Oakland buys building to house homeless
Oakland officials finalized the purchase Tuesday of a 70-unit building that will shelter homeless people as they transition into permanent housing beginning in December.
The three-story, century-old property is expected to house 90 people for four- to sixmonth stays. It is an extension of downtown Oakland’s Henry Robinson rapid rehousing center, which is at maximum capacity and considered a “low barrier” way of getting individuals off the street.
The city contractor that operates the center, Bay Area Community Services, will also run the new building, formerly known as the West Grand Hotel.
“We’re a harm-reduction model, so basically people can come in with an active substance-use issue, and we don’t turn them away,” said Jamie Almanza, executive director of the organization. “They can bring in their pets. They can bring in all their belongings.”
The existing downtown center places 88 percent of residents into permanent housing within six months of their moving in, according to the city.
Homeless people deemed to be the most in need — the elderly or those with chronic or mental health conditions — will get priority to move into the West Grand Avenue building. They will receive one hot meal a day and access to case workers who can help them get housing, government benefits, addiction treatment and legal documents, such as ID cards.
“The design of the model will actually put a real, noticeable, visual dent in homelessness because of the sheer volume of people it will be able to serve in a way that gets people permanent housing. It’s not a model where people stay and then return to homelessness, which many models unfortunately do,” Almanza said. “They don’t leave here until they find homes.”
The building, on West Grand Avenue between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Northgate Avenue, used to be a single-room-occupancy building that was sued by the city in 2014 for being an alleged drug den and “unfit for human habitation.” Oakland inspectors had red-tagged it for fire- and building-code violations.
The city purchased the now-renovated building from its latest owner, Phil Wang, for $7 million with funds from Measure KK, a $600 million infrastructure and affordablehousing bond that Oakland voters passed in 2016.
At a news conference Tuesday, Mayor Libby Schaaf took the key from Wang and toured the property.
“This should provide shelter and services and a road to self-sufficiency for about 180 unsheltered residents a year,” Schaaf said. “This actually was a pretty miraculous find for us. Some other similar buildings had double the price tags.”
Homelessness, encampments and the lack of affordable housing were named as the biggest problems facing the city in a poll released this month by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce. Schaaf is facing nine competitors in her bid for re-election Tuesday.
A census in 2017 found 2,761 homeless people were living in Oakland — 25 percent more than there were in 2015.