Affordable Housing Comes to East Hollywood
A Brief Tour of Little Tokyo Service Center's Upcoming Housing Project
Last week, I visited the site of the new Santa Monica Vermont Apartments under construction atop none other than the Metro Red (B) Line station in East Hollywood. I was taken on a hard-hat walking tour of the complex by Minako Ferrante, a Project Management Specialist for the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), which is the nonprofit developer for the apartments.
The tour included a deeper look at the progress of construction—which anyone who’s driven past it over the last six months can tell you is moving very quickly—as well as insight into the type of housing the complex will offer. I published a recap of the event for J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast, but here’s an extended breakdown of five main takeaways:
The new apartments, totaling in at 187 units, are a mixture of extremely low-income housing for families, as well as permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness. According to the L.A. County Development Authority (LACDA)—which is separate entity from the city of L.A. but which follows similar guidelines as the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA)—applicants for extremely low-income housing must make no more than 30% of L.A. County’s Area Median Income (AMI).
In Fiscal Year 2022, this AMI was $91,100. Thus, a family of four is supposed to make an annual income of no more than $35,750 to qualify; similarly, a family of one—which the federal government also recognizes—is supposed to make an annual income of no more than $25,050 to qualify. One can see, then, how these apartments are for Los Angeles’s most vulnerable renters, including individuals working in retail and other critical but underpaid service jobs across our neighborhoods and communities.
Of these 187 Units, 94 are permanent supportive housing units for people experiencing homelessness. According to the L.A. County’s Homeless Initiative page, the key distinction is that “Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is a type of permanent housing that provides long-term rental subsidies and Intensive Case Management Services (ICMS) to individuals who have experienced chronic homelessness and have disabilities, chronic medical conditions, and/or behavioral health conditions. These may include licensed board and care placements[,] adult residential facilities or residential care facilities for the elderly.”
Permanent Supportive Housing is not to be confused with transitional housing. According to L.A. County’s 211 page, via transitional housing, “[the maximum stay for those in need] is 24 months. Meals are not provided for some programs; residents are referred to soup kitchens in the area. Residents must abide by shelter rules which prohibit the use of drugs and alcohol and includes a 12:00am curfew; curfew exceptions can be made to accommodate work schedules.” Given that the two are significantly different programs, I want to note that I initially misspoke on my podcast, mistakenly referring to the LTSC’s supportive housing units as transitional. They are not transitional, but permanent supportive housing units.To learn more directly from the source about these two points, you can also visit the LTSC’s website for the new apartments HERE.
Little Tokyo Service Center needed to ensure all funding for the project before construction could begin. Additionally, while the Santa Monica Vermont Apartments are largely funded by federal and local grants and other government resources, LTSC also borrowed money to jump-start the project. This took place before the pandemic and other developments shifted the financial landscape across the world, and interest rates on the loans have risen significantly since they were first issued. This makes it pertinent that the Santa Monica Vermont Apartments are up, running, and occupied by Spring 2024. By extension, it also means that applications for an apartment there should open up to families as early as this Fall 2023.
The project was given special permission to build more units than what is usually the case for this kind of housing development because it is a Transit Oriented Community project (TOC). TOC projects are widely seen as special case developments situated close to public transportation, which can be central in building a greener, less car-dependent landscape in Los Angeles. The Santa Monica Vermont Apartments will thus be the tallest new buildings in the neighborhood in quite some time, but only until very another, very different nearby mixed-use development joins it with its own set of seven stories.
The LTSC project is committed to ensuring communities at the complex have accessible spaces for cultural engagement and recreation. The plan is to ensure this through green and planting space, at least two different community rooms—in part subsidized for rent through a private commercial space at the complex— and partnership with Metro, as well as local organizations and small business owners. The goals for the complex very much show the potential that “remaking” the neighborhood actually has when approached holistically by developers and other stakeholders.
This noted, additional questions remain, including about the project’s place or relation to the current wave of gentrification pushing through so many of Los Angeles’ neighborhoods. For this, I encourage readers to listen to J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast, where the recap lends attention to the issue. And if that plug still isn’t enough to get you all the way over to the podcast, consider the following teaser clips from the recap (which remind me that folks can subscribe to the podcast via YouTube as well.)
J.T.