The city of Rohnert Park is Considering Applying for State Funding to Accommodate the Homeless
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Via pressdemocrat.com
The Rohnert Park City Council on Tuesday will refine its plan to house those experiencing homelessness in the city, with an eye toward preparing time-sensitive applications for state funding.
Earlier this month, the council discussed four potential sites for interim housing, quickly ruling out one near Gold Ridge Park after heated neighborhood objections.
On Friday, the city learned that one of the other options, interim housing at a site owned by Providence St Joseph Health on Medical Center Drive, also would not be possible.
Providence Health told city leaders it does not plan to pursue interim housing in Rohnert Park, which would have included modular units operated as short-term housing.
But Providence said it is still considering building a 74-unit apartment complex on a vacant lot southwest of the medical center to provide permanent housing to homeless seniors. City officials said Providence is planning to meet with neighbors of the site to provide details and solicit input.
Rohnert Park is hoping to take advantage of a portion of $1.45 billion in state and federal funds the state announced this month it has dedicated to housing issues.
That money, from the state’s Project Homekey program, will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis for eligible projects, so City Manager Darrin Jenkins said applications must be prepared by the end of the month.
He said the city is considering applying for two projects, one for permanent housing at a local hotel and one for the interim housing on city property.
Council members on Tuesday will evaluate two proposed city sites for modular interim housing: at 6020 Labath Ave. adjacent to Fire Station 3 and 751 Rohnert Park Expressway West, on city property across from Rancho Verde Mobile Home Park.
The modular interim housing proposal would include 56 units, a community garden, restrooms, showers, laundry facilities, support service space, a pet area and a dining area.
Potential state money of $17 million could fund a project of as many as 60 units, which the state would subsidize for three years. Beyond that, the city would need to pursue rents, housing vouchers, philanthropy, Measure O local tax funds and state, federal and other funding sources.
Operating costs could be about $1 million a year for the city if outside funding couldn’t be secured, Jenkins said.
City housing staff members are working with non-profits to evaluate sites and projects that would qualify for the Homekey program.
Burbank Housing is interested in purchasing motels with Homekey funds and is a potential coapplicant with Rohnert Park and Petaluma, Jenkins said. City staff members and Burbank Housing representatives toured the Budget Inn, a 65-unit independent motel at Redwood Drive and Rohnert Park Expressway.
Project Homekey was launched during the pandemic to help cities and counties provide permanent housing for homeless people. The state is making a total of $2.75 billion available going forward, on top of the $846 million it already put toward 94 projects across California.
Last fall, Sonoma County received about $16 million in Homekey grants to purchase the Sebastopol Inn, now named Elderberry Commons, and the Hotel Azura in Santa Rosa, renamed Mickey Zane Place.
Rohnert Park has about 250 homeless residents, according to county estimates, almost 10% of the countywide homeless population. But as the county’s third-largest city, it has no homeless shelters or services, like the Sonoma County, Santa Rosa and Petaluma.
“The homeless are here. The number will likely grow simply due to the housing crisis,” Jenkins wrote in a staff report to council members. “We must do something to significantly reduce the impacts on our community and the unsheltered.”
He said state leaders have let down California residents in housing policies.
“It should have never gotten this bad,” he wrote. “… State policies, financial decisions and legislation drive California’s homeless crisis. Yet people vent their anger in city halls throughout our state, not our state capital. This Homekey program is a step in the right direction of the state taking some responsibility for housing all of its residents.”
Options for cities to alleviate some of the negatives that come with pop-up encampments like the one the city recently cleared out at the Roberts Lake park and ride lot include finding state and federal funds “to get people off of our streets and out of our parks and creeks.”
After people are in housing, the city can leverage additional state and federal resources to provide services to help them apply for disability and Social Security benefits, medical care, mental health, addiction programs and job counseling, Jenkins said.
“To be clear, staff are not proposing a feeding center, day use center, drop-in center or soup kitchen,” he said. “Those don’t solve the problem of getting people off our streets and into housing. Rohnert Park is vulnerable and struggles to address encampments precisely because we have no interim housing where we can direct people in lieu of camping.”
A 2018 federal court ruling requires homeless campers be offered adequate shelter before authorities can clear an encampment. Without available shelter in the city, Rohnert Park refers out its homeless residents to other jurisdictions.
