Condition Placed on Housing Aid to Albany Bulb Homeless

The Berkeley Food and Housing Project, which has been hired by the City of Albany to help relocate the estimated 55 people living in makeshift camps on the Albany Bulb, said Monday that its offer to subsidize alternative housing costs for several weeks or months has an important condition. 

The project's executive director, Terrie Light, said that subsidized housing will be provided only "to those who can continue with paying their rent either through employment or with another stable source of income such as SSI." SSI is Social Security's Supplemental Security Income. 

At a public meeting last Thursday, the Berkeley Food and Housing Project said they will offer three to six months of subsidized housing to Albany's homeless. Light said today that the time period could vary depending on individual circumstances. 

The length of the subsidy will depend in part on the recipient's eligibility to use Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) funds, she said. 

The Berkeley agency was hired by the Albany City Council to help relocate the homeless after the council voted May 6 to instruct police to begin enforcing the no camping law at the Bulb beginning October. The city is seeking to implement its long-term goal of turning the Bulb over to the East Bay Regional Park District to manage as part of the McLaughlin Eastshore State Park.