A proposal to build a 150-bed interim housing site in downtown Oakland for medically fragile unhoused people appears to have been derailed.
Bay Area nonprofit Cardea Health had been in discussions about using the site of the current Courtyard Marriott on 9th and Broadway for this facility. But community opposition to the project grew over recent days, and on Thursday, Cardea Health confirmed it was no longer in contract for that site.
Alexis Chettiar, the CEO and Co-Founder of Cardea Health, told NBC Bay Area that her nonprofit had been working with the city of Oakland for about a year on this. She said the proposal was to build interim housing for unhoused people in downtown Oakland encampments who are too frail to stay in a regular shelter. Chettiar explained that many of these patients are elderly, have chronic illness, or require resources like dialysis, hospice care, or chemotherapy. Cardea Health operates similar programs in Oakland, San Leandro, and San Francisco.
She said the proposed project would have provided security patrols, sidewalk and graffiti cleanup, a nurse to assist weekly at the nearby senior building, and local sourcing of food services.
Chettiar said the project would have come “at no cost to Oakland” with $20 million in grant funding and $10 million in operational funding through Measure W, a measure approved by Alameda County voters in 2020.
But a few weeks ago, Cardea Health contacted Oakland City Council Member Charlene Wang, who represents the Oakland’s Chinatown in District 2, and hit a roadblock.
Wang, who took office this year, said she tried to keep an open mind about the project, but ultimiately felt she could not support this proposal on moral grounds.
“I ran to really protect and revitalize the Chinatown community, and going with this would be the opposite of that, so we told them no, ‘we could not support it’,” Wang said.
Oakland Chinatown community members shared their objections to the proposal at a press conference on Thursday.
Neighbors said they feel blindsided and worry about a new facility right next to where hundreds of Chinatown seniors already live.
“We have no intention to oppose anything to build a shelter to help the houseless,” said Monica Lau of Family Bridges, an East Bay nonprofit.
“Just in this case, it happened too fast,” Lau continued.
Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council President Stewart Chen said the project is “not going to work.”
“There are associated issues like safety, support services that have not been addressed,” Chen said, adding that he felt a 150-bed facility was too large for this particular area.
“I want to make it clear to any sort of organization that wants to make really longstanding changes to the Chinatown community, you don’t get to come here to this community, and make changes, and come from the top down and make changes without consulting the community first,” Wang said of this proposal.
Many at the press conference criticized the proposal for not seeking feedback from the Chinatown community.
Chettiar said there was a nondisclosure agreement in place as part of the purchase agreement until recently, and that when that NDA was lifted, Cardea reached out to Council Member Wang.
On Thursday, Wang said it is her understanding that Marriott, who owns the Courtyard property, is backing out from the deal. She also said that a council vote on this project, which had been scheduled for next week, had been called off.
Chettiar said in a statement, “We are sorry that the project will not be moving forward and hope that there will be a future opportunity for the site to provide needed services for the greater Oakland community.”
She noted that Cardea Health is looking into the possibility of bringing the project to an alternative site in the city’s Hegenberger corridor, which she noted is already an area that has many homeless service facilities. Chettiar said there are currently no similar projects in Oakland’s District 2.
“We do need encampment resolution, we do, but we need to, as a team, really look at the sites that are available before us,” Wang said.
Wang said she had proposed five potential sites in her district to Cardea Health that could be used for a smaller project. However, Cardea Health said the sites Wang suggested, “would not be feasible to operate in due to a lack of ADA accessibility, inadequate fire safety, and poor facility condition.”
A City of Oakland spokesperson explained that Alameda County is taking proposals from vendors for interim housing sites for the unhoused. The spokesperson said Oakland will determine whether it will provide letters of support for proposed projects, but at this point, the city has not confirmed support for any proposals.
Source: NBC Bay Area