Doug Biggs, Executive Director of the Alameda Point Collaborative and member of the Alamedans for Alameda Point Revitalization Advisory Committee, has this Letter to the Editor in today's Alameda Journal:
SunCal plan shares vision of helping homeless
By Doug Biggs
The Alameda Point Collaborative is a supportive housing program serving 500 homeless residents, including almost 300 children and youth. We were created out of the McKinney Vento provisions for utilizing federal surplus properties to serve the needs of the homeless. More significantly though, the needs of the homeless and low-income residents were interwoven into the community plan and the general plan for the reuse of Alameda Point.
Environmental and social justice are an integral component of the redevelopment of Alameda Point. From the initial Base Reuse Advisory Group discussions back in the early 1990s, one of the key components of any future at Alameda Point was opportunities for homeless and low-income families to gain a foothold and engage in economic opportunities that will build self sufficiency. In the standards that established APC, the city included a goal of placing homeless and low-income residents into 15 percent of all new jobs created at Alameda Point. It is very important to understand that the eventual success of APC is promoting self-sufficiency at Alameda Point and that is directly connected to the redevelopment of Alameda Point. The community has already spoken that this is a desirable goal — it is now imperative that we make that goal a reality.
APC has had the "fortune" of working with several potential master developers to integrate our goals and needs into the larger redevelopment. None of them has seen our success as their success in the way that SunCal has. They are working with us on developing a win-win strategy that will provide more opportunities for our residents while creating a community that will enhance the larger development.
