Healdsburg to receive $7 million from state to convert motel into 22-unit housing site for homeless people

Healdsburg is set to receive over $7 million in state funds to buy and renovate a motel to convert into a 22-unit of housing for local homeless people.

Officials earlier this month announced the money from the state’s Project Homekey program will allow the city to purchase the L&M Motel at 70 Healdsburg Avenue.

“That is very positive news. Obviously there is a little bit of work yet to do to make this project a reality,” said City Manager Jeff Kay during a Jan. 3 City Council meeting.

The site will shelter chronically homeless people in north Sonoma County for up to a month — with the possibility of an extension — while providing on-site case management, mental health counseling and other services with the goal of finding residents lasting homes.

Sonoma County’s most recent homeless census count in February 2020 found 209 unhoused people living in Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Windsor and the northern part of the unincorporated county. All lived outside or in vehicles.

The state approved Healdsburg’s $7.05 million funding request in full. The city is also asking Sonoma County for an additional $1.1 million to bring the building up to code.

Officials aim to purchase the site in February, begin renovations in March or April, and start accepting residents by August.

The site will be operated by Healdsburg-based nonprofit Reach for Home.

The project appears to be the second homeless housing proposal in the county to win approval for the second round of Project Homekey funding. The $3.5 billion program has already helped pay for around 6,000 housing units statewide, including 95 rooms for local homeless people at three former hotels in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

Rohnert Park was awarded nearly $15 million last month to build and operate a 60-unit housing site for local homeless people near the Graton Resort and Casino.

Officials and experts are touting Homekey as a cheaper and faster way to build subsidized affordable housing, which in the North Bay often costs well over $500,000 per unit. Buying and renovating the Healdsburg motel is set to cost around $368,000 per unit.

To help pay for ongoing services at the site into the future, the city is counting on a funding framework set up by Sonoma County. It would provide $6.7 million annually for the next seven years to split among potentially eight proposed Homekey sites.

The money would come from Homekey funds, additional state homelessness grants, federal low-income housing vouchers and Measure O, the county’s voter-approved quarter-cent sales tax county for mental health and homelessness services.

The framework aims to cover costs at $80 per person per day. But operational costs at the Healdsburg site could run up to $108 a day, according to Stephen Sotomayor, housing administrator for the city.

Still, the city anticipates having enough money to cover ongoing expenses for the first fours years the site is open, after which it may need to find additional funding sources.

“Funding streams come and go and there’s not often permanent funding, so you’ve got to learn how to be flexible,” Sotomayor told The Press Democrat last year.

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