California, Oakland, and BACS – Partner Together Announcing Major Investment in Permanent Housing for Oaklanders
During the upheaval of the last 6 months – with the pandemic and fires making the ongoing housing crisis more complex – BACS has persevered and continues to be ‘on the ground’, doing whatever it takes:
- All of our residential programs, community intensive programs, and houses have stayed open 24/7;
- In the first three months of the pandemic, BACS kept 695 families in their housing through Keep Oakland Housed;
- BACS — operating two sites and serving 600+ people — joined Project Room Key, the state-wide initiative to provide a safe place for unhoused community members to shelter-in-place.
And today, we get to share spectacular news: BACS has been awarded $10 million to buy single-family homes in Oakland, to create permanent housing for community members with complex needs who are experiencing homelessness through Project Home Key! [Read more…]
Qimmah Hammed: BACS’ New Associate Director of Residential Housing Programs
Qimmah Hameed has accepted the position of Associate Director of Residential Housing Programs, a new position for BACS! Qimmah is an integral part of the BACS team, and brings an honest and outspoken justice framework to all BACS services.
Qimmah started with BACS in 2017 as a Peer Counselor, providing on-the-ground support to clients to help them end their unsheltered status. Qimmah later moved into a significant leadership role overseeing BACS’ Housing Fast program at the Henry Robinson Center, which fills the gap between homelessness and housing. This program serves 137 people at a time, located in downtown Oakland, and helped more than 300 people a year under Qimmah’s leadership.
Qimmah is an Oakland native, and is passionately committed to ending homelessness in the community she loves. Qimmah is committed to restoring and uplifting her community. Qimmah seeks to cultivate residential programs which provide safe and restorative environments for community members to transition into sustainable permanent housing.
Governor Newsom visits BACS in Contra Costa County
Today, BACS was thrilled to welcome California Governor Gavin Newsom visited to our Vulnerable Unhoused Hotel in Pittsburg, Contra Costa County for a statewide budget update. The new budget will dedicate significant resources for capital/acquisition and services to counties and cities. Governor Newsom also updated the state on COVID-19, reinforcing his commitment to our unhoused community members.
Governor Newsom chose to come back to BACS after he visited and made an historic announcement last year about his prioritization of resources to the unhoused community – and came back to see us again today, a year later, to hold true on his commitment to see the resources he committed in action.
BACS’ Vulnerable Unhoused Hotel in Contra Costa County ramped up in less than a week, and currently is home to 170 community members experiencing homelessness who are at-risk of COVID-19. BACS quickly pioneered this new model for our community members, in partnership with the City of Pittsburg and Contra Costa County, and will be part of the vision of ensuring these community members do not go back to the streets after their stay.
During this pandemic, we have all learned the value of our homes – there is no “shelter in place” without shelter.
[Read more…]
Open Letter on Injustice and Invitation to Demonstrate
This is an open letter from the workforce of BACS who is on the Street 24/7/365 – doing the work to change the world as we feel it and experience it today. Writing from our own hearts and souls, we are a vibrant People, representing and supporting a rainbow of identities and cultures, using many methods and services – that some would call untraditional or radical – to uplift our community. We break the frame by doing Whatever It Takes for the people that are the poorest, most held down by The System – the Oppressed.
We see and mourn the injustice of George Floyd’s murder, of every murder, and the systemic atrocities that killed Our People. Above all, we seek compassion and accountability and we are here to demand reform and to be a part of the change. There should always be liberal chances for self-improvement, and this is the same for our system as it is for an individual.
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