Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa Has Been Awarded Homekey Program Funds
A message from Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa:
We are grateful to announce that Catholic Charities, in partnership with the City of Santa Rosa, has been awarded Homekey Program funds in the amount of $11,360,000 for Caritas Center.
This award fulfilled the necessary funding to build Caritas Center. This is a huge milestone for the project, and it allows Catholic Charities to focus completely on bringing together the programs, partners, volunteers, and resources we need to deliver on the promise of Caritas Center going forward – ensuring that our most vulnerable brothers and sisters find a safe place to live as quickly and securely as possible.
All Homekey awards require a significant matching component, which we were, fortunately, able to demonstrate thanks to the unprecedented generosity of donors to the Caritas Village Campaign, who together gave almost $35M in private philanthropy. Without the support of this community, we would never have been able to apply for these much-needed funds to complete the project.
That Caritas Village has inspired such coordination and commitment from so many stakeholders speaks volumes about the amazing community we live in.
We are deeply grateful to Governor Gavin Newsom and the State of California for fast-tracking these funds to Caritas Center, and to the City of Santa Rosa for partnering with Catholic Charities in applying for the funds. In addition, we thank our partners Santa Rosa Community Health, Community Action Partnership Sonoma, and Burbank Housing, who have come together with us to create this first-of-its-kind model for ending homelessness in Sonoma County.
Construction is complete, and when it opens this September, Caritas Center (Latin for “love for all”) will provide safe, trauma-informed interim housing and services for 192 unhoused children and adults at a time, including housing counseling, onsite medical and recuperative care, childcare, outreach services, and academic support for children and youth.
We know we need to be bold and innovative if we really want to challenge the status quo of homelessness in our community. This funding is exactly the kind of informed public investment that makes that possible. Between these funds and the continued support of our amazing existing family of donors and funders, we believe we can significantly move the needle on ending family homelessness in our region.
Thank you for being a part of the solution.
