Three years ago, 50-year-old Charles Gordon was hit by a car in Hayward, California.
“I was pinned underneath an SUV,” said Gordon. “It basically parked on top of me.”
After spending a month in the hospital, he had to re-learn to walk, and he needed to get sober. But doing that while living on the streets would have been a burden he couldn’t bear.
He qualified to be placed in LifeLong Medical Care’s respite facility in Oakland. There he was able to recover from his injuries, learn to walk again, and get help for his substance use. Today, he has a job as a peer support specialist at LifeLong’s East Bay Recovery Project.
“You have no idea what it means to me,” said Gordon, who recently spoke to a crowd assembled to celebrate the completion of Arnold’s Place in Alameda, a new 50-bed medical respite facility that will begin taking clients in late June. “I am a living example of someone who this kind of place worked for. They saved my life.”
The $58 million center, which Kaiser Permanente supported with a $2.5 million grant, is a joint project of Alameda Point Collaborative and LifeLong Medical Care.
Arnold’s Place is named for Arnold Perkins, a former Alameda County Public Health director and advocate for the unhoused. It offers live-in medical care for people who have suffered serious injuries or illnesses, hospice services, a kitchen and dining room, behavioral health services, and support to get people into housing.
“Hundreds of people die on the streets in Alameda County every year because they are unhoused, and they don’t have a place to heal after a major illness or injury,” said Andrea Urton, executive director of Alameda Point Collaborative. “Unhoused people often leave the hospital because they are too well to be there, but they are too vulnerable to recover on the street. Arnold’s Place gives them a safe place to recover and get social services.”
Yvette Radford, Kaiser Permanente Northern California vice president of External and Community Affairs, said Arnold’s Place will have a transformative impact on patient care.
“Kaiser Permanente is proud to support Arnold’s Place and the medical respite and wraparound services it will provide to unhoused Alameda County residents recovering from illness or injury,” said Radford. “We support these efforts throughout Northern California because they promote healing, help prevent relapse, and help people find stable housing. They’re essential for the health of our communities.”
The project at Crab Cove in Alameda endured years of neighborhood opposition starting in 2019 including, legal wrangling, city procedural hurdles, numerous appeals, and 2 ballot measures for and against. Organizers of the center ultimately prevailed.
The center’s benefits will far outweigh any of the past worries that property values would go down, crime would go up, and residents’ quality of life would suffer, said California Sen. Jesse Arreguin, D-Oakland and Berkeley, who attended the grand opening.
“The completion of Arnold’s Place is what happens when a community comes together and does something guided by love and compassion,” said Arreguin.
