Santa Rosa okays regional homelessness prevention pilot program

The program pairs financial assistance with housing stabilization services and referrals to legal services for households most at-risk of losing their housing.

A regional two-year homelessness prevention pilot program won approval from the Santa Rosa City Council last week.

The council on Tuesday approved an agreement with the local nonprofit Committee on the Shelterless to operate the pilot program, titled "Keep People Housed - Sonoma," the city said on its website.

The agreement authorizes $1.3 million in funding to the nonprofit from the city of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County and the city of Petaluma, according to the city.

Additionally, All Home, a Bay Area nonprofit agency, has committed $2.6 million in funding for a program total of $3.9 million, the city said.

The program pairs financial assistance with housing stabilization services and referrals to legal services for households most at-risk of losing their housing, according to the city. The two-year program aims to prevent 350-400 local households from slipping into homelessness, the city said.

The agreement comes on the heels of Sonoma County's June preliminary point-in-time count data showing an 11% increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in 2024 compared to 2023.

At the time the data was released, Keep People Housed - Sonoma had not yet been approved, but was hailed as a program addressing the growing need.

"The gap we have noticed over the last year or two is the lack of a unified prevention program," Michael Gause, Sonoma County Department of Health Services' Ending Homelessness team manager, said in June.