Berkeley Way

To be built at 2012 Berkeley Way (between Shattuck and Milvia)

“There is a critical need for shelter and housing for our homeless, and the HOPE Center integrates shelter, services, and housing in one location. With this one project we can make significant progress to reduce homelessness in our city.”

– Mayor Jesse Arreguín

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An innovative approach to easing and ending the crisis of homelessness in Berkeley

The Berkeley Way Project – to be built at 2012 Berkeley Way (between Shattuck and Milvia) – is a joint development between Berkeley Food & Housing Project (BFHP) and BRIDGE Housing. Our goal is to create a continuum of affordable and very low-income housing that is integrated into the fabric of a vibrant downtown community, rich in transit and services.

Given the well-documented, critical shortage of affordable housing in the Bay Area, this development is significant and the Berkeley Way Project is unprecedented in the way it combines a range of housing opportunities.

The development consists of two distinct entities in one architecturally unified building, designed by award-winning Bay Area architects Leddy Maytum Stacy.

BRIDGE Affordable Housing

The BRIDGE portion of the development will contain 89 units of affordable housing, that will be available to the general public on a lottery basis, at between 50% and 60% of Area Median Income (AMI). These will be studio, one bedroom, and two bedroom rental units, owned and managed by BRIDGE Housing.

The Hope Center

The Hope Center will be BFHP’s portion of the development.

Shelter and Transitional Housing

32 shelter beds for homeless adult men
53 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless and disabled men and women
12 transitional housing beds for homeless male veterans (in partnership with the VA)

On-Site Services

Offices for support staff and partner agencies such as LifeLong Medical and Berkeley Mental Health
A commercial kitchen and dining facility for our Community Meal as well as for the residents

In its entirety, Berkeley Way will provide the single largest infusion of low-income and affordable housing in the history of Berkeley. Meanwhile, the Hope Center represents the largest permanent supportive housing for the homeless currently in development in Berkeley.

For BFHP, the Hope Center is not only about housing – it’s about creating a space that, like home, inspires a sense of safety, sanctuary, dignity and possibilities for human growth.

The Hope Center is a place in which aspirations and hopes for a better future are represented physically by an abundance of natural light, warm colors, lush green spaces, and common areas that encourage connection, rest, and restoration. The Center is a place where those facing housing insecurity can begin a journey out of homelessness into a community that embodies warmth, welcome, respect, and dignity.

Who will the Hope Center serve?

BFHP’s HOPE Center is designed to serve Berkeley’s very low-income, disabled and chronically homeless population through an innovative integration of housing and onsite support services. Planned in close collaboration with the City of Berkeley, it is a vital part of the overall plan to find housing and a permanent stable solution for the city’s estimated 1000 homeless.

The HOPE Center is located in a transit and service-rich downtown area, which allows the Center’s residents to easily access a range of additional low/no-cost local services. These include legal assistance, disability transportation assistance, senior recreational and social services, as well as food pantry services.

View of the Hope Center from Shattuck (Architectural Rendering by LMS)

Funding and Timeline

BRIDGE Housing, a leading developer and builder of affordable housing in California and the Pacific Northwest, is taking the lead in securing the majority of funding from public sources.

The City of Berkeley has committed $27M to the project, not including the value of the land on which we will build
Other funding sources include Alameda County Affordable Housing Bond Measure A1, State programs such as No Place Like Home (NPLH) and Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities (AHSC), as well as tax credit equity and the proceeds from a private capital campaign, currently under way.

The estimated cost of the entire development is approximately $120M.

The project broke ground on July 7, 2020 and we anticipate construction will be complete in 2022.

Click below to donate to the Berkeley Way Capital Campaign.