ALAMEDA — The city might use state money earmarked for the homeless to purchase a hygiene bus and fund spots for RV parking through a partnership with the cities of Fremont, Hayward, San Leandro and Union City.
Some of the $756,524 that Alameda is receiving also could go toward purchasing shelter beds, establishing a daytime drop-in center, and helping those living on the street get reunited with family or into permanent housing.
The City Council will weigh in on allocating the money — part of $500 million that’s being distributed to counties and cities to ease California’s homeless crisis — on Jan. 15.
The city’s share of the one-time money is part of $16.2 million that Alameda County is receiving and must be spent before June 30, 2021. The funds could be available as soon as March, according to city officials.
The city could set aside $147,505 for a bus or trailer fitted with showers or restrooms. The hygiene bus would rotate among sites in Alameda, San Leandro, Union City, Hayward and Fremont. They money also would go toward funding a regional program to create places where people living in RVs or their cars can safely park, Interim City Manager David Rudat said in a report for the council.
Possible parking locations were not available. But the program would likely include or at least mirror CAREavan, which is already happening in Union City. It rotates safe parking locations among five public and church lots, which have restrooms and where some have showers, toilets, food pantries and laundry facilities.
A hygiene vehicle and places for parking and RV waste disposal in unincorporated parts of Alameda County are also set to get funded through the state’s one-time block grant program.
Alameda County requires 10 percent of the one-time monies it’s distributing go toward rent subsidies or assistance; 20 percent for direct services; and 70 percent for capital improvements.
The requirements mean the city of Alameda could allocate $516,267 toward building public restrooms in the Park Street and Webster Street business districts, Rudat said.
The county also requires a 30 percent local match, which Alameda will fulfill through programs it’s already funding for low-income housing and homeless services.
Along with providing direction on what should get funded, the City Council will consider authorizing the interim city manager to work with the city’s Social Service and Human Relations Board to finalize and implement the programs.
A 2017 count showed an increase of nearly 40 percent in Alameda County’s homeless over the previous two years, with more than 5,600 people without permanent shelter. Approximately 204 of them live in the city of Alameda.
Slow or stagnant wage growth combined with the region’s soaring rents has caused the crisis, according to a UC Berkeley study from April last year.
The one-time state monies are included in a $340 million package that the county’s Board of Supervisors approved in November to tackle homelessness over the next three years.
The City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Jan. 15 at City Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Ave., Alameda.