BACS is thrilled to announce that the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation has partnered with BACS to end homelessness in the Bay Area, through a significant grant award.
Individuals who move in to The Holland are coming directly from the streets and encampments, and need support to immediately get basic needs met – food, clothing, hygiene, healthcare and medical needs, and more. Anthem Blue Cross Foundation is making it possible to provide every resident with a warm, healthy, filling meal every day in 2019.
BACS officially opened ‘The Holland’ in January, and immediately began to move community members out of encampments. The Holland is the second location in Oakland of a rapid re-housing program known as the Housing Fast Support Network (HFSN).
This program model is the largest and most effective effort to target homelessness in Oakland to date. At the Henry Robinson Center, BACS serves 300 people per year, and has an 88% success rate in getting people in to permanent housing after just 6 months. This is vastly shorter than similar models, which last 12-18 months.
The Holland will house up to 90 adults at a time, serving 150-180 additional people per year. This program is a critical component to end homelessness in Oakland, and the expansion will help reach more Oaklanders than ever.
The first program location, the Henry Robinson Center, historically called Hotel Touraine, located at 559 16th Street, has been open since 2013. The Henry Robinson Center has 137 beds for short-term housing, moving community members directly from encampments into the program.
The City of Oakland owns the site of The Holland at 641 West Grand Ave, a three-story Arts and Crafts style residential hotel historically called Hotel Holland, designed by famed local architect Julia Morgan and built in 1906. BACS is contracted through the City of Oakland to provide innovative housing services to residents.
“The Holland Hotel is one of the most beautiful and modern places formerly homeless individuals will proudly call home. As an agency, BACS only operates program sites that are homelike and welcoming, and The Holland gets an A+ from BACS”. – Jamie Almanza, MBA, BACS
