11 Sep Antioch Reorganizes Housing Division in Effort to Better Serve Residents

“It is important that the City Council recognize that while this restructuring builds a stronger foundation, it will not by itself resolve the broader issues of housing affordability and homelessness in the community,” Antioch City Manager Bessie Scott, left at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, wrote in a report to council. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

The city of Antioch has ramped up services for homeless residents in the last year — a new CORE team, the grand reopening of a transitional housing program, and the pursuit of state funding for a new permanent supportive housing program.

The latest move is less flashy, but officials say it has the potential to improve service delivery.

The Antioch City Council on Tuesday approved $79,025 in funding to reorganize the housing and homelessness division in the public safety and community resources department. The allocation funds three roles with different seniority levels to improve collaboration.

The roles — one housing manager and two housing services coordinators — are in place of an administrative analyst, an unhoused resident coordinator, and a housing program specialist.

“We have [services] now, but we’re not getting to them fast enough. We have a scattered strategy,” said City Manager Bessie Scott. “Just putting people in one coordinated unit is going to have a lot of impact for the city.”

Under the previous staffing, there was no reporting structure and two positions were vacant.

The division will still be limited in its capacity to provide services even with the changes, according to Scott. A similarly sized city, Concord, staffs its department with 6.5 full-time employees.

“It is important that the City Council recognize that while this restructuring builds a stronger foundation, it will not by itself resolve the broader issues of housing affordability and homelessness in the community,” Scott wrote in her staff report to the council.

The city’s homeless population has been the highest in the county over the last two years, according to county data.

According to Contra Costa’s 2025 Point-In-Time Count, the city’s homeless population dipped by 40% compared to 2024. County officials said the decrease, similar to those seen across the county and state, was thanks to collaboration, housing developments, and increased shelter capacity.

Across the entire county, homelessness dropped by more than 25%. Richmond, which is only second to Antioch in the number of homeless residents, dropped by 46%.

Nichole Gardner, founder of the nonprofit Facing Homelessness in Antioch, told the Pulse last month that she thought “something was wrong” when she saw the numbers.

Scott, who said she now sits on a data committee that deals with the Point-In-Time Count, said at Tuesday’s meeting that there was “a problem” with the count.

“We need a team, a housing manager, who can go and do those things for us,” said Scott, who added that some numbers weren’t accurately reflected in the count because of living situations.

The number of transitional-age youth who are homeless in the city is the highest across the county, said Scott. But because of being undercounted, the city loses out on funding that could be used to support services.

Cecilia Perez, an organizer with Rising Juntos, said the changes to the division — and getting those positions filled — were equally important to residents who are housed.

“[Tenant] protections are only as strong as the city’s ability to enforce them. The housing and homelessness division is under-resourced and currently lacks the staff and structure needed to manage tenant protections,” said Perez.

Council members nearly unanimously, with council member Tamisha Torres-Walker absent, backed the reorganization.

“I have to applaud this because it seems way more proactive,” said council member Monica Wilson. “This is going to address a lot of the issues around our unhoused at the front-end.”

The council could go even further in changing up the department as a whole.

Council member Don Freitas asked that the council consider renaming the department to “make it reflective” of housing services.