New senior housing project on former Journey’s End site opens 6 years after Tubbs Fire
Barbara King used to cry at the sight of the scorched palm trees that once stood outside her kitchen window in the Journey’s End mobile home park as she drove across the Mendocino Avenue highway overpass.
For years, the trees were all that remained of her former north Santa Rosa community after the debris from the firestorm that carved a path from Calistoga to Santa Rosa in October 2017 was cleared.
The palm trees were eventually uprooted as plans for new apartments on the property moved forward. Those emotions soon subsided, too.
“When they pulled them out it was the beginning of a new life for me,” King, one of the first residents to move into the development, recounted during a ceremony Friday to mark the opening of the first phase of the project.
Construction of the first apartments was completed earlier this summer and residents began moving in July 14.
Named Laurel, to represent triumph, it will add 162 apartments for low-income seniors 62 and older once complete and is being developed by Santa Rosa-based nonprofit Burbank Housing and Related California of San Francisco.
The opening of the project marks a milestone in Santa Rosa’s recovery six years after the fire and was celebrated by regional officials and housing advocates Friday as a testament to the community’s resiliency and the strong partnerships between various levels of government, nonprofit organizations and the private sector that helped make the project a reality.
It was also a coming home for some of the former Journey’s End residents like King.
But advocates who worked with displaced park residents in the years after the fire to access insurance payouts and housing and some former residents say the path to return home has not been an easy one for all.
Some who waited for a chance to live in one of the new units ran into barriers from new age requirements to income requirements, said Kendall Jarvis, disaster relief attorney with Legal Aid of Sonoma County. Some who did qualify ultimately decided to look for housing elsewhere because they felt they couldn't afford the monthly rent.
Just six former residents have signed a lease at Laurel so far, according to Burbank, far fewer than the few dozens officials had said earlier in the planning process they hoped would return.
Burbank CEO Larry Florin said more former residents are going through the application process or are on a waitlist for future phases of the project. Still, the need for senior housing is great and the project is a “gamechanger” for the broader community and a symbol of what recovery can look like, he said.
“After the fire so many of us looked at how do we take disasters and turn them into opportunities,” he said. “I think we really showed that you can really rebuild and build better and improve the community and that’s what we did here.”
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The mobile home park opened in 1956 and had long been a refuge for low-income and senior residents who enjoyed some of the lowest monthly space rents, easy access to nearby shopping and medical centers and the tight-knit community that had formed there.
The fire destroyed 117 of the park’s 161 homes and the 44 units left standing were deemed uninhabitable because the park’s utility system was too badly damaged. Two park residents died in the fire.
The future of the park after the fire was uncertain but Burbank and a group of developers worked with the property owner to figure out how to redevelop the site.
Ramsey Shuayto, a co-owner of the family who owned the park for about 50 years, said Friday they received offers from investors interested in acquiring the property but the family wanted to ensure whatever was built allowed former residents to return, was affordable and replaced the homes lost.
Seeing the new apartments that had risen there was a dream come true, he said.
“Everyone felt a strong sense of responsibility to rebuild and not just rebuild the community that was lost but build something that was beautiful, a place that is welcoming, where residents could form a healthy and thriving community,” said Ann Silverberg, CEO of Related’s affordable housing division in Northern California.
Laurel consists of one- and two-bedroom units plus community amenities like indoor gathering spaces, including a lounge with board games, large kitchen and a theater, two outdoor courtyards and health and wellness services for residents.
Construction of the second phase that includes 38 apartments was completed in August but Burbank hasn’t started leasing units in the building as it focuses on getting the first building fully occupied. Just over half of the first 94 units have been leased, according to Burbank.
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