Oakland Opens 7th Cabin Community To House Unsheltered In Chinatown
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) – The city of Oakland opened its seventh community cabin site Thursday for those who live in the Chinatown and Jack London neighborhoods.
In order for this site to open, more than 170 people from the city of Oakland donated to make it all possible.
Prince Channer is an Air Force veteran who had to live in his car after graduating from college. He says veteran services took too long, and eventually he found his way into a community cabin set up like this.
"When you're able to do the things that people take for granted every day. You can concentrate on life and that's what it really comes down to," Channer told KPIX 5. "When you're homeless, you can't really concentrate on life; you're literally just surviving, you don't get to thrive."
Now, prince has a full time job as a social media coordinator with the non-profit Roots Community Health Center. He's part of the 56 percent of people who have left a cabin site to move into housing or a longer-term program.
"That is a very high success rate," said Mayor Libby Schaaf. "And the cost to operate these communities is roughly half of, for example, a San Francisco Navigation Center."
The site focuses on what Schaaf calls the "4 P's": Partners, Pets, Privacy, and Possessions. It has garbage service, on-site security 24/7, low-voltage electricity to each cabin and staying here is completely voluntary.
Stacey Foster Martz is one of the people who donated to help offset the start-up costs of the site. Martz says she hopes more people donate to future community cabin sites, once they see her money in action.
"Instead of writing that check and it going into some abyss, you see this community up and running," Martz said. "And this just started last summer, so this is just the beginning."
People will start filling these 38 beds starting Wednesday.