A Place to Call Home for Struggling Seniors

Long before entertainment news trailblazer Rona Barrett interviewed everyone from Raquel Welch to Tom Cruise, she was a young girl at her father’s food store in Astoria, New York, standing on tiptoes to push buttons on the cash register. 

She saw how much the customers loved her father, his sense of humor and, most of all, his generosity. Barrett watched him support friends and family and write checks each Sunday to small charities. 

“He was always handing out money. And we didn’t have a lot of money!” Barrett says, “We were just an ordinary family. ‘We don’t need another dress, we don’t need another pair of shoes and if someone needs another pair of shoes…’ That was his thinking: If ever I had an extra nickel and didn’t need it, give it to someone who does. And that always stayed with me.”

That generous spirit led her to found The Rona Barrett Foundation, providing housing and community for seniors in need. After leaving Hollywood and caring for her father in his final years, she realized that not all seniors have the means to live out their days in comfort. 

Barrett parlayed her name recognition and started with a few donors and a patch of land in the Santa Ynez Valley. Fifteen years later, The Golden Inn & Village, a safe haven for low-income seniors, opened its doors, with 60 small apartments and other wellness services, and maybe most importantly, dignity.

“Putting a roof over their heads was not enough,” says Barrett, who realized the scope of the problem when on their first move-in day, resident after resident showed up, not with furniture, but with paper bags in hand. “It hit the heart. I said, ‘My god, if this is going to happen all over the country, what are we going to do?’” 

Many were unhoused, living in RV’s or sleeping from place to place. So the foundation bought beds and created a food program and community center. 

Resident Carol LaRue recalls what it felt like to finally have security. “It was like winning one of the Golden Tickets in a Willy Wonka Chocolate Bar. With the turn of a key and the opening of a door… I was home.”

In 2022, residents celebrated The Golden Inn & Village’s 5-year anniversary. In February, the foundation broke ground on Harry’s House, a facility with 60 units of congregate care named in honor of Barrett’s late father, Harry Burstein. The foundation hopes to establish a $20 million endowment to ensure that their residents have the security of knowing they will always have food and a place to call home.