better future for them, for their kids, they’re losing everything.”

The Blackstone Merchants Association created a “good neighbor policy” to encourage shelter operators to maintain the properties around them and be accountable for residents. While he said he doesn’t support shelters on Blackstone Avenue, he said if they are going to be there, they should be good neighbors.

Soul Housing signed onto the policy, Reinholtz said. They hired patrols to go out on a four-block radius to make sure residents aren’t loitering too long in any one spot. Cameras with AI can pick up whether residents are staying within one spot for more than five minutes.

One time a convenience store owner told Reinholtz a resident stole a bag of chips. Reinholtz didn’t want to kick someone out of the facility for petty theft but he did talk with the resident.

“We do take a lot of effort and a lot of time to make sure that we’re working directly with the community and making sure that we’re known because we are a big facility,” Reinholtz said. “There’s 280 people here. We understand the concerns.”