As part of our growing response to the region’s housing and homelessness crisis, we rehouse people in need as quickly as possible while providing them with the critical wraparound services they need to sustain housing and thrive.
At Abode Services our work falls under 4 categories: Prevention, Connection, Housing, and Support.
Preventing homelessness begins with addressing crises before they escalate—ensuring individuals and families have the support, resources, and stability needed to remain safely housed. At Abode, we identify the root causes of homelessness and work to help individuals before they reach their critical tipping point of being unhoused.
Abode’s Rapid Rehousing Cash Assistance Program (RCAP) provides temporary, direct monetary aid to low-income individuals, families, or disabled persons to cover basic needs like food, housing, and utilities. These funds provide targeted support for participants exiting our Rapid Rehousing program who continue to face financial challenges. They offer a critical final boost—helping individuals and families bridge the gap to long-term stability and maintain their housing independently. Through RCAP we have seen cash assistance lead to improvements in economic security, employment, long term housing stability, and better health. RCAP is a prevention method for homelessness and has helped meet real-life needs, prevent crisis, and give autonomy back to the participant.
Learn MoreAbode provides security deposits and emergency rental assistance to participants in community-based apartments with local landlords/housing providers. This emergency rental assistance supports housing stability, helping renters who have previously experienced homelessness afford market-rate rent. Abode assists participants with high housing costs, ensuring that these individuals are able to maintain their housing. We provide critical short-term support during unexpected setbacks and crises, as well as longer-term assistance for participants with significant disabilities. Resources are only available for qualifying individuals. To find out more, visit our county pages.
Learn MoreAt Abode, our advocacy work addresses the systemic barriers that place individuals and families at risk of losing housing in the first place. By advocating for policies that expand access to affordable housing, strengthen tenant protections, and increase resources for eviction prevention, we help create a more equitable housing system that keeps people stably housed. Through collaboration with local leaders, coalitions, and community partners, we amplify the voices of those most impacted and push for lasting solutions that prevent homelessness before it begins. If you’d like Abode to present at your group or school, learn more below.
Learn MoreConnecting people to housing means meeting them where they are and guiding them toward resources that will get them into safe, stable homes with dignity and care. At Abode, we ensure individuals and families have access to the supportive services and community-based resources they need to get into housing.
Abode’s outreach teams engage individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness and connect them to housing and services. Staff meet participants where they are—in encampments, vehicles, shelters, or other locations—and provide immediate support while building pathways to permanent housing. Outreach is a critical entry point into Abode’s programs ensuring that the most vulnerable individuals are prioritized for housing resources.
Abode’s emergency shelter and interim housing programs provide immediate safety, stability, and support for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. These programs serve as a critical entry point into the housing system, offering temporary housing alongside case management, housing navigation, and connections to essential services. Abode operates four shelters in the Bay Area where many individuals and families stay before being placed into permanent housing.
At Abode, we partner with individuals and families to navigate housing opportunities, remove barriers, and provide the support needed to secure and sustain permanent housing. These services include assessing a person’s needs and eligibility, identifying available housing options, assisting with applications and documentation, communicating with landlords or property managers, and coordinating financial assistance or supportive services to overcome barriers to housing.
In practice, housing navigation acts as a guided pathway—ensuring individuals and families don’t have to navigate complex housing systems alone, while increasing their chances of finding and sustaining safe, stable housing. We help with everything from the initial research and paperwork, all the way past move-in day.
At Abode, we work closely with our eight county partners through the Coordinated Entry system, the pathway through which households are referred to our programs and services. This county-wide system provides a roster of individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness and connects them with services and potential housing based on their vulnerability and the opportunities available in each county. All of Abode’s participants are referred through the Coordinated Entry system as housing opportunities become available within our programs. This system uses real-time data to prioritize individuals with the greatest need and ensure they are matched with housing options that best fit their circumstances.
Our staff also ensure that those we are providing services to who are currently unhoused make it into the Coordinated Entry system in every community we serve. Abode is the lead service provider registering the unhoused into the Coordinated Entry system in Solano and parts of Alameda Counties.
Those who have experienced homelessness typically have higher medical needs than average. Our staff help participants navigate the complicated system of medical providers, ensuring that they are connected to the right medical resources. Most of our participants need assistance getting registered through Medi-Cal health insurance as well as navigating referrals and supporting their transition between hospitalizations, living on the street, and their new housing. Abode staff also accompany participants to medical appointments where needed, help them understand their care plans, and assist with follow-up care.
