Affordable Housing Finance: California Fires Threaten Affordable Housing Developments

Thousands of affordable housing residents have evacuated their homes as the catastrophic fires in California’s wine country continue to spread Thursday. Santa Rosa-based nonprofit Burbank Housing has 15 properties that are in the mandatory evacuation area, says CEO Larry Florin, who estimates that about 2,000 people from these developments have had to leave their homes. Voluntary evacuations have taken place at another seven Burbank properties, and many more people throughout the region are without power or water. All of the organization’s 63 communities were intact Thursday afternoon, but the situation remains tense with the blazes continuing to spread. Burbank’s Firehouse Village, a family affordable housing development in Sonoma, is about two blocks from one of the fire lines, Florin says.