When Ronald McDonald House Charities® Bay Area (RMHC® Bay Area) opened its 7-bedroom Oakland House in 2023, it marked the beginning of a long-term commitment to serving more families navigating a child’s medical crisis in the East Bay. Today, RMHC Bay Area is tripling the number of rooms after expanding with a second house next door at 5227 West Street, just steps from UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland (UCSF Benioff Oakland). They anticipate providing 8,000 nights of respite and care annually for families whose children are fighting for their lives and who deserve to be present for every moment of that fight.
The children served by Ronald McDonald House Oakland are among UCSF Benioff Oakland’s most medically fragile — children with cancer and sickle cell disease recovering from bone marrow transplants who, after discharge, face a mandatory 100-day monitoring period that requires them to remain near the hospital. For families who live far from Oakland, that reality presents an impossible equation: Stay near the hospital and bear the financial strain or go home and risk missing a critical moment in their child’s recovery. RMHC Bay Area was founded to ensure families didn’t have to make that choice.
“Proximity isn’t a luxury for these families — it’s medicine. When a parent can walk to the hospital instead of driving for two hours, when they can sleep nearby instead of not sleeping at all, the entire family is stronger. And a stronger family means a stronger child.”
— Laura Keegan Boudreau, Chief Executive Officer, RMHC Bay Area
The expanded facility provides specialized, no-cost housing — private guest rooms, fully equipped shared kitchens, laundry facilities, communal living spaces, and access to meals and snacks at any hour. But Ronald McDonald House Oakland is designed to serve more than overnight residents. Every family navigating a medical crisis at UCSF Benioff Oakland is welcome to use the House as a daytime refuge: a place to decompress between appointments, share a meal, access resources, and find community with others who understand what this kind of fight looks like from the inside.
RMHC Bay Area’s Feed the Love meal program — which has provided hundreds of thousands of free meals inside the hospital since its launch in 2020 — will continue to support UCSF Benioff Oakland families, extending its reach to even more caregivers who need nourishment and strength to stay by their child’s side.
“Every child facing a serious illness deserves the comfort of having family close by, and every parent deserves the chance to be present for the moments that matter most. This expansion of Ronald McDonald House Oakland mirrors the work we are undertaking to modernize our Oakland hospital and expand access for East Bay residents. We are deeply grateful to RMHC Bay Area and everyone making it possible for more families to have a place to rest, gather strength, and stay near their child through some of the hardest days of their lives.”
— Nicholas Holmes, President, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals
Founded in 1912, UCSF Benioff Oakland is the Bay Area’s oldest children’s hospital, a national leader in sickle cell disease treatment and research, and the safety net hospital for Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. The hospital performs bone marrow transplants for more than 20 children annually — each one beginning a 100-day post-discharge monitoring period that ties them, and their families, to the surrounding neighborhood for months at a time.
With today’s expansion, RMHC Bay Area now operates a 21-bedroom Ronald McDonald House in Oakland alongside its 123-bedroom Ronald McDonald House at Stanford — one of the largest pediatric family housing facilities in the world — and a Ronald McDonald House Family Room at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco.
“The expansion is proof of what Oakland has always known: this community shows up. The outpouring of support since we opened our first doors — from donors, volunteers, hospital partners, and neighbors — made this moment possible. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and RMHC Bay Area are united by a belief that all families should have access to the best care possible. We are here to stay by their side so they can stay by their child’s.”
— Ross Glasser, Board President, RMHC Bay Area
Help a Family Stay in Their Child’s Fight
Every child at UCSF Benioff Oakland is fighting. So is every parent pacing a hospital hallway, every sibling sleeping on a waiting room chair, every family trying to hold itself together under unbearable pressure. RMHC Bay Area exists to hold them up — to provide resources and support that allow families to stay by their child’s side for as long as that child needs them there. We stay by their side so they can be by their child’s.
“The families of the most vulnerable patients in our care aren’t just fighting a critical illness — they’re fighting the weight of everything that surrounds it: the distance from home, the financial pressure, the exhaustion of being stretched too thin. Ronald McDonald House relieves those burdens one by one. This expansion means more of our children get to look up from a hospital bed and see the people who love them most sitting right beside them.”
— Judie Boehmer, Chief Nursing Officer, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals
Since opening in 2023, the seven-bedroom Ronald McDonald House Oakland has provided nearly 4,000 nights of supportive housing for families with critically ill children, helping offset nearly $900,000 in out-of-pocket expenses through no-cost lodging, meals, and essential support resources. With the expansion to 21 rooms, RMHC Bay Area expects to provide 8,000 nights of respite and care annually while providing nearly $1.8 million in economic relief.
Local businesses and community members can help make the House like home by donating household goods, care supplies, and essential items by ordering items from the Ronald McDonald House wish list — or by making a financial gift that keeps families together when they need it most. Visit rmhcbayarea.org/oakland for wish lists, volunteer opportunities, and ways to give. For additional information, contact RMHC Bay Area at 650.470.6000.
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Oakland House Expansion [PRESS]
Agueda Gama | 650.470.6096 | agueda.gama@rmhcbayarea.org
About Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area
Our mission at Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area (RMHC Bay Area) is to provide essential services that remove barriers, strengthen families, and promote healing when children need healthcare. We offer no-cost housing, meals, and comprehensive psychosocial support services for families with children accessing care at the Bay Area’s leading children’s hospitals, including Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland. Additionally, in partnership with La Clinica de la Raza, our Chapter operates a Ronald McDonald Care Mobile that offers free oral health care services to vulnerable children in Contra Costa County. Core services and programs are delivered through our 123-bedroom Ronald McDonald House at Stanford, one of the world’s largest pediatric housing facilities, a newly expanded 21-bedroom Ronald McDonald House in Oakland, a new Ronald McDonald Family Room, and in-hospital programs in San Francisco and across the Bay Area. For more information, visit rmhcbayarea.org
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