Transitional housing facility for 90 to open next month
Former hotel will house up to 90 people for six months at a time
OAKLAND >> Oakland’s new transitional housing facility — formerly an Uptown single-room occupancy hotel — will take 90 homeless people at a time off the streets in about a month.
The 70-unit hotel at 641 West Grand Ave. will start housing people in December and allow them to stay for up to six months while they seek permanent housing, and use drug treatment and job placement services, city officials said at a news conference Tuesday.
“We know that up to 180 formerly unsheltered residents a year will get shelter, services, care and support on their path to self-sufficiency in this beautiful, historic Julia Morgan building,” said Mayor Libby Schaaf, referring to the world-renowned architect who also designed the Hearst Castle in San Simeon and several buildings at Mills College.
The center’s services will be modeled after those of the Henry J. Robinson center in Oakland. The Robinson center in downtown offers people food and temporary shelter while connecting them with services to find them more permanent housing, find work and access available benefits.
Bay Area Community Services, a nonprofit that helps homeless people find housing and runs the Robinson center, will be operating the facility, providing 24/7 staffing. The facility will have a security guard, an on-site property manager, and “housing navigators” who will help residents find housing, said Bay Area Community Services director Jamie Almanza.
The three-story building
contains rooms that vary in size: Some have their own bathrooms and showers, others have sinks. Some of the larger rooms will be used to house two people at a time, said Oakland Housing and Community Development director Michelle Byrd.
The city purchased the 112-year-old building for about $7 million in May, and worked with the previous owner, Phil Wang, to renovate it. The city set aside $14 million in funds from Measure KK to pay for the building. Measure KK, passed by voters in 2016, provides $600 million for infrastructure and affordable housing. The remainder of the $14 million will be spent on another hotel to be used like this one, Byrd said.
“This comes because of the generosity and support of the taxpayers of Oakland,”
said city Councilman Abel Guillen.
Oakland also earmarked $300,000 to pay Bay Area Community Services to run the facility.
Wang had owned the property for about three years, he said, and was happy to sell it to the city.
“There’s no question the city needs it,” Wang said in an interview.
Before Wang bought the property, it had several code enforcement violations, and was at one time red-tagged. Drugs had also been an issue at the SRO before Wang owned it, city officials said in April.
Though residents are not required to be sober to live in the hotel, selling or manufacturing drugs on site will get them kicked out, Almanza said. Violence will also get people evicted, she said.
Residents will be able to take their pets and their belongings with them when they move in, Almanza said. Overnight guests will be allowed on a case-by-case basis, Byrd said.
The facility will have a “low-barrier” intake procedure, Almanza said; residents can move in without income or ID, and the application paperwork will be simple.
People can access the program through Alameda County’s coordinated entry system, which assesses people’s situations and gives priority to the most vulnerable homeless people. People can access that system by calling 211 or going to the Henry J. Robinson center at 559 16th St. in Oakland.