ALAMEDA — Building a village of 20 cabins on a city-owned lot next to the College of Alameda’s track field is one of several options the City Council is exploring as part of an effort to get roofs over the heads of people living on the streets or in their vehicles.
Another option is to buy and convert the Marina Village Inn along the Oakland Estuary to permanent supportive housing, with kitchenettes added to each room and some rooms combined to accommodate families.
The Marina Village Inn last year served as temporary housing under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Project Roomkey program, which entailed leasing hotel rooms to temporarily house homeless people during the pandemic.
The council took no formal action on Tuesday but directed staff to return in the fall with more details regarding the cabins and Marina Village Inn.
Both sites are near businesses, parks and public transportation, which council members said at a meeting Tuesday make them ideal for families.
“We should not miss this rare opportunity to do something bold,” Councilman Tony Daysog said about renovating the Marina Village Inn, which has 51 rooms in three buildings.
“This is something the city should definitely pursue,” Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft added.
As for 80-square-foot cabins, they would be manufactured in the Group Delphi manufacturing plant at Alameda Point and delivered to the city lot at 2350 5th St., near the college, at an estimated cost of up to $2.6 million.
People would be allowed to stay up to six months maximum in the cabins. Annual operating costs, which would include a full-time onsite manager, a part-time assistant to the manager and 24-hour security, are estimated at $600,000.
Acquiring, upgrading and renovating the Marina Village Inn could cost up to $20 million, according to the city. Annual operating costs, which would include on-site managers and a maintenance worker, could run approximately $1.5 million.
Funding for the projects could come from multiple sources, including state grants, the city’s Housing Authority and the $28 million that Alameda is receiving from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for COVID-19 recovery efforts, said Lisa Maxwell, the city’s community development director.
Other ideas presented to the council to help house the homeless included constructing a building of 40 studios and buying one or more large houses to convert to shared living spaces with bathrooms in each bedroom.
Suggested locations for the various projects include the tennis courts on Main Street near the Albert H. DeWitt O Club at the former Alameda Naval Air Station and a lot near a storage facility at West Hornet Avenue and Skyhawk Street on the former base.
Other possible site includes a large parking lot that abuts the Corica Park Golf Course on Bay Farm Island and is currently used for a “park and ride” lot for a nearby ferry terminal.
Laura Thomas of Renewed Hope, an organization that advocates for affordable housing, said she supports acquiring the Marina Village Inn.
“The idea of supporting permanent housing rather than transitional housing is something the city needs to take seriously,” Thomas said.
But resident Rosalinda Fortuna said the price tag is too high. “I think modular housing is the best solution,” she added.
According to EveryOneHome, a San Leandro-based group that regularly counts the area’s homeless population, the number of unhoused people living in Alameda increased 13% from 204 in 2017 to 231 in 2019.
Alameda County’s homeless population grew 43% from 5,629 to 8,022 during the same period.
“There is a significant need and we all know that is not going to go away anytime soon,” Vice Mayor Malia Vella said.
Job losses, mental health problems, substance abuse, evictions, foreclosures and incarceration are the common causes of homelessness, the report says.
The most recent survey was carried out in 2019. It’s done every two years and takes in all of Alameda County’s incorporated and unincorporated areas. Because of COVID-19, however, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development postponed this year’s count until 2022.
