Oakland's Homelessness Strategy

Homeless Strategic Action Plan (HSAP)

The Homelessness Strategic Action Plan is a comprehensive approach that implements the Mayor’s Five Point Plan and involves stronger coordination between encampment management and services to better meet the needs of our community, including businesses and residents, both housed and unhoused.

Under the Plan, the City has an aggressive goal to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 50% by 2031. To do that, the City and County must raise and invest another $284.3 million annually in homeless services and housing to scale-up the programs that work. 

Homelessness is the result of decades of underinvestment in affordable housing, public health, mental health care, and education, as well as the rising cost of living without a commensurate increase in wages.  Homelessness in the City of Oakland (“City” or “Oakland”) grew by 9% between 2022 and 2024.  Additionally, in 2025, over 1,900 encampment locations were reported throughout the City.  

Further, data also indicates that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color populations in Oakland are overrepresented in homelessness, poverty, and displacement. Data consistently show that Black Oakland residents, in particular, are disproportionately overrepresented among unhoused residents and inflow to homelessness in both new entries and returns to homelessness. 

While homelessness programs alone cannot address all the root causes of poverty, housing insecurity, and homelessness, Oakland’s homeless response system can be structured to intentionally reduce barriers and avoid perpetuating racial disparities. 

Primary governance on homelessness is led by the City Council and Mayor’s Office which sets overall policy direction. In 2025, the office of Mayor Barbara Lee created the Office of Homelessness Solutions in the City Administrator’s Office to coordinate efforts between the various city agencies and set a comprehensive, unified strategy for addressing homelessness in Oakland. 

The Strategic Action Plan coupled with the Racial Equity Impact Analysis aims to as aggressively as possible address and reduce unsheltered homelessness. The Racial Equity Analysis sheds light on the disproportionate impact race plays on many Oaklanders homeless status. The city is putting an emphasis on achieving equitable outcomes for its homeless population. Oakland’s continued strong commitment to social justice, health, and safety will be critical to the success of the Plan.

The Homelessness Strategic Action Plan Key Elements

The Plan lays out a 5-point framework that is both strategic and actionable to meet this goal:

 

1. Targeted Prevention: Targeted prevention identifies households on the brink of losing their current housing that are also statistically most likely to experience homelessness as a result. After identifying households most at-risk, Targeted Prevention Programs stabilize people before they enter homelessness, with a flexible “whatever it takes” approach.  The City currently funds an acclaimed prevention program that provides a combination of supportive services, coordination and referrals, legal support, and financial assistance in a flexible and creative manner. This is a very cost-effective program.  The Plan recommends an investment of approximately 6% of total homeless funding for prevention.

    

2. Access and Coordination: Access and coordination services ensure that people experiencing homelessness, particularly unsheltered homelessness, can connect quickly to the right mix of services and benefits, specifically through street outreach, housing navigation services, and case management.  Both the City and the County deliver these services through outreach teams that provide basic needs like food and hygiene kits, offer medical attention, and help connect people to Interim Housing programs and waitlists.The Plan recommends an investment of approximately 4% of total homeless funding for access and coordination services.

    

3. Encampment Engagement and Neighborhood Health:  In 2025 an estimated 1,921 encampment locations were identified in the City.  As a result, programming to address encampments is an immediate need.  Core elements of the encampment strategy include deep cleanings, trash-runs, proper hygiene and sanitation, connecting unsheltered individuals to services and housing, addressing vehicular homelessness, and attending to “high sensitivity” areas.  The City expended approximately $13.7 million on encampment engagement activities in FY 24/25, representing 19% of the total City funding for homelessness response.  The Plan recommends all departments accurately track their expenditures on encampment operations to estimate the ongoing need for these activities.

    

4. Interim Housing: Interim Housing provides temporary shelter or housing, coupled with supportive services, to ensure immediate safety and stability while households work toward permanent housing solutions.  It gives people a place to land that begins to abate the trauma of living outdoors, while readying them for permanent solution.  Interim Housing features non-congregate sleeping arrangements (i.e. individual rooms with doors that close), and offers a basic level of supportive services, individual privacy, security, and space to keep belongings. These programs operate under a variety of models, including Community Cabins, Shelters, Transitional Housing, and RV Safe Parking, and all emphasize both immediate safety and ongoing case management and supportive services. The Plan recommends an investment of approximately 32% of total homeless funding for interim housing programs.

