Local executive and philanthropist Ron Simon is committing $25 million to workforce housing for City of Hope Orange County.
Simon’s nonprofit RSI Dream Communities is gifting $25 million to secure land for future housing, as well as a separate $5 million gift to establish an endowed chair for the President of City of Hope OC.
City of Hope said it’s recruiting more than 740 people for the facility, which will be the only hospital in the region exclusively focused on treating and curing cancer.
Once hiring for the hospital is complete, it will count more than 1,700 employees total in Orange County.
About 29% of City of Hope’s current employees have to commute from outside of Orange County, according to OC President Annette Walker.
“We can build buildings, equip them with things and make them beautiful, but the building is nothing without the people to make it come alive,” Walker told the Business Journal.
“This gift is helping the people who are caring for our patients and our highly expert physicians in the work they do to prevent, treat and cure cancer.”
Both gifts were announced at City of Hope’s annual gala earlier this month with the money raised at the gala mostly going directly to clinical trials and programs focused on curing cancer, said Walker, who made a substantial donation with her husband, as well, at the event.
“As a leader, you can’t ask other people to do it if you’re not,” she said.
An additional gift from Ron and his wife, Sandi, established an endowed chair, making Walker the inaugural Ronald and Sandi Simon Presidential Chair holder.
RSI Dream Communities was founded by the Simons last year to help “local heroes” such as nurses, firefighters and teachers get accessible homes near their workplaces.
The City of Hope opened a cancer center in 2022. Located adjacent is its new hospital, which is expecting to receive its first patients beginning Dec. 1.
Rent Subsidies for Hard-to-Fill Roles
Simon said that RSI Dream Communities has been working with City of Hope to secure land for employee housing for the last two years.
“We’ve been working very closely with City of Hope,” Simon told the Business Journal. “It’s just an incredible organization.”
Simon expects to build a couple of hundred units. Per affordability housing standards, rent will not exceed 30% of gross income.
There has been difficulty in working out a land deal with municipalities, according to Simon.
In response, RSI Dream Communities is providing $1.25 million in rent subsidies a year until land becomes available.
“We just took it upon ourselves and said, ‘To hell with it,’” Simon said.
City of Hope intends to use subsidies for hard-to-fill positions such as nurses, clinical lab scientists and roles in radiology, to name a few.
Simon didn’t disclose what cities they’re eyeing for housing but said that they’re aiming for somewhere “reasonably close” within a 20-minute drive of the new facility, which is slated to open later this year.
Once the land is entitled and approved, Simon expects it to take between a year and a year and a half to build.
RSI Dream Communities’ model aims to avoid bureaucratic pushback by using private funds for projects.
Last year, it broke ground on a 16-unit apartment building that will be donated to Olive Crest, a nonprofit that provides counseling, education, housing and other services to children and families in need. It’s scheduled to open in 2026.
Founder of Three Companies
Outside of philanthropy, Simon has successfully built three companies.
Simon turned his father’s business, Perma-Bilt, into the nation’s largest manufacturer of bathroom medicine cabinets.
He went on to sell Perma-Bilt in 1987 and started RSI Home Products in 1989, becoming the largest manufacturer of marble countertops, bathroom vanities and medicine cabinets in the world before selling it to American Woodmark in 2017 for $1.1 billion.
Simon has also found success as a homebuilder, founding RSI Communities in 2015, which grew to own and control more than 11,000 home lots in California and Texas within its first three years. It was sold in 2018 for $500 million to William Lyon Homes, which then merged with Arizona-based homebuilder Taylor Morrison in 2020.
“We’ve just run very efficient operations,” Simon said. “When we went into homebuilding, we were building houses in 28 days once the foundation was in place, which was unheard of in the industry.”
Born during the Great Depression in Los Angeles to immigrant parents, Simon was inspired to establish the Simon Family Foundation alongside his two children to give back in a meaningful way.
“I have always deeply appreciated the opportunities afforded to me by living in America,” Simon said on the nonprofit’s website.
The foundation’s Simon Scholars program provides scholarships and mentorship to underserved students from the junior year of high school through their early careers. It has given more than $100 million in financial support to high school, college and graduate students to date.
Last year, the foundation gifted funding equivalent to 10 full-tuition scholarships for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds at Chapman University’s Simon Scholar Physician Assistant Program.
As part of the program, students commit to working in Orange County for three years following graduation.
