Rohnert Park to receive $15 million in state funding to build homeless housing site

Rohnert Park is set to receive nearly $15 million in state funds to build and operate a 60-unit housing site for local homeless people.

Officials last month announced the money from California’s Project Homekey program will go toward the project planned for a city-owned lot at 6020 Labath Ave., less than a mile south of the Graton Resort and Casino.

The facility will shelter people in shared “modular” rooms for up to six months while providing on-site case management, mental health counseling and other services with the goal of finding residents lasting homes.

In October, the Rohnert Park City Council voted 4-1 to seek funding for the site, over objections by Graton Casino operators and two nearby hotels.

The state approved the city’s $14.6 million funding request in full. Construction is set to be finished by late summer or early fall, officials said.

The project is the first effort by Sonoma County’s third-largest city to house some of its estimated 250 homeless residents — a number that has increased fivefold since 2015 and has risen to the top of residents’ list of local concerns.

And because a 2018 federal court ruling effectively prevents cities and counties across the West Coast from clearing homeless encampments on public property without first offering shelter, Rohnert Park has struggled to enforce its anti-camping laws.

“It’s definitely a significant step forward for us, providing 60 rooms for people who would otherwise be on the street,” said Don Schwartz, assistant city manager with Rohnert Park. “It’s not a complete solution — permanent housing is the solution — and there’s still a lot of work to get there.”

DignityMoves, a San Francisco-based nonprofit developer, will oversee the project’s construction. HomeFirst, a nonprofit based in Milpitas, will then operate the site.

The project appears to be the first Sonoma County homeless housing proposal 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 locally at three former hotels in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

(Click on the markers below for more information about each site. Those in green represent sites that have received Homekey funding, while those in blue have applied for project funding.)

Officials and experts are touting Homekey as a cheaper and faster way to build subsidized affordable housing, which in the North Bay costs an average of about $500,000 per unit. The Rohnert Park project is set to cost less than half that amount.

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 daily expenses at supportive sites in the county, including the Los Guilicos Village tiny homes shelter off Highway 12 in east Santa Rosa, often run above $110 per person, according to county officials.

Schwartz acknowledged Rohnert Park may need to contribute additional local funds, though he expects the amount to be relatively small.

“The plan is for the vast majority of the operating costs to be covered by state (and county) funding,” he said.

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