OAKLAND — A new program designed to reach Oakland residents before they become homeless has blown past its initial goals, serving more than 2,100 households since its inception, Mayor Libby Schaaf said Monday.

Keep Oakland Housed, launched in 2018, provides emergency financial assistance to residents who have fallen behind on their rent, and offers legal assistance to those faced with eviction lawsuits. Because of those efforts, 2,117 households — representing more than 4,000 individuals — did not end up on the streets during the first half of the three-year pilot program, according to an analysis by the program administrator, the San Francisco Foundation.

“That is incredible,” Schaaf said Monday during a news conference at City Hall. “It just shows what a partnership can do when we come together to take on this humanitarian crisis of homelessness as well as displacement. We want to keep Oakland Oakland, and that starts with keeping Oaklanders in Oakland.”

Schaaf touted the program’s initial success as the city is grappling with a major crisis of homelessness. The number of unhoused residents increased by nearly 50% between 2017 and 2019, according to the city’s latest point-in-time count, and encampments resembling shanty towns have taken over empty lots, while tents and RVs line city streets. Monday’s update on Keep Oakland Housed comes days before Schaaf is set to give her State of the City address Friday at the Oakland Museum of California.

Keep Oakland Housed is a partnership between Bay Area Community Services, Catholic Charities of the East Bay and East Bay Community Law Center, and is funded by donors including Kaiser Permanente, the San Francisco Foundation and Crankstart — a charity run by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Michael Moritz and his wife, novelist Harriet Heyman.

The partners initially launched the program as a $9 million effort, but its budget has since grown to $12 million thanks to additional donations. Schaaf said Monday she intends to ask the City Council to add $1 million in city funds.

Even while applauding the difference Keep Oakland Housed has made so far, its leaders acknowledged there is much more to do.

“This is not a silver bullet,” said Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation. “And I think what we all know is it is one thing, and very important, to address the critical challenges that come up when folks become homeless. But it is infinitely cheaper and easier to keep people housed.”

The households that approach Keep Oakland Housed for help on average need less than $3,000 each to stave off eviction and homelessness, Schaaf said. That’s a tiny sum when compared to the enormous cost of housing and healing someone who already is homeless, she said.

But despite the program’s early focus on prevention, program leaders on Monday announced Keep Oakland Housed will shift its focus going forward.

While the program initially catered to renters with valid leases who were at risk of eviction, it now will expand to include residents who have lost their stable housing and generally would be classified as already homeless. Schaaf called the switch the “most efficient and frankly humane” strategy to address homelessness.

“With what we’ve learned, we can now better target people who are truly at the highest risk of falling into homelessness,” she said. “People who aren’t facing an eviction because they no longer have a tenancy. They are couch surfing. They are living in their cars. They are staying in motels.”

The partners also lowered the income cap for program participants from 50% of the area median income — or $61,950 a year for a family of four — to 30% — or $37,150 for a family of four.

Before the program expires next year, Schaaf hopes to come up with a state or regional-level plan to extend it — possibly using some of the $750 million Gov. Gavin Newsom hopes to set aside for homelessness services in his 2020-21 budget.

“We have to,” Schaaf said. “This has been far too successful, far too cost-effective for us not to extend this and begin funding it with public money, and to encourage other jurisdictions to do the same.”

During the program’s first year — July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019 — Keep Oakland Housed provided legal services to 1,014 households — more than double the initial goal of 400.

Of the households that received eviction defense services, just over half successfully resolved their cases, 3% had an unsuccessful or unknown outcome, and the rest of the cases are still pending. Keep Oakland Housed funds allowed East Bay Community Law Center to triple the size of its housing program, said Executive Director Zoë Polk.

Keep Oakland Housed also provided emergency financial assistance to 779 households, according to the San Francisco Foundation’s analysis. That’s more than triple the 250-household goal.

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26-story housing highrise eyed in downtown San Jose One of those recipients was 77-year-old Inez Washington, a retired physical education teacher who has lived for nearly 20 years in an apartment next to Lake Merritt. Her rent kept increasing, and while dealing with the death of her mother, Washington fell behind on her payments. She reached out to Catholic Charities — part of Keep Oakland Housed — and the organization paid her back rent, allowing her to keep her apartment.

“My prayers had been answered,” Washington said.