Affordable senior housing development to break ground in east Santa Rosa

Affordable housing developer Petaluma Ecumenical Properties is on Friday set to break ground on a 26-unit project for low-income seniors in east Santa Rosa.

The estimated $10.3 million development will convert the former Santa Rosa Scottish Rite Event Center at 600 Acacia Lane into studio apartments. The target month for completion is September 2022.

Thirteen residents will receive housing vouchers from the Santa Rosa Housing Authority, and five apartments at the complex will be reserved for homeless seniors.

Residents who don’t receive vouchers will be selected from the general public, with preference given to seniors impacted by federally declared disasters, including local wildfires.

The site will be named the Linda Tunis Senior Apartments, in memory of a resident who died at the Journey’s End mobile home park in Santa Rosa during the 2017 Tubbs fire.

“When the fires were still burning in 2017, I knew (Petaluma Ecumenical Properties) had to do something for all the seniors who lost their housing in the Tubbs Fire,” said Mary Stompe, the nonprofit’s executive director, in a statement.

The project is being funded by grants from various local, state and federal agencies, as well as gifts from a dozen private donors including Kaiser Permanente and the Finley Foundation.

You can reach Staff Writer Ethan Varian at ethan.varian@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5412. On Twitter @ethanvarian