Marin nonprofit readies Novato apartments for homeless

Homeward Bound of Marin marked its 50th anniversary by celebrating 50 apartments it has created in Novato for homeless people.

It also ordered a 50-foot cake for the occasion.

“Creating homes and then witnessing each person’s journey home is spectacular and magical,” Mary Kay Sweeney, an executive director at the nonprofit organization, said at the party Tuesday. “Unlocking potential and celebrating transformation is both a culmination and a beginning.”

The event included tours of the new $9.8 million, 26-apartment complex — named Sweeney Place in the nonprofit leader’s honor — that complements the 24-apartment site the nonprofit opened for homeless veterans in June. Organizers said the veterans’ apartments are halfway occupied.

Sweeney Place is designed to house six families and 20 individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. By using housing subsidies, tenants may pay no more than 30% of their income. Organizers plan to begin moving tenants into the apartments in January.

Paul Fordham, Homeward Bound’s other executive director, said many tenants will be working full time.

“It’s in response to the fact that we see so many people try to move out of homelessness and find full-time employment, but they still can’t afford to rent anywhere in Marin County,” he said.

Fordham said Sweeney Place offers a home where residents can build momentum in their lives and a rental history as they move out of homelessness. The apartments replaced old warehouses that were a part of the former Hamilton Field Air Force Base.

In Marin County, the average monthly rent this year is $2,820, according to the California Housing Partnership. A recent survey counted about 1,100 homeless people in Marin.

Sweeney Place has one-bedroom apartments of either 660 or 630 square feet. Rotarians from Tiburon and Novato helped move furnishings, made beds and stocked kitchens in a few Sweeney apartments, said Bill Brinkman of the Tiburon Rotary Club.

Brinkman and Belvedere resident Lois Cannady toured one of the furnished apartments during the opening event.

“What I like is they bring them in and they get them upward in the system and they get themselves established,” Cannady said of Homeward Bound.

Marucia Britto, a neighbor of the Homeward Bound complex, walked through an apartment and said it’s a good place for a family.

“All of the programs here at Homeward Bound are fabulous and make a difference for people who are going through hard times,” she said.

Sweeney Place is a part of Homeward Bound’s $38 million project that includes the veterans’ apartments and a culinary training center. Much of the funding came from a $14.4 million Project Homekey grant awarded by the state this year. Other funding sources include the county, private donors and the Marin Community Foundation.

The foundation awarded $2.2 million to build the veterans’ apartments. In her speech at the celebration, Rhea Suh, the foundation’s president and chief executive officer, reflected on the work and dedication behind the project.

“I put that up against what I hear a lot today, which is a lot of fear, a lot of desperation, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of questioning about things as core as our democracy,” she said.

Suh said democracy is thriving in Marin County because of people who feel a moral obligation to help others.

At the celebration, Sweeney was honored for her 31 years of work at Homeward Bound of Marin. She plans to retire at the end of the year.

In a proclamation for the organization, Marin County Supervisor Eric Lucan said it has assisted more than 40,000 people in the past five decades and now has 13 supportive housing programs.