Unoccupied San Pablo office space converted into 54-unit housing complex

Over the weekend, Contra Costa County officials unveiled a new residential complex for homeless residents.

It's something that's happening across the Bay Area, but in this case, it involved converting empty offices into places for people to live.

For years, homeless advocates have talked about turning unused office space in San Francisco into housing.  In San Pablo, they've done it.

"I am so proud to be here as we celebrate the opening of what is a model project to really help solve homelessness in our community," said Contra Costa Supervisor John Gioia.

On Saturday, officials celebrated the completion of El Portal Place, a 54-unit complex of permanent supportive housing for the homeless.  It will be operated by the county's Health Department and will feature on-site case managers, mental health services, and even includes a small dog park so clients can keep their pets with them.

The county initially planned to demolish an old building they own next door for the project.

"And we originally thought, OK, we will look at funding to build micro-housing on our vacant site," said Gioia.  "And then we started talking to Jerry Overaa and his team, because they owned a vacant office building on this site."

Jerry Overaa founded Overaa Construction in the 1960s and he built a four-story call center for PacBell in 1971. When the need for long distance operators ended, the building became obsolete, as well.

But rather than knock it down, Overaa is offering it a new life.

"Well, this is a conversion from office to housing, right. And that's pretty hard to do," he said.  "Usually, they don't have the right configuration, not in the right location. But this one happened to be in a good place."

So, he handed the project over to his grandson, project manager Jared Gragg.

"There are both challenges and opportunities," said Gragg. "A few of the challenges are meeting modern code, structural code, seismic code. We are pretty close to the Hayward Fault. Getting all new MEP — mechanical, plumbing, electrical — dividing the building into units."

And they handed that whole thing down to construction supervisor Tony Britton.

"When I walked into this place, I was like, 'Oh my God, what are we going to do here,'" said Britton. "It was just a massive building."

Britton had to deal with problems that popped up on an everyday basis. The first had to do with opening up the center of a concrete building to allow light into the apartments.

"When I came up here, I was like, 'Oh, wow. How we going to do this,'" Britton said.  "Because now we've got to take this floor out, along with that concrete. And as we demo'd the concrete out, I ran into another situation of, how are we going to get these beams down and get 'em out that door?"

It was one headache after another, and Britton said he had to act as a counselor for his crew to keep the vibe positive. It wasn't easy, but now that it's finished, he said the project means a lot to him.

He had created a new purpose for an old building and new hope for people living on the streets. He had advice for others who may want to do the same thing.

"You're going to find things that you didn't know was here," said Britton said. "And you're going to have to continue to move forward and be very creative. And think out of the box."

That may also be what's needed to solve homelessness. El Portal Place took only 2 ½ years to complete, an unheard-of timeline to create 54 new homes. Converting existing buildings is not the way construction is usually done and isn't even the most efficient.

But it may be the quickest and that should matter to anyone who considers the housing shortage to be an emergency situation.