This administration and fellow elected officials at City Hall are working to broaden opportunity, and to make this city more affordable and accessible for all. Between 2017-201, the City has permitted around 3,000 units, with an additional 1,500 units currently under review. In recent years, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the City Council has increased its investments in anti-displacement measures, including eviction defense and emergency rental assistance, to help keep people in their homes.
The Homeless Outreach and Treatment Team
In June 2017, the city launched the Homeless Outreach and Treatment Team to target the two-pronged problem of mental health and homelessness.
This program, staffed by trained outreach workers, contact homeless people with serious mental health issues and help them access crucial services with the hope of transitioning to permanent housing.
Another critical step taken by the city has been the opening the STAIR Navigation Center, modeled on best practices around the country and first such center in the East Bay. Our goal is to eventually switch all homeless shelters to a navigation center model.
The Berkeley Way Hope Center
In June 2017, Council unanimously approved prioritizing the Berkeley Way project led by BRIDGE Housing and Berkeley Food and Housing Project in downtown Berkeley. Thanks to the passage of Measures O & P, this project was completed in September 2022. The development consists of 142 permanent affordable housing units, along with emergency shelter and transitional housing for homeless veterans. Berkeley Way marks the largest investment into housing the homeless and the working poor the city has ever made.
The passage of Measure P on the November 2018 ballot will provide significant new resources to expand Navigation Centers, shelter beds, mental health services, outreach, employment programs and housing subsidies for the homeless.
Expanding Shelter and Services
With the passage of Measure P, which generates around $12 million annually for homeless services and programs, we have been able to significantly increase capacity. A majority of these funds are spent to operate various shelters, drop-in centers, and to operate various programs, including the Coordinated Entry System, locker program, Homeless Response Team, Healthcare for the Homeless, and other outreach programs. Multiple shelters have opened up over the past four years, which also include social services and caseworkers who help guide clients into permanent housing.
Thanks to all these efforts, we have reduced homelessness in Berkeley by 5% between 2018-2021, despite a 22% increase regionally.
Pathways
In June 2018, the city opened its first navigation center in West Berkeley, which will allow the homeless to bring their partners, pets, and personal belongings with them. The center is much more than a shelter. Here, the unsheltered get a caseworker who can help them address substance abuse, mental health issues, assist with job searches and eventually connect the homeless to permanent housing or reunify them with their families. As of January 2019, the STAIR Center has helped to place over 70 people into permanent housing, largely through the use of subsidies while they work to receive Social Security or another type of ongoing assistance.
Rendering of the Berkeley Way development in downtown Berkeley. Opened in September 2022, it has 142 units of permanently affordable housing, including an emergency shelter and transitional housing for veterans.
Homekey
The City has partnered with Homekey, California’s program to convert existing hotels, motels, and other residential facilities into permanent of interim housing for people experiencing homelessness. In 2021, the City successfully applied for Homekey funding to convert the Golden Bear Inn into 44 units to serve the chronically unhoused, which reached full occupancy in January 2023. Another hotel, the 43-room University Inn, formerly known as the Rodeway Inn, is temporarily being used as interim housing. In March 2023, the Council approved an application to Homekey to continue funding and ultimately convert it into permanent supportive housing.
Homelessness is a statewide problem, but working together with other cities and the state government, we can bring in people from the elements and help them find housing that is dignified and safe.