With the support of the community, the Rona Barrett Foundation’s Golden Inn & Village has raised $525,000 toward the construction of the first affordable senior housing and residential care “aging in place” facility in Santa Ynez Valley that is designed to serve the community’s most vulnerable residents.


“I’m thrilled with the response,” said Rona Barrett, president of the Rona Barrett Foundation, which is championing the project. “We have received donations large and small. The most heartwarming are checks from individuals, who may only be able to afford $50 or $100 but who understand what we are trying to achieve and want to help. We love the large donations, too!”

As a condition of receiving the $23 million in tax credits that will allow the construction to begin for the GIV, the Rona Barrett Foundation must raise the remaining $275,000 by this Sunday, March 1. The foundation thanks its community partners and individual donors for donations so far toward a critical $800,000 funding goal.

The tax credits also mean that for every $1 a supporter donates to the Campaign for the GIV, an estimated $23 will be returned as community dividends in the form of local jobs, local salaries and local expenditures for equipment, transportation and supplies.

Construction for the GIV is slated to begin in March with a completion date in the fall of 2016. The Golden Inn & Village is a mixed use development in a neighborhood setting that will provide approximately 150 affordable units for low-income seniors to reside in a comfortable, supportive environment that meets their needs as they age. Services will range from independent to assisted living and memory care to hospice all on one campus. The programs and services provided will be coordinated in collaboration with multiple community partners and engage the broader community at large, avoiding duplication and leveraging strengths, while multiplying benefits to all.

The Golden Inn & Village was conceived specifically to address the needs of our senior loved ones, parents, friends, neighbors and especially orphaned seniors — those who have no one left to care for them. It is for seniors who live within our area but, with resources dwindling, are forced to survive on little more than Social Security.

For more information about or to donate to GIV, click here.

— Kelly Kapaun is a publicist representing the Rona Barrett Foundation.