Kaiser Permanente donates $1.6 Million to Burbank Housing

Kaiser Permanente has donated $1,600,000 to Burbank Housing to expedite building 160 affordable housing units at the Journey’s End site adjacent to the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Santa Rosa.

“The residents of Journey’s End were our neighbors for many years. Now Kaiser Permanente has the opportunity to partner with Burbank Housing to advance permanent housing opportunities for the most vulnerable in our communities,” says Judy Coffey, RN, senior vice president and area manager for the Marin-Sonoma Area. “A safe and secure place to live is part of the foundation for a healthier life, and we all benefit when the communities where we live and work are healthy.”

The 13.31-acre property was destroyed in the October 2017 wildfires. Prior to the fires, Journey’s End provided 160 senior households with a vital source of affordable housing, which is in great demand in Sonoma County and extremely difficult to find. Most residents owned their mobile homes outright and paid to rent their space. The wildfires destroyed 117 of the homes and took the lives of two residents. While 44 homes remain standing, they are uninhabitable because of hazardous conditions and damaged utilities.

This grant specifically supports the pre-development costs Burbank Housing will incur to obtain the required project entitlements, including work by technical experts and consultants related to the project’s design (i.e., site plan, architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, environmental studies, and other required reports). This predevelopment work will result in an application to the City of Santa Rosa requesting approval for the entire project, a process that includes design review, and Planning Commission and City Council approval.

The total site will have a mix of market rate and affordable housing with up to 499 units (of those 160 will be affordable and developed by Burbank Housing). A different developer is responsible for the market rate share.

The project furthers Kaiser Permanente’s strategy to support innovative solutions to develop and increase the availability of affordable, sustainable housing and to decrease displacement of low- and moderate-income families.