Home

 Playing our Song: Sunflower Gardens Goes Platinum

Just minutes before he was due to speak at the Sunflower Gardens Grand Opening on Friday, June 18, Jordan Daniels of the US Green Building Council–Monterey got word from headquarters that Sunflower Gardens had received the highest possible award—Platinum certification—for energy conservation and sustainable building practices. The US Green Building Council sets green building standards under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes (LEED for Homes) rating system, which sets Platinum certification at the highest level.Approximately 250 supporters and dignitaries were on hand for the announcement and the ribbon cutting, some from as far away as Sacramento and San Francisco. Speakers praised Sunflower Gardens for its mission and innovation.

Sunflower Gardens is Interim’s 19th building project to provide affordable supportive housing for adults with mental illness who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It may be Interim’s 19th project, but it is the first project in California to be built from the ground up with funding from Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Housing Program (Prop. 63).

 The 18-unit building will be home to 23 adults with mental illness who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The Board and Staff of Interim Inc. and the Residents of Sunflower Gardens thank you for making this vision a reality!

The project was an intricate public-private collaboration among government agencies, funding sources, foundations, and private individuals. We can’t say thank you enough to all of the people who helped to make this possible:

Construction Financing: Rabobank, N.A.

Permanent Funding

• California Department of Housing and Community Development Multifamily Housing Program Supportive Housing Component
• Monterey County Housing and Redevelopment
• City of Salinas
• Salinas Redevelopment Agency
• Monterey County Health Department, Behavioral Health Division
• California Mental Health Services Act Housing Program administered by the Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) on behalf of the California Department of Mental Health and the County of Monterey Behavioral Health Division

 Donors

• Monterey Peninsula Foundation, Host of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
• The Berkshire Foundation
• Community Foundation for Monterey County, The Lauralie and J. Irvine Fund
• The Harden Foundation
• Wald, Ruhnke & Dost Architects, LLP
• Wells Fargo
• Comerica Bank
• National Alliance on Mental Illness, Monterey County
• The Nunes Company, Inc.
• Monterey Peninsula Volunteer Services
• Yellow Brick Road Benefit Shop
• Anonymous
• The UpJohn California Fund
• First Presbyterian Church of Monterey
• Fenton & Keller, Attorneys at Law
• First National Bank of Central California
• Monterey County Weekly Community Fund
• Private Donations from churches, service clubs, synagogues, and scores of individual supporters