Policy Report: Oakland’s Targeted Homelessness Prevention Pilot

In July 2023, the City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department, in collaboration with Bay Area Community Services, launched a Homelessness Prevention Pilot (HPP), also called Keep People Housed, as pandemic-era residential stability programs ended. The program was conceptualized as a lifeline for low-income tenants experiencing extreme housing instability by providing short-term financial assistance and resource coordination. In just over a year, the program received 3,915 applications and assisted 1,146 households. With funding from the City of Oakland, 374 households identified as being at high risk of homelessness were assisted; additional philanthropic support allowed the program to serve an additional 772 highly vulnerable households. The Changing Cities Research Lab at Stanford University and the Housing Initiative at Penn at the University of Pennsylvania served as evaluation partners, analyzing the program’s operations and impact through program, survey, and interview data.

This work was produced as part of our ongoing initiative to provide the City of Oakland with evidence-based insights that promote residential stability and racial equity.