Oakland A’s give BACS Social Justice Grant Award

The Oakland A’s Community Fund awarded BACS the $10,000 Social Justice grant award! This grant will support our social justice, neighborhood-oriented approach to mental health & homelessness services. As part of the award, we got to invite a big group of staff, people we serve, and their families/natural supports to attend the September 8th game against the White Sox. We loved being there for the home team win!

Girl Scout Gold Award Powers the Community

At the start of the pandemic, many public locations closed their doors – which meant that for people without housing, it was suddenly a huge challenge to keep their phones charged. Without a phone, it’s hard to apply for jobs, make medical appointments, look for an apartment, and access services and public health info.

A small team of ambassador girl scouts and high schoolers banded together and designed a project to provide more charging solutions to the unhoused across Fremont and the Bay Area. This project, led by girl scout Aparna Singh, placed a combination of permanent and portable charging solutions at BACS and other community organizations’ sites, to make using devices and gaining crucial information a bit more accessible to all. These charging solutions will allow people to have access to their devices even years after the pandemic has come to a close. BACS is so impressed with this Gold Star Girl Scout project – it’s a solar, eco-friendly design with practical and compassionate applications!

Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness

Health, Housing, and Integrated Services (HHIS) is helping the people served by Project Roomkey motels into permanent housing, rather than falling back to homelessness. With BACS support, more than 210 people have moved into permanent housing so far!

HHIS is a signature BACS “whatever it takes” program. We uplift the “whole person” by breaking the mental health, housing, and other barriers that hold people back. This community-based program helps high-acuity individuals on their unique journey to stabilize their housing and behavioral health needs across the 8 domains of wellness. BACS helps partners by coordinating subsidies and federal funding, provides and links with intensive case management, building natural communities of support around partners, helping clients locate quality housing and submit applications then negotiate and understand lease agreements, and help with long-term housing retention.

Beauty’s Bagels Feeds Thousands

The Temescal neighbor of our headquarters has been baking a way out of poverty since the pandemic started – donating more than 3,200 bagels to BACS! Whenever those delicious treats arrive, we are so excited to be able to offer a tasty local bagel to our partners experiencing homelessness, behavioral health challenges, and other complications when they visit our sites for services. The bagels are a big pick-me-up, and partners have shared that it feels like the neighborhood has their back.

CARF Awards BACS Highest Accreditation

CARF, the Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, visited BACS a few months ago for an intensive survey of our sites, services, and outcomes.

CARF International is an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services. Typically done in-person, the 2021 survey was conducted virtually, and touched every aspect of BACS’ service delivery. Beyond the “point in time” that the survey captures, accreditation is an ongoing process, signaling to the public that a service provider is committed to continuously improving services, encouraging feedback, and serving the community. Seeking this level of accreditation is voluntary for organizations like BACS, but we take quality improvement seriously and are always looking to improve our services.

Representative Ro Khanna Visits Fremont

Last month, Fremont resident and CA-17th District Representative Ro Khanna visited our Fremont Housing Navigation Center! Fremont Mayor Lily Mei and members of the Fremont City Council joined BACS staff in giving a tour of the location and sharing the impacts of this rapid re-housing intervention. The site opened in October 2020, modeled after our other sites which have collectively housed more than 1,500 people!

SHARE Center Welcomes First Clients

BACS has moved in the first “cohort” of un-housed residents to the brand new SHARE Center in Salinas, CA! Our team, all from the Salinas community, welcomed the first 22 clients on Memorial Day.

Three families with children under 18 came indoors in our first group of residents, as well as 8 single adults. 86% identify as Latino/a/x. As a low-barrier program, we welcomed residents with mental health challenges, chronic health conditions, and physical disabilities. 72% have been experiencing homelessness for more than 2 years. For all of these residents, and every person who comes after them, BACS is going to do “whatever it takes” to help them find housing.

The SHARE Center is a beautiful and spacious location, including a reception, waiting room, staff spaces, health clinic, counseling offices, library, a commercial kitchen, a multipurpose room, pet kennels, outdoor dining area, children’s play areas, and bedrooms with 100 beds, including family rooms.

“We are so honored to bring BACS’ deep commitment to the “whatever it takes” philosophy to the Salinas community,” says BACS CEO Jamie Almanza, “we have a mission to serve and are so grateful to the community that has done so much to welcome us.”

Preventing Homelessness in Hayward

In response to COVID-19, and the massive strain it put on community members who were already living paycheck-to-paycheck or at-risk of homelessness, BACS partnered with City of Hayward to provide rent relief within weeks of the Shelter In Place order. Homelessness prevention is a huge need, in addition to services helping individuals and families who are currently experiencing homelessness, and BACS is a local leader in housing solutions for anybody who needs help. We created an online portal in 30+ languages for easy access, and worked directly with residents and landlords to stabilize housing crises. This was crucial to the Hayward community, and helped 670 families.

All funds have been expended, and community members are now referred to Alameda County’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program. There is clearly a significant need for this going forward, and we appreciate progressive and impactful Hayward City Council, Mayor, leadership, and other community members are advocating: let’s house Hayward.

Fremont Housing Navigation Center – 6 Month Report

After our first 6 months operating the Fremont Housing Navigation Center, we are proud to share the success of each of the 21 Fremont community members who are now living in permanent housing, and are no longer experiencing homelessness! We will keep working with every single person who stays with us to continue making this impact. You can read the City of Fremont’s full and transparent report online here.

One participant shared his story with the City of Fremont, who lost his housing and his mother in the same year. BACS assisted him with counseling and a lot of encouragement to not give up and use the opportunity at HNC to overcome the long-term obstacles he had been facing. He is now living in a studio in Oakland and working on stabilizing financially and saving for his future.

We are very hopeful, with vaccinations becoming more prevalent and COVID-19 cases decreasing, that we can bring in residents at full capacity within the next 6 months.

Wellness Centers Re-Open & Summer Events

We are so excited to share that our Wellness Centers are now open at 100% capacity, with some COVID safety measures (incl. masks, social distancing, & temperature checks). The soul of the Wellness & Housing Hubs is the community our members create each day, and we are so enthusiastic about the revitalization of our neighborhood as we see the Bay Area’s health improve.

In celebration of this, Towne House Wellness Center is hosting weekly “Wellness & Community Summer” events every Friday. We will uplift and celebrate the spirits and the struggles and the strength of our community with a DJ, barber, food, massages, and more – our full service partnerships and wellness centers create welcoming community space for all neighbors, housed or unhoused. For people who are often excluded, legislated against, discriminated against – you are welcome.

Teens Fundraise to Welcome Home Newly-Housed Neighbors

The incredible BASIS Independent Fremont Junior Honor Society and the entire school fundraised nearly $3,000 to help welcome home our Fremont community members who are exiting homelessness.

These future leaders visited our site, learned about their neighbors in need, and talked to our team – bringing these beautifully wrapped gifts of full cookware sets along with them. These cookware sets will be housewarming gifts for the people we move into housing, and have already helped 4 people moving out to set up their new kitchen!