Nora Daly, Author at Bay Area Community Services (BACS)

National Shared Housing Conference at BACS

August 13, 2026

Bay Area Community Services (BACS) and the Shared Housing Institute proudly hosted the National Shared Housing Conference in Oakland, bringing together housing professionals, service providers, advocates, researchers, and community leaders from across the country.

Over two days of learning, collaboration, and meaningful discussion, attendees explored innovative shared housing models, best practices, policy considerations, and strategies to expand housing opportunities for individuals facing housing instability. The conference created space for both national perspectives and local solutions, reinforcing the importance of shared housing as a powerful tool in addressing our housing crisis.

We are incredibly grateful to our speakers, panelists, sponsors, partners, volunteers, and attendees who contributed their knowledge, experience, and passion to making this event a success. The conversations, connections, and ideas exchanged throughout the conference demonstrated the impact that can be achieved when organizations come together with a shared commitment to housing equity and innovation.

A special thank you to everyone who traveled from near and far to join us. Your engagement and dedication continue to move this work forward.

We look forward to building on the momentum created during these two inspiring days and continuing to advance shared housing solutions that strengthen communities and create pathways to stable housing for all.

We are excited to continue this journey together through the upcoming six-month curriculum, where we will deepen our learning, strengthen partnerships, and further advance innovative shared housing practices.

A Former Motel – Now 42 Homes

July 1, 2026

On June 22, BACS joined Anthem Blue Cross, state health officials, and Sacramento city and county leaders to cut the ribbon on Camellia Village, which is creating 42 units of permanent affordable housing in downtown Sacramento for Anthem Medi-Cal members experiencing homelessness after less than 15 months.

That speed matters. Every month a building sits in planning or permitting is another month someone is sleeping outside. Camellia Village moved fast because the partners involved made people our priority.

BACS was joined by Anthem Blue Cross, California Department of Health Care Services Director Michelle Baass, Sacramento City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy, and a crowd of community partners, residents, and supporters to cut the ribbon on Camellia Village.

The Grand Opening Celebration

The crowd gathered outside in the Sacramento sun. Elected officials, health plan executives, state agency leadership, BACS staff, media, and community members all showed up to mark the beginning of a new life for 42 people at Camellia Village.

BACS CEO Jamie Almanza spoke to the heart of it: “Housing changes lives. Through our partnership with Anthem, we’ve created more than housing – we’ve created an opportunity for residents to thrive with the support and services they need to succeed.”

Les Ybarra, President of Anthem Blue Cross Medi-Cal Health Plan, reflected on the investment: “By investing in housing and supportive services, we’re helping our members achieve stability, improve their health, and build stronger futures.”

Director Baass connected the project to California’s broader Medi-Cal mission: “Projects like Camellia Village show how health plans and community partners can come together to expand housing options and connect residents with the services they need.”

Councilmember Pluckebaum and Supervisor Kennedy both spoke to what sustained investment and genuine collaboration look like in practice, and what it means for Sacramento residents who have been waiting for exactly this kind of solution.

What Camellia Village Is

Camellia Village is BACS’ 6th time converting a motel into permanent housing. Thanks to Anthem’s deep investment and partnership, Camellia Village is now a permanent affordable housing community with onsite supportive services for Anthem Medi-Cal members experiencing homelessness. For the people who live there, it’s a front door that’s theirs. It’s stability. It’s the foundation that makes everything else (health, recovery, connection) possible.

Comparable housing through new construction can take five years or more to realize. Camellia Village took fifteen months, a pace made possible by Harjit Singh Gill, BACS Regional Vice President for Sacramento, who built the cross-sector coalition and kept partners aligned from the start.

Why This Partnership Matters

Camellia Village is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a private health plan and a community-based housing operator. Anthem brought the investment. BACS brought the operational model – the same approach we’ve built over decades serving people with the most complex needs in the Bay Area, now applied in Sacramento.

The evidence on housing and health is consistent: people who are stably housed use emergency services less, manage chronic conditions better, and engage more successfully with behavioral health treatment. For people experiencing homelessness, housing isn’t a complement to health care. It’s the key to so many challenges that can’t be solved until someone is stable and indoors. That’s the logic Camellia Village is built on.

A Model Worth Scaling

This project opens at a moment when California is actively rethinking what Medi-Cal can do. Not just treating illness, but addressing the conditions that make people sick. Housing is at the top of that list.

Camellia Village shows what’s possible when a health plan treats housing as a health intervention, when state leadership aligns to support that investment, and when a community-based organization is ready to operate at the intersection of all three.

Forty-two people now have a home.

In the News

Sacramento Business Journal: Anthem Blue Cross, Bay Area nonprofit to open Midtown hotel converted to housing

BACS Leader Harjit Singh Gill Honored as 2026 Steinberg Institute Champion

May 26, 2026

BACS is very proud to share that our very own ⁠Harjit Singh Gill, MA, LCSW, MBA Candidate, Regional Vice President, has been named a 2026 Steinberg Institute Champion and recipient of the 2026 Richard Van Horn Award.

The Steinberg Institute recognizes Californians whose leadership is changing the landscape of mental health and housing. Harjit’s work is a powerful example of what that looks like in practice, and we are proud to have him at BACS.

