A seven-bedroom house on Haste Street will offer a bridge between encampment or street living and permanent housing.
Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency
Posted inCity
‘A mini-urban miracle,’ new Berkeley homeless housing could be model for the state
It’s been a big week for subsidized housing in Berkeley. And it just got bigger.
Posted inCity
City expands warming centers, shelter beds and outreach to bring homeless indoors during storm season
The city of Berkeley has doubled its capacity for emergency storm shelter beds this week, following a council directive to get more homeless individuals indoors, and will make those beds available through Monday night in light of current weather conditions. In a memo to the Berkeley City Council sent Thursday, City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley said up to 130 shelter beds […]
Posted inEvents
Join Berkeleyside, guests, Dec. 15 at Spats for holiday drinks to benefit Alameda Food Bank, BOSS
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 team members, along with some special guests, will be […]
Posted inCommunity
Protesters criticize Berkeley homeless services center
Occupants of a protest camp outside the city of Berkeley’s homeless services intake center in South Berkeley this week criticized the way the city is allocating aid to people on the streets. Campers have reportedly moved on, as of Friday morning, but the issues they raised remain. The occupation, organized by a city commissioner as well […]
Posted inOpinion
Op-ed: Confronting the causes and solutions of mass homelessness
Policy makers, government agencies, funders, and nonprofits alike all cling to the concept and importance of data like it is a panacea for societal ills—it is not. Data is only as good as our ability and willingness to act on it. Case in point: homelessness. Where Does Mass Homelessness Come From? Mass homelessness was not […]
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 inCommunity
Berkeley seeks to house those most in need at The Hub
It used to be that those who were homeless in Berkeley had to navigate a complex tangle of services to try to find help. In January, the city launched what it hopes will be a coordinated, collaborative system designed to provide permanent housing to those who need it most and collect data to create a better overall picture of who is seeking aid in the city. One […]
Posted inCommunity
Rising Stars program recognizes 20 exceptional youth
More than 100 people filled the ballroom at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza in downtown Berkeley on June 2 to show their support for 20 young Bay Area people, who, in spite of high odds, have managed to succeed in different areas of life. The third annual Rising Stars Youth Leadership gala, hosted by the Berkeley-based Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), was […]
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 inCrime & Safety, Opinion
Op-ed: Being poor is not a crime
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates was quoted on Channel 7 News as saying, “It’s not an effort to criminalize people, it’s an effort to try to make things more civil.” Yet the new homeless ordinance that passed 6-3 early Wednesday – nearly one week before Thanksgiving Day – does in fact criminalize the homeless and poor […]
Posted inCommunity
IKEA donates ‘makeover’ to shelter for homeless families
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 with an outlet in Emeryville, recently donated $10,000 worth of furniture and design services to McKinley House, located at 2111 McKinley Ave. in central Berkeley. The […]