Phillip Daley arrived in Placer County in 2000 with his mother and grandparents. They moved from Citrus Heights and set their roots in Roseville. Daley worked at a car dealership. He got married. He started a family.
Then the losses began.
Daley and his wife lost a child in a car crash. They later had a daughter, who Daley calls their miracle baby. But the marriage didn't survive.
His grandmother went into home care and died in 2005. His grandfather died of cancer in 2010. His mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer and entered hospice at home. Daley cared for her until she died in 2014.
"Everything that kept me grounded — my family, my roots, the reason I came to Placer County, was gone," he said. "That was my whole safety net."
Daley turned to drugs and alcohol. He spent the next nine years on the streets.
"I slept in fields and hallways and on the streets, just walking around at night with nowhere to go," he said. "I would talk to God, asking how things were ever supposed to change. How would I ever get back to the person I used to be?"
Today, Daley has an apartment with a shower, a kitchenette, and a door he can lock. He's two years into recovery. He's reconnected with his daughter. And he's one of 82 residents living at Sun Rose Apartments, a permanent supportive housing community in Roseville. The community held a ribbon-cutting this week, marking its completion and full occupancy.
Hotel to housing
Sun Rose Apartments is a former Hampton Inn that sits between an IHOP and the Douglas Boulevard eastbound I-80 on-ramp. During the pandemic, it operated as a Project Roomkey site to provide temporary housing for people experiencing homelessness. About 30 of those original residents stayed through three years of renovation and now live in permanent units.
The property was purchased through California's Project Homekey program in 2022. Residents pay up to 30 percent of their income toward rent. They have access to on-site case management, behavioral health services, and substance use treatment. Some receive housing vouchers that cover the rest of their rent.
How it's paid for
Sun Rose is operated by Auburn-based nonprofit Advocates for Mentally Ill Housing (AMIH).
"Inside these walls, residents have been building their community, connecting with services on a daily basis, and making progress that's only possible when someone has permanent supportive housing," said Jennifer Price, AMIH’s CEO.
The renovation was funded primarily through a $23.5 million state grant from Project Homekey. The city of Roseville contributed $1.5 million in federal HOME Program funds and committed eight project-based housing vouchers, four of which are dedicated to veterans.
Ongoing operations are funded through a combination of resident rent, federal housing vouchers, and county behavioral health funding.
Placer County's behavioral health director, Amy Ellis, said the housing alone is not what makes Sun Rose work. The on-site services are what allow recovery to happen.
"Trying to work on goals like entering sobriety or getting out of mental health crisis is hard enough, but try doing that in an unstable environment where you don't have supports," Ellis said. "When you have a program like this that has the supports they need and a safe place to live, recovery is possible."
The building also houses two crisis programs Ellis's department operates on site. The Harbor program offers 16 beds for residential substance use treatment. The Monarch program offers eight beds of peer respite housing for people experiencing a mental health crisis.
Phillip Daley, a resident of Sun Rose Apartments, speaks at the property's ribbon cutting ceremony in Roseville on Tuesday, June 16, 2026.Placer County
Support and accountability
Sun Rose Apartments sits in a commercial corridor of Roseville, surrounded by businesses, restaurants, and shopping centers. When the project was first proposed, some nearby business owners pushed back.
Roseville Mayor Krista Bernasconi said the project differs from a temporary shelter.
"The residents have skin in the game," Bernasconi said. "They are paying a portion of their income towards their rent, and they don't want to lose their housing."
Bernasconi said city law enforcement has not flagged Sun Rose as a source of problems in the area since residents moved in.
Placer County reported a nearly 10 percent decline in homelessness in its 2026 Point-in-Time Count. The county's rate now stands at about 15 people per 10,000 residents, below the statewide average of approximately 48 per 10,000. The county has another permanent supportive housing project, Carriage Court Studios, planned for Auburn.
A path back
Standing outside Sun Rose before the ribbon cutting ceremony, Daley talked more about his journey back to stability. He said he credits a man named Joe, who has since passed away, with what he calls speaking life into him at his lowest point. He also credits the Placer County Sheriff's Office and his case manager, Jared, for staying with him through recovery.
"I was dying, but they didn't give up on me," Daley said.
Daley moved into Sun Rose in April 2024 as one of the first tenants. He's now reconnected with his daughter, who lives in another state.
"She's our miracle baby that we had after loss," Daley said. "Having her back in my life now feels like a full circle moment."
Daley is almost 50. He works. He goes to church. He volunteers with people still on the streets. He said he’s thinking about the future for the first time in years.
"I try to reach people who are still out there on the streets, who are dying on the sidewalks, or who are struggling in the process of getting back up," he said. "Don't give up. Don't lose hope. When you feel like there's nothing left, when you hit the end of yourself, that's sometimes the place where change becomes possible."
