 Cynthia Battenberg (left), community development director for the city of San Leandro snd program beneficiary Johnnie Pullen (Photo credit: Connor Radnovich, SF Chronicle)
Focus on:
Chronic Homelessness
On a given night in January 2015, 564,708 people were homeless across the United States, and roughly 15% of these individuals were "chronically homeless." In Alameda County, chronically homeless individuals make up 13% of the homeless population. Chronic homelessness as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is when an individual has experienced homelessness for longer than a year, or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in a three year period, and has a disability. While there has been significant progress in reducing chronic homelessness in the United States since 2010, the momentum has been slowing down. Permanent supportive housing is the preeminent solution to ending chronic homelessness.
Utah is known across the country for an overwhelmingly successful supportive housing program. Through the Housing First program, Utah has been able to decrease the number of homeless by 72% over the last decade. California and cities across Alameda County have been working on their own plans to invest in permanent supportive housing as a way of alleviating chronic homelessness. In January, a bipartisan group of California legislators unveiled a proposal to invest $2 billion in building permanent housing units for chronically homeless individuals in California who suffer from mental illness. Earlier this month, the city of San Leandro unveiled its own blueprint, which includes a partnership with the nonprofit Building Futures With Women and Children.
ALL IN is supportive of the Board of Supervisor's efforts to put a housing bond on the November ballot. For more information, check out the "Get Involved" and "Upcoming Events" sections in this newsletter.
Get Involved
 County Supervisor Wilma Chan speaking at the groundbreaking for Stargell Commons, a new affordable housing complex in Alameda |
In This Issue:
- Focus On: Chronic Homelessness
- March Meeting Recap
- Stuff to Do, Stuff to Read
March Meeting Recap
At our March meeting, we provided a recap of the Feb. 5 Social Innovation Fair, Feb. 27 Hackathon, and presented the Quarterly Report detailing our action plans for 2016. See "Stuff to Read" for more information on how to obtain a copy.
We reviewed the progress Action Teams have been making since Feb. 5, and broke out into smaller groups to continue working on each team's goals.
Our 2016 action teams are continuing to meet in between ALL IN membership meetings - if you are interested in joining an action team, please e-mail allincommunity@acgov.org.
ALL IN Alameda County 2016 Action Teams:
- Food as Medicine
- Food Recovery
- CalFresh
- Affordable Housing
- Local Entrepreneurship
- Youth Career Pathways
- Living Wage Advocacy
- SSI/SSP Funding Advocacy
- Early Childcare Funding Advocacy
Construction of a supportive housing unit in Dallas, TX (Photo credit: The Guardian)
Read and Watch
Upcoming Events
- April 5: MyPath and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco event on Boosting the Power of Youth Paychecks: Integrating Financial Capability into Youth Employment Programs, 1:00 pm-5:00 pm, register here.
- April 13: Board of Supervisors Housing Bond Committee Work Session, 3:00 pm-4:30 pm, 1221 Oak St., Board Chambers
- May 19: ALL IN Membership Meeting, 11:00 am-1:00 pm, LTBD
- If your organization has events you would like to invite ALL IN members to, please forward the information on to ALL IN staff (allincommunity@acgov.org) by the third Monday of the month.
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