Oakland Community Cabins

The Oakland Community Cabins Program launched in 2017 and is designed to serve as an emergency intervention, providing robust services, privacy, and security for residents experiencing homelessness. The program is run and managed by Oakland Human Services Department and is a part of the city’s larger homelessness response. Each of the six project sites serves about 40 people across twenty prefabricated cabins that can also accommodate pets. The sites serve as a safer and healthier alternative to encampments and other unsheltered living situations, providing guests with sanitary services, electricity, a community television, a microwave, food and water. Program participants also receive social services aimed at helping end their unsheltered status and improve their wellbeing, including healthcare, access to other homeless services, and job search support, as well as assistance obtaining benefits and a personal ID (such as a driver’s license). Residents usually receive access to a cabin for approximately six months before transferring to longer-term housing solutions, but are able to extend their stays. The program has intentionally set low barriers to join the Community Cabin sites in order to make getting off the streets as accessible as possible.