By CBS Bay Area<\/p>\n
Restorative Pathways, a nonprofit organization, recently opened a 120-bed shelter in the city of Oakland. City and community leaders say this is just one solution to tackling the homelessness crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel alone anymore. I mean, I feel like I\u2019m at home,\u201d Oray Yilmaz, who has been living at Solara House at the Lake Merritt Lodge told CBS News Bay Area. \u201cThey saved me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Restorative Pathways acquired the shelter late last year. What was once the historic Lake Merritt Lodge in the 1920s has now transformed into a safe space for families experiencing homelessness, survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, and transition-aged youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shelter staff said that 45 beds are filled so far, and are looking forward to welcoming more families under their roof. Thirty staff members stay on site, ranging from residential advocates to case managers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cReally the cornerstone of our city and county\u2019s response to homelessness,\u201d Sasha Hauswald, the interim chief homelessness solutions officer for the city of Oakland, told CBS News Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said her team just completed the bi-annual count for the most recent data on homelessness, but as of the 2024 count, Oakland recorded about 3,600 unhoused individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She added that 2,500 Oaklanders experience homelessness annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is going to be a homelessness strategic action plan unveiled very soon. It\u2019s also the mayor\u2019s five-point plan. And in it, we really emphasize the need to invest at scale in targeted homelessness prevention in the front end. Because that is going to reduce the inflow to homelessness into Oakland and at the same time, we need to be increase permanent housing options for people to move into,\u201d Hauswald said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said that there are 1,300 city shelter beds, but they\u2019re at full capacity. So, nonprofits like Restorative Pathways are helping save lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPrograms like this are really critically important for people to heal, and they\u2019re also important for supporting unhoused people to navigate the unfortunately very complex network of services and housing options that we have,\u201d Hauswald told CBS News Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0The city is also investing $130 million yearly to combat the homelessness crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Yilmaz, they\u2019re now focusing on their future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy professional job is a nurse. But I can\u2019t do my professional job right now as my graduation is not valid in California. I have to go to college two years more for California\u2019s law,\u201d Yilmaz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They shared that they are grateful for this interim housing that they can call home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can be myself in California. I feel free,\u201d Yilmaz added.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By CBS Bay Area Restorative Pathways, a nonprofit organization, recently opened a 120-bed shelter in the city of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-291353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}