The City of Healdsburg in collaboration with Reach for Home has been awarded over $7 million in Project Homekey Round 2 grant funds for the establishment of a 22-unit interim housing site for Healdsburg’s chronically homeless at the L&M Motel on Healdsburg Avenue.
The $7,048,800 grant request was approved by the state on Dec. 21 and Healdsburg City Manager Jeff Kay announced the grant award during the Jan. 3 Healdsburg City Council meeting.
“I wanted to share publicly that we did receive notification from the state on Dec. 21 that our application was approved for the full just over $7 million that was requested … so that is very positive news. Obviously there is a little bit of work yet to do to make this project a reality,” Kay said. “This is an extremely competitive project, very limited funds and I can tell you from first-hand experience watching it, it is a very labor intensive process putting together the documentation.”
On Oct. 18, the Healdsburg City Council unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing the city to submit a joint application for Project Homekey, a $750 million state program that was launched in 2020 with the goal of helping local communities rapidly acquire hotels, motels, commercial buildings and other housing types to rapidly house people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Homekey application was submitted as a joint application with Reach for Home and Burbank Housing. The intent is for Reach for Home to be the service provider with Burbank providing construction/facilities updates services.
According to city staff, the funding request includes:
• $5.2 million to $5.4 million for capital costs, and $352,800 per year for three years for operating costs from Project Homekey.
• $1 million to $1.4 million for capital costs, and $613,200 per year for seven years for operating costs from county funding.
While the city was awarded over $7 million in Homekey funds, funding gaps remain. To fill in the gaps, the city has requested $1.1 million from the county for capital costs and $1.5 million to support three years of operating costs.
“The capital really speaks to the acquisition costs. There is some investment needed to get the building up to code … and we’ve asked them to help fill the remaining gap there as well as funding for initial operations,” Kay said. “The county has allocated funds for both capital and operations so we are optimistic that if not the entirety of these amounts the majority will be available for funding for us and they’ve given us every indication that that is in fact the case.”
The purpose of the interim housing site would be to get people off the streets and on a path toward permanent housing.
Individuals would get into the system of care and during their interim stay, case workers would help identify more permanent housing solutions through either a housing voucher — at the Los Guilicos shelter site, 38% of its residents are moving on to more permanent housing through vouchers, according to Stephen Sotomayor, Healdsburg’s housing administrator — or other appropriate wrap-around services.
According Sotomayor, Reach for Home conducted a survey among 51 north county homeless individuals and 44 said that interim housing would be their first choice in terms of shelter options.
“There’s been a long standing need for interim housing in Healdsburg. This has been evidenced by Sonoma County point in time counts. During those counts, those experiencing homelessness are enumerated and we also distinguish between those that are counted in shelters versus those that are not sheltered,” Sotomayor said.
In east, west, central and southern parts of the county, the average rate of those sheltered is 31%, according to Sotomayor. In north county, that number drops to 1.9% and in Healdsburg, 0% of its homeless population are sheltered.
In a statement to SoCoNews, Reach for Home Executive Director Margaret Sluyk said Reach for Home is honored to be chosen for such a competitive grant award.
“We are honored and are so grateful to everyone who helped get us to this point. The ability to offer interim housing to people experiencing homelessness in northern Sonoma County is something that has been desperately needed for years. We now get the chance to change people’s lives in the most meaningful way possible, by giving them a place to stabilize and gain greater independence. We are forever grateful to the city of Healdsburg, Burbank Housing, Sonoma County and the Project Homekey team,” Sluyk said.
Now that the city and Reach for Home have received the Homekey grant, Kay said the city is working on public outreach regarding the project.
“This has happened quickly and it’s been a challenge to get everybody who needs to be notified notified, but we continue to work on that. Since the project became a reality we’ve been having one-on-one meetings with neighbors and stakeholders,” Kay said.
He said there was a public community Zoom workshop on Dec. 14 and while it is a bit of a moving target, the city hopes to host an additional public workshop on Jan. 11. The city has also established a frequently asked questions document.
“The next step to opening our doors is minor construction, hiring staff including case managers, a facilities technician, a property manager and continuing to work with the community to ensure L & M Village runs smoothly,” Sluyk said.
The item will also likely be brought back to the city council for consideration on Jan.18.
