“Last year, Google committed $1 billion towards addressing the lack of affordable housing in the Bay Area, acknowledging that as one of the largest employers in the region it has a responsibility to help. Today, the company shared updates on its progress, and announced it is giving $4 million in new grants to organizations that are working to help solve homelessness in the area. These include Sunnyvale Community Services, Larkin Street Youth Services and Abode Services.
In its announcement today, Google also shared more on what it calls its ‘housing first’ approach to the homelessness crisis. It pointed to a number of obstacles that can keep people from qualifying for housing, like participating in job training or drug rehab programs that not everyone living on the street might find easy to do. Google said its housing first approach prioritizes giving people safe and stable shelter before they can get other support like ‘mental health care, drug rehab, food assistance, or job training programs.’
According to Google, Larkin Street Youth Services has been able to secure a hotel in San Francisco to ‘house homeless youth who have been deprioritized from housing waitlists.’ During the pandemic, giving people a safe place to live has been even more important, ‘given the added risk of contracting the virus among people who are on the streets or in homelessness encampments.'”
View the whole story here: https://www.engadget.com/google-4-million-housing-crisis-homelessness-california-bay-area-192737159.html