FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 21, 2023
Press Contact: Edie Irons, [email protected], 415-275-2060
[San Francisco, CA] – Bay Area nonprofit All Home is funding and supporting two new targeted homelessness prevention programs launching in two underserved parts of the Bay Area, Solano and Sonoma counties. These programs add to existing programs in San Francisco, Oakland, and Contra Costa County.“An alarming number of Bay Area households are just one paycheck, job loss, or medical expense away from a housing crisis,” said Mary Kate Johnson, Director of Regional Homelessness Prevention at All Home. “All Home’s targeted homelessness prevention programs provide critical financial assistance and services to keep people housed, slowing the numbers of people becoming homeless in the Bay Area.”
Solano County’s 2024 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count identified 1,725 people experiencing homelessness, a 46% increase from 2022. Sonoma County’s 2024 PIT Count identified 2,522 people experiencing homelessness, an 11% increase from 2023.
Keep People Housed – Solano launched on November 18, and Keep People Housed – Sonoma will become available on December 16. The two programs will take a targeted approach, directing a combined $5.25 million in prevention resources over two years to the households at the highest risk of experiencing homelessness in both counties. Eligible households will receive flexible assistance to pay rent, utilities, security deposits, move-in costs, or other housing-related expenses, as well as legal referrals and other services. The programs are funded through a public-private partnership, a strategy that has accelerated regional adoption of the model.
Solano and Sonoma are the latest Bay Area counties to launch homelessness prevention programs that target limited resources based on risk, an approach validated by research about what works to prevent homelessness. They will be using a technology platform, developed by All Home and Bay Area Community Services (BACS) in 2020, that hosts a growing regional network of targeted prevention programs, each with an online application available in multiple languages and a confidential, secure workspace for service providers to document support provided.
The platform currently hosts programs in San Francisco, Oakland, and Contra Costa county. The City of Fremont and Napa County also used the platform for homelessness prevention programs that are currently paused until more funds become available from public or private sources. Santa Clara County follows a similar model that was launched by Destination: Home in 2017, has been validated by external academic research, and has since expanded to be run and funded by the County.
“Targeted prevention has kept thousands of people housed in Oakland, who otherwise may have been forced out of their homes by rising or unforeseen costs,” said Emily Weinstein, Director of Housing and Community Development for the City of Oakland. “Support from All Home and BACS has been invaluable to sustain this program in each phase of its growth. And while we can all see there is still urgent work needed to fully address homelessness in Oakland, it would be unthinkably worse without our prevention efforts, which are helping slow entries into homelessness.”
From 2020 to 2022, targeted prevention pilots in the All Home regional network distributed over $80 million to low-income Bay Area households at risk of homelessness, through a combination of federal rent relief, philanthropic, and public resources.
- Nearly 98% of recipients had incomes below 50% of area median income, so are likely paying over half their monthly income on rent.
- More than one-third had previously experienced homelessness.
- Almost 80% identified as people of color.
In Sonoma County, the City of Santa Rosa is partnering with the County of Sonoma, City of Petaluma, and local service providers, led by COTS, to deliver the program. In Solano County, United Way California Capital Region and Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund are partnering to deliver the program. All Home, a regional organization advancing housing and economic security in the Bay Area, provides funding and technical support for regional direct service providers, while BACS develops and operates the technology platform and supports those same providers to effectively process applications, leveraging their expertise as a regional homeless services provider and the lead service provider for Keep People Housed – Oakland and Keep People Housed – Contra Costa.
“Household incomes are not keeping up with inflation, and traditional solutions are not keeping up with the inflow to homelessness. This is why, nationally, for every $100 increase in the average rent, you can expect a 9 percent increase in homelessness,” said Jamie Almanza, CEO of Bay Area Community Services and co-founder of Keep People Housed. “Since launching Keep Oakland Housed in 2018, BACS has proven that it is far less expensive to keep a family housed than to wait until they are living in their car—or worse. An effective homelessness prevention system is critical to addressing homelessness in our region. Our gamechanging model, with its evidence-based targeting and sophisticated back-end platform, has served over 19,800 households across multiple counties.”
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