Berkeley Food & Housing Project is excited to announce
the expansion of its rapid rehousing program for Veterans, the Roads Home
Program, in Alameda County. This program will serve approximately 600 homeless
veterans over the next two years, throughout Alameda County. The program
expansion is made possible by $6M in additional funding from the office of
Veterans’ Affairs’ Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program and
built around a new rental subsidy initiative called ‘shallow subsidy.’
“By removing income restrictions once a household is
enrolled, this subsidy proves to be different from other interventions,” stated
Roads Home Senior Program Manager, Angela Upshaw. “I believe we will see an
improvement in housing stability by encouraging households to increase their
income rather than penalizing them (households) through income ineligibility.”
Despite the overall success of the SSVF rapid rehousing interventions,
many cities in California and across the Country are facing challenges with
long-term housing stability. These challenges are due in part to the high cost
and low-vacancy rates of the rental market, which has yielded an insufficient
stock of affordable housing units. In response, the SSVF shallow subsidy is
designed to enable service providers in high rent burden communities to augment
available housing options for homeless veterans. By providing additional rental
assistance for a more extended period of time (two years before
recertification), the expectation is this sustained support would increase
long-term housing stability.
This program will be housed at a new office location in
Oakland, and lead by Roads Home Alameda Program Manager, Kyle Dunson. Kyle has
been with BFHP since 2014, and was most recently leading our Roads Home team in
Solano and Contra Costa counties.
Roads Home is a program of Berkeley Food & Housing
Project that provides an array of services to veterans and their families experiencing
housing insecurity. Roads Home delivers services across the counties of
Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, San Joaquin, Sacramento, and Amador, and has
been recognized by the VA for offering a highly effective regional approach to
ending veteran homelessness.
