Three votes taken on September 2 by the Los Angeles City Council have advanced plans for affordable and supportive housing projects in South Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, San Pedro, Koreatown, and Wilmington.
Marcella Gardens
In a unanimous vote, the City Council approved the release of up to $15.9 million in multifamily housing revenue bonds for the construction of Marcella Gardens, a proposed permanent supportive housing project at 6714 S. Main Street.
The project, which is being developed by the Coalition for Responsible Community Development, calls for the construction of a four-story building containing 59 apartments for transition-age youth, homeless persons, and veterans.
Marcella Gardens has already been allocated a $12-million loan through Proposition HHH.
The Coalition is planning a similar supportive housing project on an adjacent site at 67th Street, and is currently in the end stages of construction on a third project one block south at 69th and Main Streets.
Measure HHH Challenge Projects
In a separate vote, the Council approved more than $43 million in funding for projects from developers selected as part of the Proposition HHH Innovative Housing Challenge. Funding commitments are being made to five projects containing a total of 389 dwellings - a per-unit cost of roughly $467,000.
The first project - a partnership between Abode Communities, Mercy Housing of California, and LA Family Housing - would rise at 3554 Whittier Boulevard in Boyle Heights. The proposed $27-million development calls for the construction of a four-story edifice featuring 63 supportive housing units as well as on-site services.
The apartment building, which would be composed of prefabricated modular units, is slated to receive more than $6 million from Measure HHH. Its total anticipated cost per-unit is approximately $424,000.
Construction is expected to begin in January 2022 and be completed by April 2023, according to a staff report.
In San Pedro, Abode Communities is planning a second development using prefabricated modular units at 311-345 N. Beacon Street.
The proposed development, slated to replace a pair of commercial buildings, calls for the construction of a four-story edifice featuring 90 studio apartments catering to homeless individuals, a 10-car garage, and on-site supportive services.
The approximately $39-million project is slated to receive $8.75 million via Measure HH, and carries a per-unit price tag of approximately $433,000.
According to a staff report, construction is of the Beacon Street development is scheduled to begin in January 2022 and conclude in April 2023.
Bridge Housing Corp. is expected to receive $19.7 million in HHH funds for a proposed development at 701-719 S. New Hampshire Avenue in Koreatown.
The project, which would replace two structures dating to the early 20th century, is imagined as an approximately 120,000-square-foot building containing 144 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments - including 144 affordable housing units for individuals, families, and transition-aged youth facing homelessness.
The approximately $83-million project - by far the most expensive among the recent slate of HHH Challenge developments - would cost more than $584,000 per residential units.
Construction is expected to begin in June 2021 and conclude in December 2022, according to a staff report.
FlyAway Homes - in partnership with CBRE, Gensler, The People Concern, and West Builders - is slated to receive HHH funding for two modular supportive housing projects.
The first, slated to replace a parking lot and small commercial building at 7715 S. San Pedro Street, would consist of a multi-story structure containing 41 one- and two-bedroom apartments in addition to resident amenities and services.
The $15-million project - which includes $4.1 million in HHH funds - would cost roughly $360,000 per residential units.
Construction is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2021 and conclude by the fourth quarter of the same year.
The second FlyAway Homes development would rise from a property at 828 W. Anaheim Street in Wilmington. The proposed modular apartment complex would include 49 two-bedroom dwellings, in addition to offices for services and open space amenities for residents.
FlyAway Homes anticipates a $17.2-million price tag for the project, with $4.9 million of the cost footed by Measure HHH funds. The per-unit cost for the development is approximately $345,000.
As with the South Los Angeles project, construction is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2021 and conclude by the fourth quarter of the same year.
Go For Broke Apartments
The City Council also voted to initiate a new long-term ground lease for the Go For Broke Apartments - a proposed mixed-use affordable housing complex in Little Tokyo.
Go For Broke, one of the organizations behind the project, has long targeted the triangular parking lot Temple and Alameda Street as the future site of its national education center. After plans languished for more than a decade, a partnership struck with fellow Japanese-American non-profit Little Tokyo Service Center in 2018 offered a path forward.
Working together, the two organizations have proposed the construction of a five-story edifice containing the long-sought education center on its ground floor and 77 apartments for low-income and formerly homeless households above. Plans also call for 77 parking stalls in an at-grade and subterranean parking structure.
The project would retain the existing Go For Broke Monument, which was dedicated in 1999.
Interested in finding affordable housing? Visit housing.lacity.org.
