Hotel at 13921 Francisquito Avenue in Baldwin Park to become homeless housing

Los Angeles County has once again hit pay dirt through Project Homkey, the California Department of Housing and Community Investment announced this week.

The County and the Weingart Center Association have jointly been awarded $34.6 million for the Weingart Sycamore project, which calls for acquiring and rehabilitating an existing hotel at 13921 Francisquito Avenue in Baldwin Park as housing. That state funding, coupled with $16 million in local matching funds provided by Los Angeles county, will convert the hotel into 107 studio apartments - each approximately 300 square feet in size with a bathroom, a kitchen, furniture, and appliances. Those units will be divided into 54 homes for chronically homeless residents, 53 units for residents at risk of falling into homelessness, and two manager's units.

Other elements of the Weingart Sycamore complex will include a community patio and pat area and on-site wraparound services, funded by Measure H.

13921 Francisquito AvenueGoogle Maps

While tee City of Baldwin Park intends to use its share of federal project-based vouchers to offer rental subsidies for a portion of the housing, the amount of funding available does not cover the overall cost of the project. To fill that gap, the County has announced an agreement with L.A. Care and Health Net to use tenant-based vouchers, which are tied to individual renters rather than the property itself. Tenant-based vouchers are more readily available, but may create financial instability in the event that a tenant moves or a unit becomes vacant, according to the County news release.

The award to Weingart Sycamore is a portion of $179.7 million in funding announced Tuesday by the state - a first installment of the roughly $736 million available in the third round of Project Homekey. The first set of awards will go to a total of nine projects totaling more than 700 homes statewide.

Los Angeles County has thus far purchased 25 properties through the three rounds of Project Homekey, accounting for 1,600 housing units. Statewide, the program has accounted for more than 13,000 homes through its first two rounds and the latest awards.

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