San Bernardino County cut the ribbon Monday on the 112-bed Highland Creek Housing & Wellness Campus, a permanent supportive housing and treatment facility built on the site of a former private Christian school and Salvation Army service location in Highland. The campus includes 32 recuperative-care beds for people recovering from hospitalization or illness and 16 beds for residents dealing with substance abuse, alongside one- and two-bedroom housing units with kitchenettes and private bathrooms.
The county acquired the property at 2626 Pacific St. during the COVID-19 pandemic using California Homekey funding, according to the San Bernardino Sun. The site sits across the street from the San Bernardino Soccer Complex and previously housed Pacific Village, which reopened there in 2021 as interim housing with 28 units, including eight existing buildings supplemented by 20 travel trailers. Highland Creek Phase II added 58 permanent affordable long-term housing units along with the 32 recuperative-care beds and 16 treatment beds at the campus featured in the October 26 ribbon-cutting.
Roughly 150 people attended the ribbon-cutting, the Sun reported. San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer Luther Snoke told the crowd that the vision for the campus had come to life, while Josh Dugas, the county's director of behavioral health, said the project is ultimately about changing lives and that community support can help residents get back on track. California State Assembly member James Ramos, who represents San Bernardino, also spoke at the ceremony.
From School Chapel to Recuperative Care Center
The grounds include a cafeteria and community center. The county has said it aimed to make Highland Creek feel like a home rather than just an institution, with on-site services meant to help residents maintain their housing and live independently. Up to 10% of people experiencing homelessness are estimated to own pets, one factor cited in the campus's design.
The site includes a 16-bed substance-abuse treatment facility. The site's incremental build-out has included the original Pacific Village trailers and the 112-bed Highland Creek campus, including Phase II's 58 housing units.
Countywide Homelessness Drops for Second Straight Year
The Highland Creek opening lands amid a broader downward trend in county homelessness figures. San Bernardino County's January 2026 Point-in-Time Count recorded 3,718 sheltered and unsheltered homeless residents, a decline of 119 people, or 3.1%, from the 3,837 counted in 2025 — the county's second consecutive annual decrease and its first two-year decline since at least 2017. The county's unsheltered population specifically fell 7.1%, from 2,636 people in 2025 to 2,448 in 2026.
In Highland itself, the count identified 71 homeless residents in 2026, down from 90 the year before, a drop of 19 people, according to figures reported by SBCSentinel. The January count relied on roughly 574 community volunteers acting as counters. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses Point-in-Time Count data to distribute homelessness-program funding and gauge the effectiveness of local efforts, while San Bernardino County uses the same data to direct funding to the areas most in need.
A Growing Shelter System Across the County
The San Bernardino Community Wellness Campus was expected to open in mid-March; its first resident moved in May 28. That $35 million project was largely funded by state Homekey dollars and sits alongside an existing emergency shelter with about 86 beds, per earlier Sun reporting.
Citywide, San Bernardino had 930 shelter beds spread across 12 programs and facilities as of 2025, more than double the roughly 422 beds the city averaged in 2022 and 2023. Together with Highland Creek's new capacity, the expansion reflects a sustained push by county and city officials to add both emergency and long-term housing options as the broader homeless count trends downward for a second straight year.