Permanent Housing: The key to ending homelessness is Permanent Housing that is affordable to people experiencing homelessness and which provides supportive services tailored to the needs of the residents. There is a huge gap between market rents and the income of people experiencing homelessness (including both earned income and benefit programs like social security and disability insurance).  Permanent Housing, as defined by HUD, is generally divided between four models: Dedicated Affordable Housing (DAH), Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), Short-term assistance (Rapid Rehousing being the most common), and Ongoing Rental Subsidies (such as Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers).  The Plan recommends an investment of approximately 54% of total homeless funding for permanent housing solutions.

Cost to Meet Plan Goal

The estimated annual cost to meet the Plan goal is substantial: 

Total Annual Cost to Meet the Plan Goal				$406 million
Estimated Amount of City and County Funding for a single year				$122 million
Funding Gap				$284.3 million
	Annual Funding Needed, Funding Available and Resulting Gap
		Funding Needed to Meet Goal Annually	City Funding Available Annually		County Funding Available Annually (estimated)	Annual Gap
	Targeted Prevention	$24.8 million	$3.6 million		$0	$21.2 million
	Access & Coordination	$16 million	$1.9 million		$8 million	$6.1 million
	Encampment Engagement	$18.7 million	$13.7 million		$0	$5 million
	Interim Housing	$129.3 million	$30.7 million		$15.3 million	$83.3 million
	Permanent Housing	$217.4 million	$20.3 million (PSH Only)		$28.4 million	$168.7 million
	TOTAL	$406.2 million	$70.2 million		$51.7 million	$284.3 million

 

While there are many factors outside of the City’s control, taking the reins to advance those areas where the City can influence funding, policies, and practices, as well as targeting resources in a strategic manner, will make a difference. 

PATH Framework

In 2019 the City of Oakland updated the five year strategy to address homelessness

Oakland's Five Year Framework (PATH) to Address Homelessness(PDF, 1MB)

The PATH Framework:

• Provides a framework for addressing homelessness across the full spectrum of services from prevention and intervention to solutions/housing;
• Clearly identifies the scale and scope of the investments needed to make substantial change in the current crisis;
• Seeks to align all stakeholders on the importance of investing across the spectrum of services and in setting ambitious measurable goals; and
• Points to the absolute need to increase revenues
• Informs policy makers about what to advocate for from federal, state, county, and private funding partners.

The PATH Framework is grounded in the following values:

• Racial equity must be central to every homelessness intervention, as African American Oaklanders suffer disproportionately.
• Housing is the solution to homelessness and, as a result, every emergency intervention or bed should have a robust housing exit attached.
• Compassion and basic health and hygiene are critical for providing human dignity even when housing is not available.
• Interventions must balance the needs of both sheltered and unsheltered communities.
• Regional alignment and partnerships both private/ public and across governments are critical to success.

PATH Framework Presentation(PDF, 653KB)
This presentation was presented at the December 14th, 2019 Life Enrichment Committee meeting and provides an overview of Oakland's Five Year Framework (PATH) to Address Homelessness

Oakland PATH Framework Glossary(PDF, 1001KB)
This glossary accompanies the Oakland Permanent Access to Housing (PATH) framework

Oakland PATH Framework Staff Report(PDF, 581KB)
This staff report accompanies the Permanent Access to Housing (PATH) framework that was presented at the December 14, 2019 Life Enrichment Committee meeting

PIT Data & Report

Every two years, during the last ten days of January, communities across the country conduct comprehensive counts of the local population experiencing homelessness in order to measure the prevalence of homelessness in each community.

The Point-in-Time Count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), but more importantly also informs local strategic planning, investment, capacity building, and advocacy campaigns to prevent and end homelessness.

2019 Oakland Point In Time Count Summary(PDF, 160KB)
This two-page summary highlights the findings from the 2019 Point in Time count

2019 Oakland Point In Time Count Comprehensive Report(PDF, 2MB)
The 2019 Homeless Count and Survey consisted of four primary components: (1) the general street count, an observation-based enumeration of unsheltered persons between the hours of approximately 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.; (2) the youth count, a targeted enumeration of unsheltered youth under the age of 24 between the hours of approximately 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; (3) the sheltered count, an enumeration of persons residing in emergency shelter, safe haven, and transitional housing facilities the night before the general street count; and (4) the survey, an in-person survey of a randomized sample of unsheltered and sheltered persons conducted by trained peer surveyors and program staff in the weeks following the general street count.

Find out how to support people experiencing homelessness during COVID.

The Permanent Access to Housing (PATH) Framework is the City's updated five year approach to address homelessness in Oakland. The PATH Framework organizes strategies to address homelessness under three major themes:

1. Prevention strategies to keep people from becoming homeless
2. Emergency strategies to shelter and rehouse households and improve health and safety on the street
3. Creation of affordable, extremely low income and permanent supportive housing units prioritized for households experiencing homelessness.