Oakland’s newest city office will search for homelessness solutions, with $800 million backing

OAKLAND — The city will open a new Office of Homelessness Solutions to head Oakland’s response to one of its most entrenched issues — the thousands of people who live in town without permanent housing.

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When it opens, the new office will focus on preventing nearly 2,500 people from becoming homeless each year, spending money to rehouse people quickly and build new shelter beds in a city that frequently finds itself short of them.

Oakland leaders have tried their run of strategies to fight homelessness before, but this latest venture has a fresh source of funding: hundreds of millions of dollars in Alameda County tax revenue that just became available.

Mayor Barbara Lee said Tuesday that $800 million in county Measure W funds allocated to Oakland will go toward establishing the new office, though it was not immediately clear the timeframe by which the city will receive that much money from the general tax revenue.

It is among the first major, tangible initiatives launched by Lee, who took office in May and promised to stabilize leadership in a city that is often scrambling to find housing solutions.

“Oakland is positioned to lead the region in creating lasting solutions, and this new office reflects our commitment to every Oakland resident – housed and unhoused – that we build a city where everyone has a safe, clean place to call home,” Lee said Tuesday in a news release.

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee speaks during the Mayoral Community Inauguration at Jack London Square’s Ferry Lawn in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, June 8, 2025. The former congresswoman was sworn in as the 52nd mayor of Oakland. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

The city once had a single administrator dedicated to homelessness services, but a revolving door of departures and financial constraints had led the city in the past couple years to move away from placing a single person or entity at the point of approach.

In the meantime, Oakland has run into problems figuring out a long-term solution to widespread tent encampments that have cropped up around town.

The encampment at Wood Street — which, at one point, was Northern California’s largest — closed in 2023, but subsequent closures of tent communities at East 12th Street and along Lake Merritt have proved more difficult to sustain.

Multiple vendors who provide shelter beds in Oakland have pulled out in recent months, citing delays in city payments.

“This new office will provide reinforced structure for the City and our partners to make real progress taking on this complex challenge together,” Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.