Dorm, hotels for homeless if Oakland wins funds
The Oakland City Council moved forward Friday with plans to create nearly 200 units of housing for homeless people, and officials are hoping a state program will pay for a portion of the initiative.
The council approved a bid Friday to buy a dorm from the California College of the Arts for $13 million and voted to partner with local affordable housing groups to acquire two Oakland hotels and 20 singlefamily homes. Oakland has requested $36.6 million in state funds.
The city requested that $9.6 million of the Clifton Hall dorm purchase come from the state, with the remaining $3.4 million coming from affordable housing funds made available through a bond that Oakland voters approved in 2016. The city also partnered with developers and nonprofits to request an additional $27 million to buy the two hotels and the 20 homes.
The plan is to convert the buildings into perma
“If you can find a building that is already built and purchase it, you cut down on your costs tremendously.”
Dan Kalb, Oakland city councilman
nent and transitional housing for the homeless and formerly incarcerated people.
Addressing the housing crisis is a top priority in a city that saw its homeless population double from 2017 to 2019. Oakland has approximately 4,700 people living in tents, vehicles or on the street, according to a current pointintime count, and that number is rising as the coronavirus pandemic enters its seventh month.
But the initiative depends on Oakland receiving funds from the state’s Homekey program, which is not guaranteed.
Homekey received 138 applications requesting $1 billion in funds, a total that far exceeds the $600 million budgeted for the program, said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, which is administering the funds. Homekey is intended to stem rising homelessness caused by the pandemic by directing federal
Cares Act funds to enable cities and counties to quickly convert existing buildings into affordable or transitional housing.
Competition for the grant money is fierce, especially in the Bay Area, where 29 projects are vying for $100 million, Heimerich said. The housing agency hopes to begin announcing awards in the next two weeks.
Oakland is “confident in the strength” of its applications, said Shola Olatoye, the city’s director of Housing and Community Services. She called Homekey a “onceinalifetime funding opportunity.”
While the city would own the dormitory, it would not own the buildings purchased through its partnerships with private companies and nonprofit organizations, an important distinction, Olatoye said.
Homekey application guidelines required that the city serve as a coapplicant on proposals submitted by private and nonprofit entities.
Clifton Hall, at 5276 Broadway Terrace, was left vacant after the California College of the Arts announced it would shutter its Oakland campus by 2022.
Councilman Dan Kalb cheered the council’s decision to approve the Clifton Hall deal Friday afternoon following the vote. Repurposing existing buildings is the city’s best option for providing residents with affordable housing options, he said.
“The most expensive element is the building costs,” Kalb said. “While we want to do new affordable housing, if you can find a building that is already built and purchase it, you cut down on your costs tremendously.”
Clifton Hall’s close proximity to public transit makes it an ideal location for affordable housing, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement applauding the council’s vote Friday.
If the state approves funding, Oakland officials would face a ticking clock: All Homekey funding must be spent by Dec. 30. That means the city would have less than four months to acquire and rehabilitate the buildings before quickly filling the apartments and houses with people seeking shelter.
Were Oakland denied Homekey funding, the city would have to reevaluate its ability to buy the Clifton Hall dormitory.
Whether or not the state funding comes through, solving Oakland’s homelessness affordable housing crisis will require multiple levels of government, as well as publicprivate partnerships, Olatoye said.
“The level of street homelessness, the level of displacement for Oaklanders, it is not a mistake,” she said. “In order to fix it, we need to be intentional with our policies and our programs.”