The city of Sebastopol and St. Vincent de Paul awarded $6.45 million state grant for Gravenstein Commons

The money will go toward building 21 units of permanent supportive housing for the homeless on the former Horizon Shine site

Gravenstein Commons will be located at 845 Gravenstein Highway. (Illustration from a planning document submitted to the city’s Design Review Board)

The state of California’s Project Homekey program announced yesterday that “Sebastopol, in partnership with Society of St. Vincent de Paul Sonoma County, will receive $6,449,235 for Gravenstein Commons, a new construction project that will create 21 permanent supportive homes for people exiting homelessness, in addition to one manager unit.”

The project will be built on the site of the former Horizon Shine RV Village on Highway 116 in north Sebastopol, across from the Lucky’s shopping center.

The Sebastopol grant came as part of an announcement of $130.6 million in Homekey grants for nine new projects across the state.

“Originally an emergency measure to help curb the spread of COVID-19 among unhoused Californians, Homekey has grown and evolved into a model for supporting our families and individuals in need of housing, such as deserving veterans and others experiencing behavioral health challenges,” said Gustavo Velasquez, director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). “Thanks to forward-thinking voters, HCD will get to play an even larger role in housing Californians who are struggling, and connecting them to the services they need to exit homelessness and maintain housing stability.”

Jack Tibbetts, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Sonoma County, had been awaiting this announcement, ever since he convinced the Sebastopol City Council (in part via legal threat) to continue its partnership with St. Vincent de Paul in the development of Gravenstein Commons.

“The award was what we were expecting,” he said. “It consists of about $5.9 million for construction,” and the remainder for site operations.

“We have signed and accepted the award paperwork, but we have not yet received, or signed, the Standard Agreement, which is the ‘big’ contract that triggers the release of funds,” he said. “We are making preparations to receive that now so that once received, we will be ready to go. Usually it takes about 30 days to receive the funds from the date you sign the standard agreement.”

In the past, the County had tentatively offered roughly $3 million to the project. That is still up in the air, but Tibbetts has high hopes.

“We are definitely still expecting funds from the County,” he said, “and Tina Rivera [former Sonoma County Director of Health Services] is currently helping us bring an item before the Board of Supervisors.” 

What’s the timeline for the project?

“We hope to start at the end of October to try and beat the weather, but at this rate, it is likely we will have to begin around November/December and do our best to build around the wet weather, utilizing weather windows. Starting in winter always causes delays.”

Sebastopol Mayor Diana Rich, who has long been a supporter of homeless housing on this site—first as Horizon Shine and now as Gravenstein Commons, was elated by the news.

“I am so excited to see this very worthwhile project moving forward in our community,” she said. “We are fortunate to be the recipient of funds intended to provide brick-and-mortar housing to those most in need. We are equally fortunate to have St. Vincent de Paul Sonoma County as our partner in this effort. This has always been a fabulous opportunity for our community.”