Oakland’s Permanent Access to Housing (PATH) Strategy provides a roadmap for ending homelessness in the City over the next fifteen years.   PATH is a companion to EveryOne Home, Alameda Countywide Homeless and Special Needs Housing Plan.  The overarching strategy articulated in PATH and EveryOne Home is to shift the approach to the homelessness problem away from managing it and towards solving it.  The key element of this shift is to transition from emergency shelter and services towards the acquisition, development and operation of permanent affordable and supportive housing.

The Oakland PATH (Permanent Access to Housing) strategy focuses on a Housing First model for the rapid re-housing of individuals and families currently on the street and without permanent housing. 

• Approximately 7,000 units of affordable and supportive housing will be needed to end homelessness within Oakland's borders over the next fifteen years.
• Three sources of funding will be required:  capital dollars, service dollars and operations dollars. 
• Oakland will need to leverage its own local dollars with County, State, Federal and private dollars to develop the 7,000 units needed, and will require political and business leadership to reach the goal.

The Oakland PATH (Permanent Access to Housing) strategy (without Attachments)

The Oakland PATH strategy and its attachments are downloadable as a ZIP file. To download an evaluation version of WINZIP click here.

Each year the City of Oakland Hunger Program provides over 10,000 emergency brown bags of groceries to low income Oakland residents, and holds two special events, the Annual Thanksgiving Dinner and the Project Homeless Connect outreach fair. All of the Hunger Program activities are performed by volunteers from the community, and these programs are made possible through generous donations from local businesses, corporations and individuals.

Your donations help provide low-income families and individuals with emergency food, and help to sponsor our special events. Please join us in the fight against hunger! Your donations are tax deductible.

Ways to donate include:

• By mail : Please make your check payable to the City of Oakland Hunger Program and send to:

• Volunteer time : Last year more than 3,900 volunteers donated more than 27,000 hours to the City of Oakland Hunger Programs. Volunteers staff our annual special events, such as the Annual Thanksgiving Dinner, by acting as waiters and serving dinners to low income homeless persons and seniors. Our volunteers also staff the Project Homeless Connect events every year. Other volunteer opportunities include packing and distributing brown bags of groceries at local food pantries in Oakland neighborhoods, and donating food or clothing to our volunteer agencies. For more information, contact our volunteer coordinator, Chyrill Quamina, at (510) 238-7756.

• Homeless Prevention – Programs that provide one-time rental assistance or move-in assistance help to people with a temporary financial crisis to prevent them from becoming homeless.
• Emergency Housing – Homeless shelters, as well as hotel/motel vouchers, are included in this program to provide temporary lodging for homeless persons.
• Transitional Housing – Several transitional housing programs provide housing with case management and support services to families for up to 24 months. Transitional housing programs are designed to assist those families who are experiencing episodes of homelessness to sustain themselves and to bring about stability in the family unit and eventually to transition to independent living in permanent housing through services provided.
• Special Needs/AIDS/ - Housing facilities and services for special needs populations, particularly those with HIV/AIDS and their families, are provided through supportive housing programs and Housing Opportunities for Persons Living with AIDS (HOPWA) throughout Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.
• Homeless Mobile Outreach Program - While committed to mitigating the public health and blight associated with homeless encampments, the City recognizes that homeless persons sleeping outside are in need of assistance in accessing homeless services and housing resources. In order to assist persons living in homeless encampments, the City of Oakland has established a Homeless Mobile Outreach Program (HMOP). The HMOP provides humanitarian and survival assistance and encourages people in encampments to seek case management, income, health and housing assistance referrals with a goal of becoming permanently housed members of our community.

Find information about Oakland shelters here.

To view HUD - Reference documents click here

The Hunger Program stages special events throughout the year:

Project Homeless Connect is held multiple times per year at varying locations to reach out to and provide the connection to services for our most vulnerable populations.

The annual Thanksgiving Dinner is held in downtown Oakland during Thanksgiving week and serves seniors and low-income Oakland residents and their families, who enjoy live musical entertainment, celebrity waiters, and a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.

Both multi-cultural events are staffed entirely by volunteers. The food and entertainment is provided through generous donations from local residents and businesses. To volunteer for an event, or to make a donation, please call 510-986-2721 or make a check payable to The City of Oakland Hunger Program and mail it to 150 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Suite 4340, Oakland, CA 94612.