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CityServe of the Tri-Valley is gearing up to launch a new program that will temporarily place unhoused individuals and families in hotels during these colder months.
The pilot program, dubbed The Caring Hotels Network, is a collaborative effort in partnership with Visit Tri-Valley to tackle emergency housing needs in the community, especially during the winter season.
CityServe CEO Christine Beitsch-Bahmani told the Weekly there are currently nine hotels throughout Pleasanton, Livermore and Dublin that are a part of the network and have agreed to take in unhoused individuals who need a place to sleep during cold nights and are out of options. The nonprofit is still training its staff on the new program and is slated to begin placing people in hotels soon.
“In these cold nights, we don’t want to see a high volume of people perishing out in the cold,” Beitsch-Bahmani said.
During the pandemic, Beitsch-Bahmani said the nonprofit — which focuses, among other things, on coordinating services for people experiencing homelessness — had been receiving emergency funding to help those in need of immediate housing.
She said the idea for the hotel network came about from a conversation with Visit Tri-Valley CEO Tracy Farhad. After seeing the success that came from that, the nonprofit decided to use $80,000 of county funding to launch the Caring Hotel Network so they can continue to provide hotels for those who need them.
The nonprofit had already been working with a couple of hotels to temporarily house people, Beitsch-Bahmani said, and that really what the program will be bringing to the table is the infrastructure and new relationships with other hotels.
There are, however, certain requirements that need to be met in order for folks who need the emergency housing to get into a hotel. According to Beitsch-Bahmani, the urgent and temporary hotel rooms are really meant for people who don’t meet the criteria for other shelters and are down to their last options.Â
“We will vet them and make sure they can maintain a hotel room,” she said. “We want to make sure there’s low barriers but there’s a lot of vetting that’s involved.”
She also said they will be limiting clients to those who are local to the Tri-Valley and that if it’s people the organization knows, they could get priority. She said the nonprofit could consider housing folks in those hotels for weeks or even a month if it’s someone who is working on getting permanent housing.
But even with the infrastructure and relationships in place, Beitsch-Bahmani said in order to make the hotel network program a yearly thing — which is the end goal — they need more money.
They are currently raising funds to house vetted clients through CityServe’s care coordination program but after the cold winter months, she said they will need to rely on the community for additional funding.
“I feel like there’s a united effort to really make sure people have a safe place to stay,” Beitsch-Bahmani said.
CityServe of the Tri-Valley is one of 10 local nonprofit beneficiaries for the Pleasanton Weekly’s 2024-25 Holiday Fund, which is running now through mid-January. CityServe’s share of Holiday Fund monies will be earmarked to support The Caring Hotels Network, according to Beitsch-Bahmani.
To donate to the Holiday Fund, go to pleasantonweekly.com/holiday_fund. For more information about CityServe, visit cityservecares.org.
