BERKELEY — Metropolis officers on Wednesday introduced plans to offer short-term housing for homeless folks dwelling in Individuals’s Park, as the town and UC Berkeley put together to clear the encampments and construct scholar housing on the positioning.
The plans have sparked controversy for months, with college students occupying the park to protest the development and the displacement of the homeless occupants, and vandals even attacking the houses of UC officers and staff tied to the challenge. Now, because of a $4.7 million state grant and a partnership with UC Berkeley, Abode Providers and different nonprofits, metropolis officers say they've the sources to maneuver the park’s residents inside.
“We’re proud to honor the legacy of Individuals’s Park and higher meet the wants of our group by means of an effort that’s deeply reflective of Berkeley’s values,” Mayor Jesse Arreguín wrote in a information launch. “This partnership will put a roof over the heads of these dwelling in Individuals’s Park, as a substitute of merely pushing them from one neighborhood to a different.”
Town will lease 42 rooms on the just lately reworked Rodeway Inn for one yr. Individuals’s Park residents will likely be supplied a personal room, kitchenette and loo, linens, toiletries and housekeeping. Nonprofit Abode Providers will present every day meal service, entry to healthcare and counseling, and housing navigators who will assist residents discover everlasting housing.
The First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley additionally will work with the town and college to open a brand new daytime drop-in middle for unhoused folks on the church’s grounds.
“We're grateful for, and humbled by the approaching collectively of this new alliance in assist of a brand new Individuals’s Park,” UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ wrote. “Collectively we'll present a real win-win-win for our college students, for unhoused members of our group, and for the entire residents of the Metropolis of Berkeley.”
It is a growing story. Test again for updates.