Redwood City – Under a warm February sun, Gary Reid studied the colorful mural he watched coming together over the past few months at the County’s Navigation Center, a way station for people experiencing homelessness.
He found a saying, in the lower left corner, that speaks to him: “No One Is Left Behind.”
“I’m 25 years old and I strive for a community where everybody can help each other out,” said Reid, who has called the Navigation Center his home for the past five months. “A lot of people don’t believe in that, but that mural gives me hope to keep going every day.”
The mural, unveiled Friday at a brief ceremony, is the work of Heather Hardison, a Bay Area artist with a passion for vibrant colors and bringing people together. Hardison won a commission from the County’s Office of Arts and Culture with a concept that celebrates community connections.
Hardison’s canvas was a formerly gray wall outside the Navigation Center’s dining hall, a hub that brings people of all ages and backgrounds together for meals and shared experiences.
“The concept is all about positive community impact and the ways we are in relationship with each other,” Hardison said. “The motif is these overlapping hands that have these color shifts where they intersect. They are all really bright colors and are supposed to have a feel of positive community relationships and interdependence because they are all very entwined.”
The County in partnership with the nonprofit LifeMoves opened the Navigation Center in April 2023 with a mission to treat people experiencing homelessness with dignity and respect on their way to finding permanent housing.
Unlike a traditional shelter (think cots or bunk beds, little privacy), the Navigation Center allows couples to room together, pet owners to bring their animals and clients to mingle amid green spaces. Case managers work with clients to connect them with services: trauma counseling, health and dental care and additional interventions designed to overcome barriers to seeking permanent housing.
The focal themes of Hardison’s mural are words chosen by clients, in a number languages: Aiga (Samoan for family), Hogar (home in Spanish), safety, a ‘fair chance.’
“I think the colors will hit them first, then you see the hands entwined and the words and phrases,” Hardison said. “There’s a lot of gentleness in the gestures. It is about relationships and hands that are holding each other, seeing the interdependence in communities. At a time when there’s increased polarization and alienation and loneliness it’s a kind of like a gently radical idea to embrace and move toward interdependence.”
That speaks to Reid, a young man who decided to move away from his violent neighborhood and hopes the Navigation Center will help him reset his life.
“The way the hands are overlapping each other – to me that's symbolism. There’s connection,” he said. “At the end of the day, none of us in here are the only human on earth. When I saw that mural being constructed, I just smiled.
“Finally, someone is getting it.”
At the request of then-Supervisor Warren Slocum, the Board of Supervisors in June 2023 allocated $50,000 from the local Measure K half-cent sales tax to install public art at the Navigation Center.
Michelle Durand
Chief Communications Officer
mdurand@smcgov.org