Homeless Action Center

At the heart of the Homeless Action Center’s services is our legal advocacy designed to assist homeless and disabled people to receive the public benefits to which they are entitled. Through in-person visits at our offices, telephone calls, and digital means, we specialize in helping clients move from receiving General Assistance (GA) to higher quality benefits like Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

GA is a county program that provides a mere $336 per month for individuals to live on, while SSI is a federal program that, as of 2023, provides $1,133 monthly and automatically qualifies the client for Medi-Cal insurance, which includes Denti-Cal as well. Once we are able to help a client qualify for SSI, the three-fold increase in income may provide the stability needed to secure permanent affordable housing.

In addition to representing clients in their SSI claims, we help clients with disabilities apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI). While those application processes go forward we help clients obtain and retain CalFresh (also known as food stamps), GA, Medi-Cal, and CalWORKs (for low-income people with minor children). Our focus is on helping clients secure the resources they need.

The Outreach Team visits people experiencing homelessness in vehicles, tents, encampments, and on the street to provide in-person assistance when clients cannot come into our offices or access services by telephone. The team brings survival supplies with them when they hit the streets, offering practical support as they assist clients with applying for benefits, filing for appeals if their benefits have been denied, accessing housing-related services, and other support services such as applying for identification documents.

Visit our Offices

Each week, from Monday through Thursday, 1:00–5:00 PM, at both our South Berkeley and West Oakland offices, HAC welcomes anyone who may need assistance to request help through our Drop-In Services. Whether or not the person is a client with an active legal case, we welcome them to stop by for “curbside advocacy” with questions about legal public benefits issues and non-legal service issues.

Each afternoon’s shift is covered by a rotating crew of HAC staff members, ready to offer assistance along with water and snacks. Our Drop-In Services are a low-barrier way for HAC to provide brief legal services and quality information and referrals.

Telephone Helpline

We recognize that, for various reasons, not everyone is able to make it to the HAC offices. At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, we created a Helpline to stay in touch with people during lockdown and make sure they could reach us for assistance.

Under the same schedule as our Drop-In Services, the Telephone Helpline is available to anyone who calls with a question or legal matter from Monday through Thursday, 1:00–5:00 PM.

Our attorneys and advocates who staff the Helpline are often able to assist callers with their issues, and when the matter is outside of HAC’s area of expertise, we offer referrals to other providers in the area.

The Homeless Action Center’s newest project is Almost Home, a house on Haste Street in Berkeley managed by HAC staff. Almost Home provides seven Supplemental Security Income (SSI) legal services clients with temporary, supportive, transitional housing. The goal of the program is to stabilize clients when they are near completion of the long waiting period for resolution of their SSI case and permanent housing placement through housing case management. Almost Home allows us to place some clients in-house, making it even simpler for attorneys to reach them while they work on their cases.