Mary Stompe, Executive Director of PEP Housing
Our speaker for Thursday, February 9, 2023, was Mary Stompe, Executive Director of PEP Housing. Mary became PEP’s ED in October 2004. She is a CPA, has an MBA in Business Administration, a BA in Management, served as a Petaluma City Councilmember, is a Senior Professional in Human Resources, a license real estate broker. She served on the Board of Directors of Leading Age, CA, and as VP on Leading Edge’s Housing and Public Policy cabinets. She also founded Rebuilding Together in Petaluma, which provides home repairs at no cost to seniors and individuals with disabilities.
PEP Housing develops and manages affordable senior housing and provides services for older adults with limited incomes. Mary showed us a video featuring a musician who lost everything in the Tubbs Fire. He had a limited income and could not find no place to live after the fire. He eventually got connected to PEP. Mary facilitated his entry into a housing unit at a PEP facility, but since he had no possessions, PEP also provided him with transportation, food, home furnishings, and other necessary items. The average age of people served by PEP is 78 years, and the average income is $15,000 per year. In other words, most of the people who live at a PEP facility cannot afford rent, food, transportation, or medical care. Housing for the elderly is a huge national problem since 1 in 3 Americans will soon be over age 65.
PEP serves 700 seniors, 500 of whom are in Sonoma County. It currently operates 14 properties in Petaluma, 3 in Santa Rosa, 1 in Ukiah, 1 in Oroville, and 1 in Marin County. PEP’s properties typically have Resident Services Coordinators with the best ratio of coordinator to residents in the business. PEP’s waiting list is now 7 years! Linda has found that the most correct-effective way to bring senior residential units online is to rehabilitate older buildings. PEP’s experience is that rehabbing old buildings costs 35% less than new construction and is typically much quicker. One example is the Linda Tunis Senior Apartments, which is the former Scottish Rite building in east Santa Rosa. The development is named after Linda Tunis, a resident of Journey’s End Mobile Home Park who died in the Tubbs Fire.
PEP’s ongoing funding typically relies on management fees and developer fees. Funding for development projects comes from various federal, state, and local governmental entities, as well as a variety of private funders and donors. For example, Linda Tunis was funded with bonds and tax credits, as well as donations from Kaiser, Providence St. Josephs, and Sonoma County, among the many “buckets” tapped for development.
Many thanks to Mary for the enlightening discussion of the amazing services provided by PEP Housing. And thank you, Mary, for all the good work you do!
Click HERE to view Mary's presentation for a limited time.
