Oakland residents at risk of homelessness could qualify for emergency rent checks and legal representation under a new program announced Monday by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and three Bay Area nonprofits.

At a City Hall news conference, Schaaf and executives from the East Bay Community Law Center, Catholic Charities of the East Bay and Bay Area Community Services presented a $9 million pilot plan called Keep Oakland Housed, which is designed to provide support services for low-income city residents.

The program is the first of its kind in the city, which has an estimated 2,761 homeless people and has grappled with a roughly 25 percent increase in homelessness from 2015 to 2017, according to a survey by EveryOne Home, a nonprofit that seeks to end homelessness.

Schaaf said the new resource will keep households stable and “bring the gift of security to people throughout Oakland.”

EveryOne Home’s survey found that 86 percent of the 2,761 respondents said they were living in Alameda County at the time they lost their homes, and 58 percent of those individuals said money issues were to blame for losing them.

Tirien Steinbach, executive director of the East Bay Comunity Law Center, said the new program will “help staunch the bleeding of Oakland tenants.”

Keep Oakland Housed will run through 2022. The mayor did not outline plans for homelessness prevention beyond the pilot program.

Unlike efforts to get people off the streets or provide more affordable housing in the city, the pilot will focus solely on people at risk of losing their current housing.

City dwellers who make 50 percent or less than the area’s median income can qualify for program assistance, officials said, and a family of four could make no more than $58,100 a year.

Tenants who need cash for housing could receive up to $7,000 in checks made out to landlords or third-party providers. Residents facing eviction lawsuits are also eligible for legal representation.

Critics of the mayor’s recent homelessness initiatives attended Monday’s press conference to take issue with recent “sweeps” to get homeless people out of encampments and into Tuff Sheds. Oakland resident Steven DeCaprio likened the sheds to incarceration, adding that people were being forced to live in them against their will.

Justin Berton, a spokesman for the mayor, noted that social service professionals, instead of police officers, have been used in the “outreach effort” to encourage people to move into the sheds. So far, he noted, 28 people accepted the offer.

Schaaf defended the sheds, saying the city was “confident” that advising people to move out of camps and into the tiny homes was “within the confines of the law.”

DeCaprio, who has resided in Oakland for two decades and spent seven of those years homeless, argued that the city accelerated the housing crisis by allowing developers to build more market-rate housing.

“Doing nothing would be better than what they’re doing now,” DeCaprio said.

Nonprofits partnering with the city on Keep Oakland Housed noted that they field thousands of calls a year from people in need and new financial tools are necessary for low-income residents in the city. Program funding comes from Kaiser Permanente and the San Francisco Foundation.

Oakland residents looking to access services or donate can call 211 or go to the program’s website, keepoaklandhoused.org. If the initiative is successful, it could be a model for a larger regional effort, officials said.

Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu