News

Expansion of Veteran Services in Alameda County

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.