Housing is at the heart of Abode’s work and represents the long-term goal we envision for every person we serve. We are committed not only to helping individuals and families achieve stable housing, but to sustaining it by offering a range of housing options tailored to each person’s unique needs, circumstances, and path toward stability.
Rapid Rehousing provides short-term rental assistance and services with the goal of helping people for a short time while they increase their income and ultimately are able to pay for rent on their own. Rapid Rehousing is a short-term solution that helps those that have experienced a life circumstance that has caused them to be unhoused, but may be able to maintain their housing after the rental subsidy ends. Participants stay in our Rapid Rehousing program for a maximum of two years, during which time we provide wrap-around services such as income and employment support, benefits navigation, financial coaching, and tenancy support. Once in stable housing, participants are better positioned to improve their health, strengthen their stability, and pursue their long-term goals.
Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) provides long term housing and supportive services and is the foundation of Abode’s strategy to end homelessness for individuals with the highest barriers, including those experiencing chronic homelessness, disabilities, and complex health conditions. These programs combine permanent, affordable housing with intensive wraparound services such as case management, behavioral health support, and income stabilization. Once a participant is housed in Permanent Supportive Housing, they can remain there indefinitely — providing long-term stability without time limits. This permanence ensures individuals have a secure foundation to build their lives, with the ongoing support needed to sustain housing over time.
PSH is integrated into the community, supporting independence. It also is a solution to reducing hospitalizations, incarceration, and emergency service use by stabilizing people long-term. Abode achieves an average 95% housing retention rate across its PSH programs each year—clear evidence that this long-term, participant-centered approach is effective. By prioritizing stability, dignity, and individualized support, PSH ensures residents can successfully remain housed and continue building their futures.
Abode partners with more than 1,500 landlords across the Bay Area to provide essential housing for individuals and families seeking a permanent home. We leverage millions of dollars in public and private funding to provide rental assistance and wrap-around services to tenants living in apartments and other housing owned by third-party landlords. Working together with landlords, we have kept thousands of adults and children stably housed.
Learn MoreSupporting people in housing means ensuring that achieving a home is only the beginning—not the end—of the journey toward stability and well-being. At Abode, we provide comprehensive, person-centered services that help individuals and families maintain their housing, strengthen their independence, and build a lasting sense of community and belonging.
Resident services at Abode take place in all our permanent supportive housing sites and focus on enhancing quality of life, building community, and supporting long-term wellness. We utilize partnerships within the communities to provide group activities, life skills workshops, community-building events, resource referrals, and on-site support that helps all residents feel connected, engaged, and stable in their housing.
Abode values the diverse backgrounds of our participants and strives to incorporate a wide range of cultural activities in our resident services, celebrating the traditions, identities, and lived experiences that make each community unique while fostering connection, inclusion, and a true sense of belonging.
Our resident services also focus on specific populations that we serve such as children, transitional aged-youth, veterans, and seniors—ensuring that activities and support are provided to each unique demographic.
Abode provides both comprehensive behavioral and mental health services designed to support participants in achieving stability and overall well-being, as well as referrals with partners to ensure each participant receives the tailored support needed. Through individualized care, we connect clients to therapy, psychiatric services, substance use treatment, and crisis intervention, while also offering ongoing case management and wellness support. Our approach is trauma-informed and person-centered, ensuring each individual receives the care they need at their own pace—strengthening their ability to maintain housing, improve health outcomes, and build a path toward long-term stability.
Case management is a personalized, relationship-based service that helps individuals navigate complex systems and access the support they need to achieve stability. This individualized service coordination allows a case manager to work closely with each participant to assess their needs, develop a tailored plan, coordinate services such as housing, healthcare, and benefits, and provide ongoing guidance and advocacy. Through consistent support and goal setting, case management helps individuals overcome barriers, maintain housing, and build a path toward long-term self-sufficiency. Each individualized service coordination staff have complementary disciplines, including peer specialists (whose lived experience is vital to supporting participants in creating goals for their future), case managers, and wellness and addiction recovery specialists.
A home is more than just four walls—it’s a place of comfort, dignity, and belonging, where individuals can truly feel a sense of ownership and stability. At Abode, we recognize that creating a home also means ensuring people have the essentials, including furnishings, that transform a space into one where they can fully settle and rebuild their lives. The BAFB program at Abode promotes dignity and stability by redirecting donated furniture to families and individuals in need in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Alameda Counties. We work with individuals, corporations, and partnering agencies to collect donated furniture and redistribute it to our clients as they move in to their new home.
Learn MoreIt takes more than one solution to end homelessness. Discover how our family of agencies works together to create housing, stability, and opportunity across the Bay Area.
