Fight against homelessness

A unique housing complex is opening in Rohnert Park today to provide permanent homes for people who otherwise could wind up living on the street.

Vida Nueva, an apartment complex in west Rohnert Park, offers subsidized housing to individuals and families who have low or very low incomes and who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.

It's the only complex in Sonoma County, however, that will have on-site services to address such special needs as mental illness or substance abuse, which in the past prevented some residents from keeping permanent housing.

"It's a huge step for me," said Michele Bruce, 45, a former drug addict who will be among those moving in today. "I have been in and out of homeless shelters for eight years."

Wendy Giovanetti, 34, has three children, one of whom has a mental disability that has prevented Giovanetti from keeping a full-time job.

"It's difficult to rent with the cost as high as it is in this county, not being able to work because I'm caring for my son," said Giovanetti, who said on a few occasions she's been forced to sleep in her car.

Their situations are not unusual, said Roger Kirkpatrick, associate executive director of Committee on the Shelterless, or COTS.

"There are a lot of homeless people who need support even if they find affordable housing," Kirkpatrick said. "It would be hard for them to connect with the community without support."

It's an attempt to break the cycle of homelessness and a model that has worked elsewhere, said Craig Meltzner, Burbank Housing project manager.

"The premise is that it provides housing stability for people who otherwise greatly impact public services -- emergency rooms, incarceration, mental health facilities, homeless shelters," Meltzner said. "What they discovered is that the utilization of those fairly intensive public services decreases substantially once they get the support this model offers."

Vida Nueva is a $9 million project sponsored by Community Housing Sonoma County and Burbank Housing. The city of Rohnert Park contributed $1.6 million in redevelopment funds and is paying COTS $75,000 a year to provide the support services.

Burbank Housing received more than 100 applications for the 24 one-, two- and three-bedroom, two-story units that are built around a long courtyard on a 1½-acre site.

Burbank has 2,700 units available to low-income individuals in 45 projects, but this is the first with on-site support services that will include classes in such subjects as budgeting and a program for alcohol and drug abuse.

"When you think about the continuum of housing options of people who have been homeless -- emergency shelters, transitional housing -- and then assume that they are stable and ready to move into housing, but they have continual needs," Meltzner said.

At Vida Nueva, the residents "have their own unit and pay rent, but attached to the housing are a bundle of services that help them," Meltzner said.

They are being rented to individuals or families earning $18,000 or less, with rents that range from $215 for a one-bedroom unit to $942 for a family in a three-bedroom unit.

A Burbank Housing worker will live at the complex, and there will be a four-member team from COTS and the Sonoma County Mental Health Department providing social services.

Residents also are expected to adhere to strict rules governing behavior, but all of the residents are already working with COTS, so relationships have already been established, Kirkpatrick said.

"Our intention is that this is going to be a community, not 24 individual families, unified by the fact they all face similar challenges," Kirkpatrick said.

You can reach Staff Writer

Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com."It's a huge step for me.

I have been

in and out of homeless shelters for eight years."

MICHELE BRUCE

45-year-old new resident of Vida Nueva