Petaluma senior housing program gets funding boost

A Petaluma-based program that matches older Sonoma County homeowners and renters got a financial boost from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors this month, part of $1.4 million in spending on a two-year pilot program to address housing issues for low-income seniors.

The money will help fund Petaluma People Services Center’s SHARE program, which PPSC Executive Director Elece Hempel said has made more than 150 matches since the nonprofit began operating the program in August 2014. The program requires one participant to be over the age of 60, and involves an extensive screening process meant to alleviate homeowner concerns and increase the chance of a successful match between tenant and landlord.

“One of the things we realized with these shares is, it’s not just putting two people together, and see if it works,” Hempel said.

The supervisors last Tuesday authorized a total of $91,750 for SHARE, short for Shared Housing and Resource Exchange, through the end of the county’s fiscal year on June 30, 2017. It was a $20,000 increase from money already slated for the program from the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, according to a county report.

Private donations and other sources are expected to bridge the gap to the program’s annual cost of $150,000, Hemel said. She described SHARE as being in a “pilot phase,” with hope that its results will attract long-term funding going forward.

“Hopefully our stewardship will guide this program so it can become beneficial to everybody,” Hempel said.

It costs $1,000 to successfully pair a homeowner with a renter through SHARE, which Hempel said is significantly less than the cost of other housing programs that hinge on brick-and-mortar facilities. The arrangement essentially opens up new housing stock at existing residences, which can free up space on waiting lists for more traditional affordable housing.

For homeowners, the arrangement comes with additional income, companionship and the possibility of basic support from tenants. Entering into the program also puts those individuals on the radar of other support services like Meals on Wheels.

For renters, it means finding housing in a county with rising rental costs and low vacancy rates. Vacancy rates in Petaluma have recently hovered around 1 percent. Rents have risen 50 percent in the past five years in Sonoma County, according to county data.

One quarter of the nearly 3,000 people reported in the county’s 2016 point-in-time homeless county were aged 51 or older, according to data from early January. More than 3,900 seniors are on the waiting list for a Section 8 rental voucher, according to county data, and the wait time averages between four and six years.

The county’s broader Senior Homeless Prevention Program aims to assist at least 100 people, according to Karen Fies, the director of Sonoma County’s Human Services Department. In addition to boosting funding for SHARE, the program includes funding for low-income housing subsidies and rental assistance, assisted living facilities and financial management.

“We’re creating a system of services for seniors because they are very vulnerable,” Fies said. “Many rely on Social Security for their income, and they no longer can just go out and look for work, so when rents are increasing so much, they can easily become homeless.”

Ten low-income housing vouchers will be set aside for seniors needing rental subsidies, and emergency funds will be used to help those struggling to pay rent. The county will hire two case managers to oversee services under the program.

Mike Johnson, CEO of Petaluma’s Committee on the Shelterless, spoke of the mutual benefit possible under the SHARE program. His organization originally launched the program in 2012.

“So many people were displaced from their housing, so we decided to connect people who had an income but needed a place to live with people who had a place to live but needed income,” he said, adding “people had big mortgages to pay off and extra rooms in their homes, so we said, ‘Why not rent them out?’”

Going forward, Hempel said expanding the SHARE program would hinge on the ability to fund more staff. The program currently has one full-time and one part-time person, along with volunteers.

“That’s the key – building regional staff that can kind of help facilitate these matches,” she said.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports. Press Democrat Staff Writer Angela Hart contributed to this report.)