County Allots Funds For Flood Victims' Rapid Rehousing

SANTA ROSA, CA — The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $150,000 contract for immediate homeless services in the flood-stricken west county area. The contract with West County Community Services for a flood survivor rapid re-entry housing program will use the money in the county's Community Development Commission's 2018-2019 budget that was intended for shelter programs.

West County Community Services locates housing and provides limited move-in assistance for displaced residents of homes, apartments and recreational vehicles who need to relocate. Grants of up to $3,000 for housing repair are available to low-income homeowners, including seniors.

Displaced residents must be able to document that they lost housing or will soon lose housing because of the floods.

The money also will provide short-term rent assistance including deposits, transportation services for those without vehicles and services for people displaced by the flooding.

The flood last month damaged more than 2,500 structures in the lower Russian River area, one of the few remaining affordable housing communities in the county.

The structural damage to homes and rental units along the river left low-income families and seniors on fixed incomes struggling to restore their homes or find a new rental unit.

Thirteen federal Housing Choice Voucher-assisted households were yellow tagged after the flood, and an 80-year-old veteran continues living in his yellow-tagged home because he has no place to stay, according to the Community Development Commission.

Twenty-five low-income and vulnerable households in the lower river area and Sebastopol have sought help because of the floods, and dozens of others have sought help at a Local Assistance Center that opened in the Guerneville area.

Bay City News Service