Santa Rosa to allow low-income Fountaingrove rebuilders to apply for low-interest loans

May 25-- May 25--Angela Guevara was displaced from Santa Rosa after losing her Fountaingrove home in the 2017 wildfires along with thousands of other Santa Rosa residents.

Her family is now dispersed and struggling financially. She's living in San Jose with a teenage daughter while finalizing a divorce from her husband of more than 20 years. Her son still lives in Santa Rosa.

Guevara doesn't expect to have much leftover insurance money as a result of the divorce and hasn't been working due to poor physical and mental health following multiple surgeries. She recently learned that Santa Rosa was offering low-interest loans for rebuilding to low-income homeowners after securing about $1.2 million in state funding -- but only for Coffey Park residents.

She was confused and upset, feeling that her family would fit the bill if only they didn't live in the more affluent Fountaingrove neighborhood.

"Yes, we are Fountaingrove. Yes, we have insurance. But we don't have the money to rebuild," she said. "It's a very unusual situation, and we are in hardship."

Guevara's prayer for help may have been answered, as Santa Rosa officials are working to open the program citywide. City data indicates that only one person from Coffey Park had applied for the program and that the applicant was ineligible.

City spokeswoman Adriane Mertens said officials were working with the state Housing and Community Development Department to expand the program to fire survivors citywide. Eligibility will still be limited by income and home value.

The city is poised to accept applications for the loan program from fire survivors throughout the city at srcity.org/rebuildingfinancialassistance.

The news that the city was moving to open the program made Guevara's day, but even before then, she was upbeat. She credited her Catholic faith with her positive outlook that her family's situation would somehow improve.

"I just have a very optimistic point of view about everything," she said, "and I know things are going to change."

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'Therapy court' under siege

A short walk down Millbrook Drive from Guevara's lot stands a basketball hoop at the end of Howard Lasker's driveway. He calls it a "therapy court" for his family, which moved around frequently in the past year and a half.

Lasker credits a trustworthy local builder, Oak Shadows Construction, with his return to Fountaingrove in early April, well before anyone else in his neighborhood.

But the hoop has already drawn scrutiny from his homeowners association. An official informed Lasker's wife, Debbie Lasker, in mid-May that a neighbor had provided photographic evidence of the offending hoop.

They should move the basket to the side or rear of their new house, as having the hoop set up in the street was in violation of the HOA's rules, the official wrote in a email provided by Lasker.

Lasker can't believe that a neighbor complained, since as far as he can tell, he doesn't have any.

"I'm not moving the hoop until a neighbor moves into the neighborhood," he said.

His brush with authority might be as far as the case goes: The email thread he forwarded includes the HOA official's caveat that her initial message was just a reminder of the rules, not a formal warning or threat of a fine. The HOA official did not respond to a message seeking comment.

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