Tubbs Fire survivor gets new beginning at former site of Journey’s End Mobile Home Park

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KGO) — In the North Bay, a recovery milestone has been reached following the devastating 2017 wildfires. A new affordable housing complex is finally complete in Santa Rosa, built on the same site where the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire.

“It’s nice to be home, it smells different,” said Pat Crisco.

Five years ago, the raging Tubbs fire displaced thousands in Sonoma and Napa counties, killing dozens of people. Survivors remember after five years.

It was a homecoming for Crisco who was seeing the brand-new affordable housing complex for the first time.

Built where her former home of 13 years once stood in the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park in Santa Rosa. In fact, during the tour, she realized how close she was to her old place.

“I believe we’re standing on the spot where my mobile home once stood on Paramount Avenue, it gives me chills,” Crisco said.

Journey’s End was a casualty of the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Pat and her two dogs barely escaped the flames that night.

“As a nonprofit, we were determined that we needed to be able to help in the rebuilding effort,” said Burbank Housing CEO, Larry Florin.

Florin said his nonprofit wanted to help many of the displaced residents eventually return home. The result is a 94-unit affordable senior housing complex called the Laurel Perennial Park.

Former Journey’s End residents have been given priority to apply for the new housing units. Burbank Housing says 32 of the original 162 residents plan to return to the site.

More about the project: Laurel at Perennial Park