Oakland apartment complex for homeless residents yet to open

By John Ramos

In 2025, Oakland city leaders celebrated the completion of a new apartment complex designed to get people off the streets, but months have passed and it remains closed.

The Phoenix Apartments in West Oakland were welcomed with great fanfare. The 101-unit apartment complex on Pine Street was built for homeless and low-income individuals and received public funding for its construction.  

At the ribbon cutting in November, Mayor Barbara Lee said housing wasn’t just a luxury, but a basic human right.

“For far too many years, this community has faced displacement and disinvestment,” she said. “But today, once again, we’re on the move.  We’re rising, as the Phoenix does.”

But it is still sitting empty behind a chain link fence.

“We’re supposed to be housed,” said Frank Cruz. “This is supposed to be for unhoused individuals and families, and it hasn’t happened since the date that it said it was supposed to happen. Now, we’re here today, months later, dealing with being in a worse situation than before.”

Cruz and his partner Michelle Abbott are now living in their car.  They have a 12-year-old child and Frank said he was so desperate to find a place for them that he quit his job in order to qualify to live at the Phoenix. They were living in a shelter when they were accepted as tenants and were supposed to move in in October.

“They accepted funding for us and then, exiting us from our shelter early because nobody can wait for what’s going on here. They have to get new people into their place, and we were exited early. And now we are everyday trying to make sure we have a roof over our head, food to eat. And there’s no way to get out of homelessness when you’re like that.”

Other prospective tenants are also without housing. Some have been cut off from all help because they are officially listed in the county’s computer as “permanently housed” at the Phoenix.  Patricia Toscano, with the Housing and Dignity Coalition, said housing advocates are also in the dark about what is causing the delay.

“We don’t know why it’s not open,” she said.  “But what we DO know is that it is inhumane to have families living out here in the elements.”

The developer is a nonprofit called the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation. The Phoenix is featured on their website, which says, “The Phoenix is a direct solution to homelessness by providing permanent supportive housing for the community, and aims to be a positive impact to neighbors by reducing encampment and loitering that currently exists.”

Acee Dunbar is an outreach worker in the neighborhood, offering medical services to the homeless. She too, has been wondering when the Phoenix would begin being a “solution to homelessness.”

“Yeah, we were expecting our patients to move in around October,” said Dunbar. “That’s what we were told. And it’s still not open, or we haven’t gotten any word. It’s just been a holdup.

The developer didn’t respond for comment on Tuesday, but CBS News Bay Area spoke with one contractor who wouldn’t go on camera, but said there is a major dispute over contractors not being paid.  

He said he planned to file a $2 million lien on the property if he wasn’t paid by the end of the day. He said the building is nearly finished but had no guess about when it would finally open. 

A partner in the project, Abode Services, sent a written statement saying they “have been working together with all stakeholders to fill in the gaps while final construction is completed at The Phoenix.”  But they offered no reason for the delay or any timeline for its opening.

“Hopefully, somebody can figure it out so we can get folks moved in,” said Dunbar.  “It’s supposed to be permanent supportive housing. It’s a beautiful infrastructure. We would love to get inside and see what it looks like!”