A new supportive housing concept in Los Angeles has been introduced by LA-based practices Kadre Architects and Lehrer Architects. The design teams shared it can become a new model for design resourcefulness and occupants’ dignity at a time when the city, as do many others in America, faces a desperate need. 

The new 95-unit Cypress Park New Beginnings Community was inaugurated in early December after first breaking ground in May of 2022. The new housing scheme aimed to serve “displaced populations and environmental and/or socio-economic crises.” 

Their brief called for the construction of 350-square-foot micro-housing units on a disused plot between the Arroyo and Golden State Parkways. Site conditions for the 35,000-square-foot development were extremely challenging in an echo of Lehrer’s previous work on the Tiny Homes Villages in different parts of Los Angeles.

Faced with this challenge, the design team responded with a cohesive arrangement centered around an open space and rendered in a bright color palette that evokes the Chicano art movement with work from artists Patssi Valdez and Frank Romero. 

On-site case management and private bathrooms and kitchenettes are included. The results offer an enhancement of autonomy and stability over previous designs and could become a new model for the typology in Los Angeles and other beleaguered communities.  

“New Beginnings provides a template for creating dignified, vibrant communities out of ordinary building blocks. Taking painterly cues from local Chicano Artists, Frank Romero and Patssi Valdez, this previously overlooked site is transformed into a vibrant living painting that will provide daily joy for the future residents. This new emergency housing prototype for the City of Los Angeles allows families to stay together and thrive, during our housing crisis,” shared Kadribegovic, founder of Kadre Architects and former partner at Lehrer Architects.

“The Cypress Park New Beginnings Community provides formerly houseless fellow Angelenos with the grace of place. It takes what was a “throwaway” devalued site—hidden in plain view from the thousands of drivers and cars passing daily —and unveils it as the mixed up, dense, joyous eclectic urban jewel that it actually is. Making this a place of community transforms the way we perceive this whole precinct and enhances our city the way such projects must,” Lehrer Architects’ founder, Michael B. Lehrer, added.

The need for supportive and affordable housing in Los Angeles County has become the most hot-button issue for the city and for Mayor Karen Bass, as was demonstrated by her presence at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the New Beginnings Community on January 3rd. Her office is working to ease restrictions to building as it simultaneously works with state officials to fund new developments similar in scope to the Lehrer/Kadre design. It now joins a list of others, including the record-setting Weingart Center, in spearheading the movement toward proactive change.

“I am glad that Northeast New Beginnings considers some of the best lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that we serve people experiencing homelessness with dignity and respect,” LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis said finally in a statement. “As the city and county of Los Angeles continue to work together to solve homelessness, I am thrilled to see that our efforts are already bearing fruit.”