Stability Starts Here: Workforce Emergency Housing Initiative
The Workforce Emergency Housing Initiative offered a pathway from homelessness to housing and economic stability for residents who were ready, willing, and able to work. It proved what is possible when housing and workforce support are delivered in tandem, with each element reinforcing the other. Through the integration of safe housing, workforce development, and wraparound health care, the initiative achieved extraordinary outcomes, including 100% housing placement and 95% employment in 2024, and has emerged as a blueprint for tackling homelessness countywide.
Launched in 2017, the City of Oakland’s community cabins model was created to move residents quickly from encampments, which pose serious health and safety risks, into safer, managed environments where they could access services and begin building toward permanent housing and stability.
Since 2020, Roots Community Health has partnered with the City of Oakland to operate and manage a community cabins site,, providing a safe, stable, environment for community members experiencing homelessness, where participants could rest, stabilize, and heal. In the initiative’s first two years, Roots provided healthcare, counseling, and other wraparound support for a diverse group of participants at various stages of ability and readiness to pursue self-sufficiency. During that period, 46% of residents secured housing and 30% gained employment. Among employed residents, the impact was even more pronounced with 65% obtaining housing. These outcomes reflect Roots’ Whole Health Model, which recognizes that stability in housing, health, and employment are deeply interconnected.
The City of Oakland defines a “positive exit” from transitional housing not only as permanent housing, but also as transitional housing or reunification with family or friends.
Based on learnings from the 2-year pilot in 2022, Roots proposed an intentional focus on participants who are ready, willing, and able to work. Residents were not required to enter already employed – they only needed to express the desire to work and engage in job training and career readiness. This Workforce Emergency Housing Initiative was unique within Oakland’s system as the only program designed for residents who determined that their path to permanent housing and self-sufficiency was through work.
The continuum of care was further expanded through Roots partnership with the City of Oakland on the Oakland Pathway Rehousing Initiative (OPRI). OPRI supports residents exiting the Workforce Emergency Housing Initiative with move-in assistance, rent subsidies, and ongoing care management, ensuring residents not only obtain but sustain housing. The impact was immediate and significant. In 2022, 45% of residents secured housing. As OPRI and workforce supports aligned, outcomes continued to rise: 59% secured housing in 2023, and by 2024, 100% of residents exited to permanent housing.
Employment followed the same upward surge. In 2022, 53% of residents were employed, increasing to 67% in 2023, and 95% in 2024. Housing and employment reinforced one another. These results show the power of a model that combines transitional housing, workforce readiness, and wraparound supportive services into a single, integrated ecosystem. Participants not only gain stable housing but also build financial independence and restore confidence in their futures.
The Workforce Emergency Housing Initiative proved that homelessness cannot be solved with shelter alone. Stability comes when people have a safe place to live, income they can rely on, and the support needed to rebuild their lives and thrive. When housing, workforce development, and whole-person care are integrated, unhoused individuals do more than exit homelessness, they succeed. Families reunite, incomes rise and people move into homes they can sustain.
The Workforce Emergency Housing Initiative shows what is possible when communities believe in people’s potential and give them the support to reach it. With continued investment and partnership, this model can be expanded and replicated to reduce homelessness countywide and build a healthier, more resilient Alameda County.