Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul receive combined $25 million in Project Homekey funds

Santa Rosa was awarded nearly $25 million in state funds for two projects expected to create 90 housing units for people experiencing homelessness.

The funding is part of the state’s Project Homekey, a $3.5 billion program aimed at repurposing existing buildings for homeless housing and building new sites.

Catholic Charities will receive $11.36 million for its Caritas Center under construction in downtown while St. Vincent de Paul was awarded $13.29 million to remodel and upgrade the former Gold Coin motel on Mendocino Avenue.

Santa Rosa applied for funding on behalf of the two nonprofits in December and January and was notified Aug. 24 that the projects were selected.

Funding to Catholic Charities will help with construction of 40 units for people experiencing homelessness at its new one-stop homeless services center.

“To say that we are excited and honored to be funded through Homekey is definitely an understatement,” said Jennielynn Holmes, the organization’s longtime chief program officer who was recently tapped to become CEO.

Holmes described Homekey as a “new and innovative tool that will make an impact on homelessness” and said Catholic Charities was honored to be part of the list of recipients.

Caritas Center, which is expected to open in early September, will include nearly 200 shelter beds, a health clinic and a drop-in center where unsheltered residents can access shower and laundry facilities and other services.

The project is part of the larger Caritas Village project between A and Morgan streets, north of Santa Rosa Plaza mall, that will also include 128 apartments for low-income renters once completed.

Funding will go toward construction costs and will boost a $34 million capital campaign and funding received through tax credits and construction loans. The total project cost is $53 million, Holmes said.

“Knowing that our construction is able to be funded through this makes a world of difference so that we can focus on operational funding needs moving forward,” Holmes said.

Homekey money will also go toward helping St. Vincent de Paul redevelop the former Gold Coin Motel into 50 permanent supportive housing units. The organization will provide on-site services like preventive health care, counseling, job training and education, according to the city.

The organization bought the dilapidated motel in 2019 for $5.65 million.

At the time, St. Vincent halted code enforcement evictions as it worked to repair units to meet basic requirements and secure funding for its project.

Some residents have said that as the shelter project has been delayed they’ve lived in squalid conditions, according to a Press Democrat investigation detailing their accounts. St. Vincent officials have disputed tenants’ characterizations and said they’ve made efforts to repair the motel.

The city issued a building permit for the project in December and renovations were expected to start after funding was received, according to the city’s announcement. St. Vincent de Paul on its website said construction would start within a few months of receiving the money.

St. Vincent Executive Director Jack Tibbetts declined to comment for this story.

Santa Rosa was one of several Bay Area cities to get money through the latest round of funding. Neither project was awarded funding earlier in the year in a round of funding that saw $200 million set aside for housing in the Bay Area. Still, the pair of projects remained under review.

Megan Basinger, Santa Rosa’s director of Housing and Community Development Department, said identifying ways to address homelessness was a top priority for the city and this funding would help provide needed housing.

“These awards are an extraordinary opportunity to assist Santa Rosa’s homeless residents,” Basinger said in the city’s announcement. “Each of these newly funded housing units is a tangible, life-changing opportunity for a person or family experiencing homelessness, as well as an opportunity to reduce the impacts of homelessness on the entire community.”

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.