The City of Santa Rosa is celebrating the opening of Laurel at Perennial Park, a new affordable housing development for seniors on Mendocino Avenue at the site of the former Journey’s End Mobile Home Park destroyed by the Tubbs Fire. The opening of Laurel marks an important milestone in Santa Rosa's wildfire recovery and is a direct result of the City’s advocacy efforts with the assistance of state and federal representatives to secure federal Disaster Recovery (DR) funding to build affordable housing after the fires. 

Members of the Santa Rosa City Council and City staff worked with state and federal representatives to advocate for disaster recovery funds to be directly allocated to the City, resulting in $38.5 million in funding appropriation for affordable housing production in Santa Rosa, as well as $4 million for affordable housing needs throughout the county. The partnership between the City and the State of California resulted in the funds being swiftly awarded and put into action for five housing developments to create 370 new affordable homes, including 162 affordable apartments for low- and very low-income seniors at Laurel at Perennial Park. The project is a culmination of advocacy, creativity, and determination, providing high quality, safe, and affordable housing to Santa Rosa seniors.

Santa Rosa-based nonprofit Burbank Housing and San Francisco-based Related California partnered to create the development. Funding included tax credits made available through Congressman Mike Thompson’s support for the Santa Rosa community, Disaster Recovery funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the California Department of Housing and Community Development, funding from the Sonoma County Community Development Commission (CDC), project-based vouchers provided by the City of Santa Rosa Housing Authority, and the financial commitment of the private sector. 

In total, the City committed $13.47 million in financial support for the project, and 30 project based housing vouchers to provide ongoing rental assistance to the tenants. The first phase of the development received $11.9 million in Community Development Block Grant -Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding and 17 project based vouchers and the second phase received $1.5 million in HOME funds and 13 project based vouchers.  The CDC provided $2.9 million from the County fund for housing and CDBG-DR funds.  Both the City and the CDC have committed funds to the third and final phase of the project comprised of 30 units that is anticipated to start construction in early 2025.

Visit the Burbank Housing and the Related California websites, and the City's project webpage to learn more about the development, including information about the third phase featuring up to 260 market rate units.

_{Photos of Laurel at Perennial Park courtesy of Burbank Housing and Related California:}