OHA Building Bridges Program: Creative Local Solutions for Oakland Communities

At East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), we believe that everyone should have access to a safe and affordable home, and every neighborhood should provide opportunities that enable people to live long, healthy lives, regardless of income.

We are pleased to announce our participation in an historic new Oakland-based subsidy program, the OHA Building Bridges. This local rental assistance program is a collaborative effort of the Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) and its community partners. OHA Building Bridges was designed to help several hundred households, who until now were excluded from many traditional housing assistance programs, most notably the Housing Choice Voucher program (also known as Section 8), due to the strict guidelines stipulating room size and occupancy characteristics.

Through its Moving to Work (MTW) designation, the Oakland Housing Authority is able to develop local solutions to challenges that are outside the normal parameters established by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) rules and regulations. With the rents rising in Oakland, CA at a rate that outpaces nearly every other city in the country, Oakland in the top five cities nationally and the crisis of addressing the need for housing for the most vulnerable populations is more critical than ever.

In 2016, using a competitive bidding process, OHA issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeking qualified owners, property managers and developers with SROs currently in their portfolios who would receive MTW local housing assistance for units within those properties. With two SRO buildings that met the need, the San Pablo Hotel and the Madrone Hotel, EBALDC was prepared to immediately move forward with the RFQ process. After being awarded contracts for both sites, EBALDC and OHA are moving forward to assist existing households in a service-enriched environment.

The OHA Building Bridges program serves clients in myriad ways, namely:
• Rent has been significantly lowered, thereby stabilizing the housing of the residents
• Able to offer increased services, addressing chronic mental and physical health issues
• Able to divert other funds toward capital improvement projects, unit upgrades, and increase amenities, improving the quality of life for tenants
• Able to preserve units, making housing available into the future

Through this partnership with OHA, EBALDC is addressing a long-standing problem within our community and working strategically to ensure that all housing units continue to be available and that there are safe and affordable homes for those whose incomes create an insurmountable obstacle to other housing options.

Joshua Simon, Executive Director of EBALDC, has praised OHA for its innovative thinking in addressing problems that will likely continue to plague us into the future. “We believe that extending assistance to 289 SRO units through this local program will help stabilize and preserve those properties, but even more significantly, stabilize lives,” said Eric Johnson, Executive Director of the Oakland Housing Authority. “This could be one of the most impactful programs we, through our partners like EBALDC, accomplish this year in addressing the severe challenges so many Oaklanders are experiencing as a result of our affordable housing crisis.”