Progress housing the unsheltered, creating affordable homes in 2022
City expansion of transitional programs contributed to a decline in the number of unsheltered people in Hayward. Meanwhile, dozens of new below-market housing units received crucial financing approvals, came under construction, or became available for purchase and lease in 2022.
The drop in the City’s unsheltered population was recorded through the Point-in-Time Count of people experiencing homelessness, which was carried out across the Bay Area on Feb. 23. It found a total of 381 people who were homeless in Hayward with 114 living unsheltered—figures that were down 22 percent and 28 percent, respectively, from the last Point-in-Time Count in January 2019.
News of the decline was affirming of Hayward’s now three-year-old Housing Navigation Center, which, by the time the Point-in-Time results were announced in July 2022, had served a total of 255 people. Of those, 138 of 208 who had exited the program had moved into some form of permanent housing. Meanwhile, at the City’s Navigation Center Annex, a motel converted for a similar use with federal COVID-19 emergency funding, 126 individuals had been served—with 68 of 89 to exit having moved into permanent housing.
At the same time, through the City’s Housing Division, Hayward made progress increasing the supply of housing affordable to moderate and lower-income residents. In September, the California Department of Housing and Community Development announced a $46 million award from the California Housing Accelerator Fund to allow construction to proceed on 57 units of affordable housing at 2nd and C streets in Hayward. Earlier, the project had received $2.2 million in seed funding from the City. In July, condominiums priced at below-market rates hit the market at SoMi, a 189-unit development near South Hayward BART station.
And throughout 2022, construction continued on 125 micro apartments at 2595 Depot Road—homes for people who have experienced homelessness and members of very low-income households in need of assistance. The Depot Road apartments are expected to open in summer 2023.
