Senior affordable housing rising slowly in Koreatown

Nearly three years after breaking ground, a new senior affordable housing complex on a Los Angeles County-owned site in Koreatown is starting to rise above street level.

View of the new apartment building looking southUrbanize LA

The project, now rising at433 S. Vermont Avenue, is being developed jointly by Meta Housing Corp. and Western Community Housing. The finished product is expected to consist of a six-story building featuring 72 residential units - all reserved for seniors earning between 25 and 60 percent of the area median income - with a 12,500-square-foot YMCA located at the ground floor.

Y&M Architects is designing the contemporary low-rise building, which will also incorporate amenities such as community rooms and courtyards and on-site services for residents.

At the time of its groundbreaking, the project was slated to open by March 2021.

433 S. Vermont AvenueGoogle Maps

The senior housing complex is considered the second phase of Los Angeles County's Vermont Corridor project, which is gradually transforming a cluster of County-owned sites to the north of the Wilshire/Vermont subway station. The initial component of the project, completed in mid-2021, is a 20-story office tower which now serves as the new headquarters of the County's Department of Mental Health.

The third and final phase of the plan, which has yet to begin construction, would see the Department's former headquarters at Vermont and 6th Street transformed into 172 apartments.