![]() Nearly half of Berkeley’s 50 highest-need unhoused individuals are regulars at People’s Park, Neulight said. Through his work, he’s also been able to bring more visibility, among service providers, the city and the county, to the needs of people in the park. It’s kinda weird.” See all of our 2019 SF Homeless Project storiesīut as he helped one person, then another, interest in his services grew. “You’re entering a community where you’re an unknown. “You just have to be careful in the beginning,” he said. After he got a sense of the park’s rhythm, he began to say hello to people in the afternoons, including on Fridays when East Bay Food Not Bombs gives out food at the park. He would sit quietly at a table, watching the pace and energy of the day. When Neulight began his park outreach, he took it slow. Interested in trying your luck with an affordable housing lottery? Prepare to wait years. For those who are matched to a voucher rather than a unit, the wait for housing could last one to nine months. That happens a couple of times a month at most. Then comes the matching process, where someone actually gets a unit. The city’s assessment takes about 20 minutes, but getting someone to a point where they trust the system enough to answer those questions and are ready to make a change can take much longer, Neulight said. The numbers may sound low, but the process itself can be glacial. That’s because a significant number of the people he works with score very high on the vulnerability scale the county uses to match those in need with permanent supportive housing. ![]() And he said he hopes to help “many more” soon. He’s helped nine others get housing vouchers or subsidies. In the past nine months or so, Neulight - working with the city’s homeless outreach team and other local partners - has helped 13 people get into housing. For a number of park users, Neulight’s presence may be the first positive decision the university has made amid a long history of tension. The Berkeley City Council recognized him earlier this month with a proclamation for his efforts to build relationships and act as a liaison between UC Berkeley and the city, along with a range of Alameda County service providers. Neulight is the first social worker hired by UC Berkeley to work directly with park regulars to boost their income through government assistance programs, connect them with services, and attempt to get them on the path to housing. Photo: Alli Yates/Berkeley Social Welfare ![]() Neulight had gotten the friend a shelter bed, but she’d been turned away. As Neulight waited, a woman sitting alone on the west side of the park, near the community garden, got Neulight’s attention. Once they were connected, he continued to hold the phone so the pair could talk without him. The man couldn’t remember the caseworker’s extension, so Neulight set up a conference call and patched them together. ![]() Neulight encouraged the couple to follow up with the agency that made the Stockton placement, particularly as it had opened a new headquarters a few blocks away.Īfter catching up for several minutes, Neulight broke off from that conversation to take a call: Someone needed help getting through to a housing caseworker. So they’d come back to stay in the park in Berkeley until they could find another option. But they said it was a “hellhole.” There were Crips and Bloods, and they’d seen someone shot fatally in the head. Not long ago, the couple had gotten housing in Stockton. “It’s good to see you sitting up,” Neulight, pronounced “new light,” told the man, who had recently been released from the hospital. ![]()
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