Over the past five years, Harjit has grown BACS’ Sacramento regional presence from 13 to 250 employees, opened the Willow Wellness drop-in center, and partnered with Anthem Blue Cross to convert a downtown Sacramento motel into 42 units of permanent supportive housing. He oversaw development of a forensic treatment facility near the county jail, housing both a Full-Service Partnership and an outpatient program so clients can step up or down in care as their needs change. And he’s invested in something often overlooked: the physical environments where care happens, with natural lighting, artwork, and dignified spaces that reflect the worth of the people who walk through the door.

His guiding philosophy is simple and stubborn: homelessness and the mental health crisis are solvable problems, not inevitable ones. Meet people where they are. Build trust. Connect the systems that too often fail to connect. For thousands of Sacramento-area residents cycling between emergency rooms, jails, and the streets, that philosophy has meant a different outcome.

Congratulations to Harjit, and to our team for doing work worth celebrating! You can see the full feature on the Steinberg Institute’s website.

2025 Annual Report

March 10, 2026

To the #WhateverItTakes community:

We are proud to share our 2025 Annual Report, because transparency is more important than ever and what we are doing is working.

This year, BACS’ 564 full-time first responders showed up 24/7/365 for our community’s most vulnerable members. Through unfathomable challenges, we remained guided by the principle that selfless service is justice – and that housing and healing are possible for everyone.

FY 24-25 BACS Annual Report by Nora Daly

Our Impact This Year

22,887 people received housing, behavioral health, and community support from BACS.
84% of people who exited a BACS housing program moved into permanent housing – up 2% from last year.
3,560 people experiencing behavioral health crisis got help from BACS instead of being hospitalized or jailed.
1,402 households were kept from falling into homelessness through Keep People Housed.
1,877 people living in encampments started new services toward housing and healthcare after BACS showed up persistently to help them make the change.
Nearly $123 million in services delivered across Alameda, Contra Costa, Sacramento, and Solano Counties – almost a 10% increase from last year.

Major Milestones This Year

Launched our CARE Court program and Behavioral Health Bridge Housing initiative
Began construction on Waypoint Mental Health Rehabilitation Center, funded by a $32 million investment from the State of California and local government
Expanded into Yolo County with our Connections to Care program
Opened Anna’s House to full capacity, providing a safe haven for mothers and children overcoming trauma
Completed major construction at REGIS Village in Hayward, now operating 70+ permanent supportive housing units
Purchased over 20 residential and program sites to expand our reach
Celebrated Towne House Wellness Center’s 55 years of service to the community

To our BACS team, donors, partners, and supporters: thank you. Your dedication and perseverance make it possible for BACS to meet people with dignity, creativity, and real solutions. Together, we are proving that helping people move from the streets into quality housing is achievable, behavioral health care is accessible, and community is built one person at a time.

In Solidarity,

Jamie Almanza, MBA, CEO

P.S. If you would like downloadable version, you can find it here: 2025 Annual Report

114 People Are Already Home. We Are Just Getting Started.

March 4, 2026

BACS acquired a former retirement center in Hayward with a bold vision: to build a one-of-a-kind campus of care for the most vulnerable Californians. This week, that vision was on full display when state and local leaders visited.

REGIS Village – Recovery, Empowerment, Growth, Innovation and Support – is now home to 114 residents across two fully operational programs. Seventy permanent supportive housing residents, each with their own lock and their own key, now call REGIS Village home. Forty-four individuals in Behavioral Health Bridge Housing are stabilizing, receiving wraparound services, and moving toward permanent housing pathways.

“The goal is straightforward: people move indoors quickly, they stabilize, we connect them to long-term housing and recovery pathways,” said Qimmah Hameed, VP of Community Engagement at BACS. “These first two models, 114 units total, are already operational. We did not wait for full renovation. We implemented a phased construction plan with our contractors so that each wing, as they are completed, can bring people inside without delay. That is efficiency – that is urgency – and that is impact.”

Built Fast. Built Right. Built for People.

If REGIS Village looks like a construction site in places, that is because it still is – and that is exactly the point. Renovations continue while residents are already living here. On such a bold vision, BACS knew we needed to deliver immediately. On such a big campus, we knew that we could have one wing complete and moved in before starting the next one, without disturbing residents or compromising quality care.

In the next four months, the remaining phases of REGIS Village will come online, adding:

Medical respite: 40 units for unhoused individuals stepping down from a hospital stay, so recovery happens indoors, not on the streets.
Sobering and stabilization: A center where a dozen individuals at a time can receive medication assisted detox from drugs and alcohol, serving over 3,000 individuals annually.
Specialized detox: 20 beds for those who need an additional seven days of detox support.
Substance use residential treatment: 40 beds for individuals who need up to six months of care as they progress in recovery.
Wellness and urgent care: A center where up to 40 individuals per day can receive support to avoid unnecessary institutional care.
Interim wraparound housing: 44 units for Hayward’s unhoused neighbors, with services focused on increasing income and accelerating exits to permanent housing to prevent cycling back into homelessness.

Every intervention at REGIS Village is evidence-based, built on years of expertise, and designed to meet people where they are. When complete, the campus will offer more than 200 residential beds alongside medical, behavioral health, substance use, and wraparound services, all on one 4.13-acre campus in Hayward.

As Hameed put it: “What we do at BACS is this very work. It is right. It is needed. It is now.”

You can watch the full announcement on Youtube and see REGIS Village take center stage.