Oakland – Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan has been urging the City to take action to acquire available buildings, such as SROs, hotels, and dormitories, to help house the homeless. The Council unanimously passed Kaplan’s resolution on March 27, 2020, urging rapid action on this due to the growing COVID-19 crisis, and to protect those most vulnerable in our community.
(March 27th Resolution: https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4406723&GUID=A7FFA7BB-F313-4D65-9223-686B5985123A&Options=&Search=)
Today, the Oakland City Council held a Special Council Meeting to approve the acquisition of a dormitory to help house those in need, and to apply for the State of California’s Homekey grant program. Council President Kaplan is pleased to announce that she and her colleagues unanimously voted to send applications to the state and to authorize a deal to purchase the California College of the Arts (CCA) Clifton Hall dormitory.
The Clifton Hall dorm is a four story building, with 63 units, in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland. On the top two floors of the building, Clifton Hall will provide 42 units of permanent housing for seniors experiencing homelessness and at high risk of contracting COVID-19. The second floor will become the permanent home for a 20-household family shelter. On the ground floor, the building will house the offices of Family Front Door, which serves as the hub for the Coordinated Entry System (CES) for homeless families in Northern Alameda County.
Kaplan stated: “It is vital that we take action to respond to the homelessness crisis, prevent the spread of disease, and protect our community, including vulnerable seniors. I am pleased that we were able to work together to pass vital actions, to make it possible to acquire this dorm, and other properties, to help those in need.”
Link to the Item on the August 28th Council Agenda, to acquire this dorm:
https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4623763&GUID=D81CFF5A-CEBC-4DA5-B931-02896A1988AB&Options=&Search=
See this tweet:
With spread of COVID, bad air and displacement we must protect our community. Authored budget action and Council resolution, directing the admin to acquire buildings to house the homeless. https://t.co/5jekdiDiZn
Have obtained an SRO, and planning actions to acquire dorms, etc.— Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland Vice Mayor (@Kaplan4Oakland) August 26, 2020
Link to prior resolution to acquire SRO’s, etc:
https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3461300&GUID=721740F1-C88A-483E-8385-CFD766C5CDAC&Options=ID|Text|&Search=homeless