The Mayor’s Office Housing First initiative, in collaboration with the Richmond Rotary Club, has provided a year’s rent for homeless families, mostly from Rydin Road and the Parkway/Castro sites. Unfortunately, the funds are almost exhausted. If you want to see this successful program continue, you can donate through GoFundMe at https://gofund.me/451b7bb2, or send me (Mayor’s Office, 450 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond CA 94804) a check made out to Richmond Community Foundation/Mayor’s Community Fund.

Special thanks to Rotarian Tom Herriman who has headed up the Rotary collaboration.`

Here are thumbnail descriptions of some of the families we've helped with rent payments.

Figure 1 - Tasha Bibbs and her daughter Amari, formerly lived in an RV at Castro. Now in a 1 BR in Richmond. Right after she moved out of it, her RV was severely damaged in a fire.


Figure 2 - Corliss Rollins, formerly living in an RV at Castro, moved into a 1 BR in San Pablo in February with her 12 year-old son Ja’lonn.


Figure 3 - Tonya Creer and her family including her partner Gary, her son Antonio and 1-year-old granddaughter Indya were evicted from their rented house when ownership changed. We moved them into a shared house in Vallejo.


Figure 4 - Cyntha Simpson (expecting her first child this month) and her partner Oneill Fernandez were living in a tent on CalTrans property in Richmond. We paid their rent for a year in a shared house in Vallejo.


Figure 5 - Amara James was sleeping in her car in North Richmond with her 1-year-old Amelia. Her 4-year-old son William stayed with his grandmother nearby. Now Amara and both her kids are together in a spacious apartment on Chesley St. with the rent paid for the next 12 months by Housing First.

Not shown are:

• Stephanie Rea, a single, pregnant, native American woman  was living in her car in a supermarket parking lot in El Sobrante. We placed her in a shared house in Antioch and connected her to health services and counseling through Rubicon.
• Tyneisha Crooks was sleeping in her car and her two children were staying with relatives. She’s now in a 2 bedroom apartment in Oakland. Tyneisha works full time and earns enough to pay rent. But she couldn’t accumulate the funds for security deposit and first month’s rent. Housing First helped her with that.