Updated on December 29, 2020 at 8:40 am
NBC Universal, Inc.
Dozens of homeless families and seniors in Oakland will not be ringing in the new year on the streets. They’ll be celebrating in new dorm-style apartments.
All thanks to money from the state’s Project Homekey initiative, which gives cities and counties much-needed cash to buy up hotels, motels and other buildings to house the homeless.
At the base of Oakland’s upscale Rockridge neighborhood sits this 4-story building, Clifton Hall. It used to be a dorm for students attending the California College of Arts. But after CCA moved all its students to its San Francisco campus earlier this year, the building sat empty for months. The city of Oakland jumped at the chance to buy Clifton Hall using $20 million from the state’s Homekey program. The dorm building that used to be filled with art students will now be a shelter for families and a permanent home for seniors.