Posted inCity

City expands warming centers, shelter beds and outreach to bring homeless indoors during storm season

A homeless man rests in the shade on the steps of the Veterans Building in Berkeley, which is set to serve as a warming center for the city during winter weather conditions. Photo: Emilie Raguso The city of Berkeley has doubled its capacity for emergency storm shelter beds this week, following a council directive to get more homeless […]

Posted inEvents

Join Berkeleyside, guests, Dec. 15 at Spats for holiday drinks to benefit Alameda Food Bank, BOSS

Spats is at 1974 Shattuck Ave. in downtown Berkeley For the second year running, Berkeleyside is hosting holiday drinks at Spats in downtown Berkeley — Thursday, Dec. 15, 6-9 p.m. —  to bring our community together and raise money for the Alameda County Community Food Bank. (We’re also collecting new socks for BOSS — see below for details.) Berkeleyside […]

Posted inOpinion

Op-ed: Not in my front yard: Cuts to downtown services threaten basic quality of life for the homeless

While the number one priority for serving homeless people is (or should be) helping them find affordable housing to live in, for the last several years the city has also rightly deemed it an important quality-of-life priority that homeless people have access to showers, bathrooms, and laundry facilities. Until now. BOSS’s Multi-Agency Service Center (MASC) […]

Posted inOpinion

Op-ed: Berkeley latest homelessness recommendations are a lackluster response to a true emergency

On Tuesday the Berkeley City Council was presented with a report from the Homeless Task Force, with recommendations for action to address homelessness in the city. Leaving aside the likelihood or unlikelihood of any of the recommendations passing, for a Task Force whose self-stated goal is “ending homelessness in our city”, the report is notable for […]

Posted inCommunity

IKEA donates ‘makeover’ to shelter for homeless families

The “after” picture of the living room of McKinley House furnished with Ikea furniture. The “after” picture of the living room of McKinley House furnished with Ikea furniture. The families living in the McKinley Family Transitional House in Berkeley now have a lovely space from which to plot their move out from homelessness. IKEA, the Scandinavian furniture store […]