Rubicon Participant Advisory Board to Receive the Equity in Action Award at the 12th Annual East Bay Philanthropy Awards

Rubicon Participant Advisory Board

Rubicon’s Participant Advisory Board (PAB) is a group of Rubicon participant leaders who help shape policy and practice at Rubicon Programs. They also work to make meaningful connections with the community, other organizational partners, and thought leaders to advance Rubicon’s mission of ending poverty in the East Bay.

This year, the PAB created a new project to house East Bay families who are experiencing homelessness. So far, the PAB, with support from the Rotary Club of Richmond’s Tom Herriman, have placed eight families in permanent housing, with the goal of housing an additional 50-60 families if funding is extended. The families receive furnished housing and their rent is covered for one year. Supportive programs from Rubicon and other community-based organizations then help ensure the housing recipients will be able to continue paying rent after the first year.

PAB members have leveraged their personal connections to change the hearts and minds of landlords who were previously unwilling to rent to unhoused individuals, and their list of participating landlords continues to grow monthly. They also maintain contact with both landlords and housing recipients and act as mediators to ensure that any issues that arise are resolved quickly and amicably.

Gail Thomas, Chairperson for the PAB, began working on the project because of her personal connection to unhoused individuals. “I still see friends out there that I know, that I’ve known for 50 years,” Thomas says. “I’ve watched three of them die living in the streets. And I just couldn’t take it anymore.”

According to Herriman, finding landlords who are open to housing those experiencing homelessness is one of the biggest challenges projects like this face. “It’s really, really difficult to persuade a landlord to accept a formerly homeless person,” Herriman says. “They have all the fears that are trumpeted in the press and on television, so it takes a lot of work to find the landlords. Gail has been amazing in her contacts to find landlords that are willing to accept homeless people, and that’s one reason this program has been successful.”

The initial funding for the project was provided by Richmond Mayor Tom Butt, who used $120,000 of his discretionary funding to help launch the project. The Richmond City Council is expected to vote on an additional $400,000 in funding for the project in the coming months.

We are so excited to honor the Rubicon Participant Advisory Board with the Equity in Action Award at the 2022 Philanthropy Awards on November 17. If you are interested in attending please register here.

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