Berkeley Food and Housing Project

This month we bid a fond farewell to Sharon Alford. Sharon joined BFHP in 2007, and in her more than 12 years with us, she has played an instrumental role in developing BFHP’s Community Meal and our Veteran’s Transitional Housing program, as well as in the design and implementation of many of the tools we use to serve our clients, including: HMIS (the digital Homeless Management Information System), the City of Berkeley Shelter Reservation hotline, and Berkeley’s Coordinate Entry System for homeless services (CES).

For Sharon, it has always been a priority to create safe and inviting spaces for our most vulnerable community members, to treat them with respect, and to foster that value in her staff. We are grateful for Sharon’s many years of service, her straight-talking, her passion for her job, and her commitment to working with high-risk and underserved populations. “What I love most about my work,” she says, “is that we are changing lives.”

We interviewed Sharon at the beginning of August.

On August 10^th a group of volunteers from Project Peace East Bay came out to do some gardening at our Russell Street Residence (RSR). They planted peppers, eggplant, and strawberries.

On August 2^nd we broke ground on our new project in Rio Vista!

We are partnering with Solano-Napa Habitat for Humanity on a new home for six veterans exiting homelessness. Once the home is completed it will be owned and operated by BFHP with assistance from American Legion Post 178, which shares the property.