Santa Rosa, Burbank Housing seek $14 million for downtown housing

Santa Rosa officials and Burbank Housing are seeking nearly $14 million in state funding to build 30 apartments reserved for homeless individuals at a growing services hub downtown.

The project would be funded through California’s Homekey+ program, a 2024 expansion of a pandemic-era program focused on adding permanent supportive housing for homeless individuals with behavioral health needs and veterans.

The planned units are part of the larger Caritas Village complex between Morgan and A streets east of Highway 101.

It includes Caritas Center, a family shelter and services hub operated by Catholic Charities that opened in September 2022, and Caritas Homes, a Burbank-operated apartment that will include 128 units for low-income individuals and formerly homeless people once complete.

More than 350 people receive services or are housed at Caritas Village on any given day.

The Santa Rosa City Council on Tuesday approved applying for the Homekey+ grant. The application will be submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development by April and the department is expected to announce successful bids in the summer.

“This is one of the best tools we’ve added to fight homelessness,” Jennielynn Holmes, CEO of Catholic Charities of Northwest California, said of the funding.

The planned 30 units would make up the final phase of Caritas Village.

The first 64 apartments were completed in summer 2023, but work on the remaining 64 units has been delayed as pandemic-era state and federal housing funds evaporated.

The Homekey+ award, if successful, will help close construction costs for the first half of the second phase while Burbank continues to seek financing for the final 33 apartments, Burbank CEO and President Larry Florin said.

Growing social services hub

Catholic Charities’ Caritas Center has been fully operational for about two years and includes nearly 200 shelter beds for families, a health clinic and a drop-in center where homeless individuals can access shower and laundry facilities, receive mail and meet with case workers.

For many homeless individuals, Caritas Center is the first point of access where they can connect with the organization’s services and those provided by other agencies at the one-stop shop site.

People also can be referred to shelters like Sam Jones Hall, Santa Rosa’s shelter operated by Catholic Charities, or other emergency or interim housing and placed on the centralized housing list.

The center served more than 2,200 people in its first year with increased capacity and expanded services, a 13% increase in the number of clients served at its old facilities, Holmes, the Catholic Charities CEO, said.

Holmes said the organization has seen some of the most “revolutionary change” at the family shelter where on average 150 to 170 family members, including about 100 children, live.

The more private settings than at the prior congregate shelter have encouraged more victims of domestic violence to seek services, she said.

Families at the shelter also are being housed more quickly than at the previous family center — typically in under five months — with greater access to services and case management at the site. That’s critical to ensuring families find stability and don’t fall back into homelessness, she said.

The Nightingale Recuperative Care Center inside Caritas provides people recently discharged from a hospital who need continued medical care a place to stay, offering more one-on-one care and easier access to health services.

About 30 people stay at Nightingale nightly. Individuals are staying longer, Holmes said, from an average of about 20 days to 48 days, as they access care to address one-time and chronic issues but it has helped reduce the burden on first responders and local emergency rooms.

Catholic Charities also has partnered with Santa Rosa Community Health, which operates a full-service clinic inside the complex.

Housing component faced funding hurdles

Holmes and Florin, the Burbank official, said the hub has helped serve a larger swath of the local population in need, providing a wider array of support for homeless families and individuals and has helped pave a quicker path to housing for many.

The permanent supportive housing at the site is another critical puzzle piece to addressing homelessness countywide long-term, the two officials said.

A one-day census in January 2024 of the county’s homeless population showed there were an estimated 2,522 people experiencing homelessness, an 11% increase over the prior year.

Officials attributed the increase in part to a continued lack of supportive housing and affordable housing.

The first residents moved into Burbank’s Caritas Homes in summer 2023.

About half the units 64 were designated for residents earning between 40% and 60% of the area median income and the other half were set aside for unhoused individuals.

A few former residents of the Nightingale Center at Caritas now live in the apartments, Holmes said.

The second phase of the apartment project calls for another 64 units just east of the first phase.

Florin said Burbank decided to break up construction of the remaining units into two phases because of funding constraints.

The project will feature 30 studio apartments for homeless individuals who are referred through the Sonoma County Coordinated Entry system and a two-bedroom manager’s unit.

Residents will be able to access case management and other services at Caritas Center.

The Homekey+ grant would cover the bulk of construction costs and Burbank has received an $800,000 state infill infrastructure grant as well as a donation from Providence, he said.

Florin said Burbank anticipates breaking ground within six months of the grant being awarded and construction could take 12 to 15 months. New construction projects must be completed within 26 months of funding being awarded per the program requirements.

Florin said the remaining 33 units, the final phase of Caritas Village, will be built as funding becomes available.

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @paulinapineda22.