Bay Area Leaders Release Regional Action Plan to Reduce Unsheltered Homelessness in the Bay Area by 75 Percent within Three Years

SAN FRANCISCO, April 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, an unprecedented coalition of Bay Area mayors, business leaders, housing experts and social justice advocates have united around an ambitious plan to house 75% of the Bay Area's unsheltered population by 2024. The coalition, known as the Regional Impact Council, was convened by All Home and includes local elected officials, advocates, and businesses from all nine Bay Area counties. Over a series of virtual meetings spanning 12 months, this group forged a multi-pronged plan to comprehensively address the Bay Area's homelessness crisis. To download the plan, go to: https://www.allhomeca.org/regionalactionplan/.

"We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a Bay Area where homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring," said Tomiquia Moss, Founder and CEO of All Home. "We have state, regional, and local partners recognizing that we must act with urgency because lives truly depend on it. We also have federal partners who are stepping up to engage in housing policy and funding. Together, we can make sure that no one has to sleep outside in the Bay Area."

The Regional Action Plan includes an initial focus on extremely low-income residents with racial equity at the center of the effort. It recommends a new, integrated approach to planning and allocating resources, with simultaneous provision of Interim Housing to house and stabilize people currently living outdoors, a range of flexible Permanent Housing options, including rental subsidies to ensure long-term stability for formerly homeless people, and Homelessness Prevention measures, such as financial assistance and legal services for at-risk families facing eviction, to dramatically reduce the number of people entering homelessness in the Bay Area. Applying the integrated Interim Housing, Permanent Housing, and Homelessness Prevention approach to the Bay Area, the Regional Action Plan calls for a 1-2-4 Framework:

• Interim Housing: Bring unsheltered people indoors immediately by funding the interim housing that is needed to do so. (+1 unit of interim housing)
• Permanent Housing: Allow families to heal, rebuild, and plan for the future by providing long-term, flexible housing solutions, such as subsidies and supportive housing. For every one unit of interim housing, we should provide two units of these permanent solutions. (+2 units of permanent housing)
• Homelessness Prevention: Keep at-risk families housed through interventions like financial assistance coupled with housing problem-solving and legal services. For every one unit of interim housing, we should provide four units of these interventions to keep families housed. (+4 units of homelessness prevention)

This framework requires rethinking how existing resources are allocated and provides a practical framework for future federal and state investments. Successful implementation of this approach will not only reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness, it will also reduce the number of people at imminent risk of becoming homeless.

The plan explicitly calls for the State of California, counties and cities, and private and philanthropic partners to take action to reduce racial inequities in housing access. This includes increasing accountability to demonstrate progress toward closing racial disparities, prioritizing funding interventions targeted to BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) experiencing homelessness or at risk of entering homelessness, and operationalizing equity-based prioritization, service provision, and rental assistance programs in the most vulnerable communities.

The Regional Action Plan calls upon all Bay Area counties and cities to take action. However, implementation will look different across the Bay Area based upon characteristics of the local population (e.g. the relative need for supportive services vs. housing vouchers). The plan also encourages cities and counties to plan for and invest in a wider range of deeply affordable housing options. This includes a mix of new construction, acquisition/rehab, and rental subsidies applied to immediately available rental units.

Homelessness and a lack of affordable housing has been a persistent and urgent problem in the region for many years. According to HUD, in 2019 more than 35,000 residents in the nine-county Bay Area lived outdoors in conditions unfit for human habitation (2019 Point in Time Count). Many more were living paycheck to paycheck and at extreme risk of becoming homeless. Although no formal count was made since 2019, many experts are calling attention to the fact that the situation has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

All Home convened leaders and people with lived experience from across the Bay Area to develop a consensus-driven, regional approach. Known as Regional Impact Council (RIC), the group has been meeting regularly since April 2020. Its members include the Mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, local elected officials from all nine Bay Area counties, Facebook, Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente, Non-Profit Housing (NPH), Goodwill, Destination Home, and Swords to Ploughshares, among many others. A complete list of RIC members is available here.

As a next step, these same leaders will focus on structural reforms to expand economic and social mobility for low-income people and to advance racial equity in the Bay Area. The RIC is also working to build a strong, consensus-based Bay Area coalition that moves the state and federal governments to fundamentally shift their approach to ending and preventing homelessness . 

"We acknowledge the work of policymakers and advocates who have worked for decades to solve our region's homelessness challenge. We believe this bold, new regional alignment along with coordinated local efforts can dramatically reduce the racial disparity among those who experience homelessness and also reduce the number of people living on our streets," added Moss.

What Community Leaders Are Saying

"Homelessness was already a full-blown crisis in every corner of the Bay Area prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm in full support of the Regional Action Plan released today because we need scalable solutions now more than ever. I believe strongly that a regional approach that prioritizes prevention and equity is crucial to moving the needle on homelessness and making sure all of our neighbors have a safe, stable place to live." 
-- Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez

"The thing we have learned is that we can house Bay Area residents effectively if we bring communities together with smart, sustainable, and efficient solutions. The RAP's proposal to emphasize prevention-first to keep residents housed and then to focus on interim and permanent housing is an approach that can and will finally reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area by nearly 75% in just 3 years. "
-- Jennifer Martinez, Chief Strategy Officer, PICO California

"Healthy thriving communities require diverse mixed-income neighborhoods and equity in the decision-making process. Currently communities of color and an increasing number of our seniors and people who work in hospitality, childcare, education, arts, culture, faith communities face the biggest challenges in our current approach to housing. The RAP will address this by centering those most impacted."
-- Joshua Simon, Former CEO, EBALDC and Sr. Advisor for CAST

"Our regional economy requires a healthy and housed workforce. Trying to remain employed while also experiencing homelessness is a tremendous - if not insurmountable - challenge. The Regional Action Plan shows the path to reduce homelssness by 75%. This will produce a stronger and healthier Bay Area workforce and economy that will benefit everyone."
-- Jonathan Fearn, Managing Director, Development, Greystar

"Too many of the roughly 35,000 people experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area are youth and children. This is unacceptable. The RAP will prioritize prevention, and make sure that the youngest residents of the Bay Area can access housing options at every stage of their lives."
-- Sherilyn Adams, Executive Director, Larkin Street Youth Services

"The pandemic brought the great disparities of housing in the Bay Area into stark contrast. But, we really can reduce homelessness by a large number in the Bay Area. When we share the best ideas and solutions we've identified and developed, and prioritize implementation, we can be dramatically reduce homelssness in our region and change lives."
-- Derecka Mehrens, CEO, Working Partnerships USA

About All Home
All Home is a Bay Area organization that advances regional solutions to disrupt the cycle of poverty and homelessness, redress the disparities in outcomes as a result of race, and create more opportunity for economic mobility for extremely low-income (ELI) individuals and families within the Bay Area. All Home works across counties, sectors, and silos to advance coordinated, innovative solutions and build a movement to challenge the status quo that perpetuates homelessness. All Home is fiscally sponsored by Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. www.allhomeca.org

SOURCE All Home California

Related Links

http://www.allhomeca.org