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The $2 billion plan for the mixed-use Fourth & Central development in downtown LA has been altered away from the project’s originally announced 10-building plan in the Arts District. Studio One Eleven is leading the plan, which has been updated as of October 17th. The update includes more... View full entry
A record-breaking supportive housing development in the overburdened Los Angeles market is one step closer to completion this week after AXIS/GFA Architecture + Design’s new 19-story Weingart Center Tower 1 project topped out near Skid Row. Once completed, the development will provide a total of... View full entry
The historic hotel, with its haunted reputation and 600 rooms, reopened in December 2021 as a privately funded permanent supportive housing project. With most of the rooms reserved specifically for those in the bottom 30% of the area’s median income, it’s open to any [...] with a government-funded voucher. Many viewed the project as a promising new model in L.A. because of its size and flexibility.
And yet, a year later, two-thirds of the Cecil remains unoccupied.
— Los Angeles Times
The rare privately-funded $80 million conversion project for the influential Skid Row Housing Trust is one of many case studies on the issue of vacant single-room occupancy (SROs) in Los Angeles. The city housing authority’s Section 8 director thinks an absence of in-unit bathrooms and... View full entry
In an effort to halt the actions of different major cities to sweep away homeless encampments in recent years, the federal government is now taking direct action in the form of two expanded grant programs it says have become necessary in the face of rising inflation and untenable rental... View full entry
After a pair of marathon hearings, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission has amended and approved the draft DTLA 2040 plan, sending the proposed rezoning of the city's Downtown core on to the City Council for consideration next. — Urbanize LA
The area has been particularly beset by the pandemic, which is being seen more and more as a potential hub for housing in the city (and state) whose political landscape is increasingly shaped by affordability issues. Ten new land use designations, proposed under the DTLA 2040 plan for... View full entry
When Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti took office in 2013, the city was home to 22,993 homeless residents [...].
The number of unhoused people living within city limits now stands at 36,300—and 75 percent are unsheltered.
With homelessness up 58 percent on his watch, the mayor struck an apologetic tone in a letter sent to residents Tuesday.
— Curbed LA
"As your mayor, I take full responsibility for our response to this crisis," wrote Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in an open letter this week. "And like everyone who has seen families in tents or spoken to a homeless veteran in need, I am both heartbroken and impatient. While we have housed more... View full entry
The number of those living in the streets and shelters of the city of L.A. and most of the county surged 75% — to roughly 55,000 from about 32,000 — in the last six years.
But the crisis has been decades in the making. If homelessness continues to escalate at current rates, it will swamp even the best efforts.
— Los Angeles Times
Despite declaring homelessness in the city an 'emergency' and committing drastically increased funds to housing and services, Los Angeles is failing to improve the lives of its unsheltered citizens. View full entry
After nearly three decades of involvement with the L.A. Skid Row Housing Trust (and working relationships with architects including Michael Maltzan and Brooks + Scarpa), C.E.O. Mike Alvidrez has announced his plans to step down next year. Brooks + Scarpa's homeless housing "The Six" developed in... View full entry
In a fresh bid to confront a problem that has confounded lawmakers for decades, Los Angeles city and county officials approved sweeping plans Tuesday aimed at getting thousands of homeless people off the streets.
But one crucial question remains unanswered: Where will most of the money come from? [...]
The renewed government attention to homelessness was spurred in part by a 12% surge in people living on the streets [...] pushing the total to more than 44,000 homeless people countywide.
— latimes.com
Previously in the Archinect news:"It’s about recognizing someone as existing": Photo exhibit depicts L.A.'s homelessness crisisLA's freeway system is becoming an increasingly crowded 'neighborhood' for the city's homelessLos Angeles to declare homelessness in the city an 'emergency' and pledge... View full entry
Los Angeles elected leaders announced Tuesday that they will declare a “state of emergency” on the growing homelessness problem in the city and commit $100 million toward housing and other services for homeless people. [...]
"If we want to be a great city that hosts the Olympics and shows itself off to the world,” Cedillo said, “we shouldn't have 25,000 to 50,000 people sleeping on the streets.”
— scpr.org
Related on Archinect:Los Angeles funds $213M policy to end chronic homelessnessLow-income housing in Los Angeles: A look at the past, present and futureIn Los Angeles, homelessness is becoming more visible View full entry
While neighborhood councils don't have governing power, they are crucial for the public to come together and discuss issues and concerns, organize projects and lobby for change from City Council. [...]
Page and other activists say that Skid Row is underrepresented in the [Downtown LA Neighborhood Council] [...]
He likened downtown to a glazed donut, where the shiny donut part is the rapidly gentrifying downtown, and where Skid Row is the empty hole in the center.
— laist.com
For more about homelessness in Los Angeles and its infamous "Skid Row":Los Angeles funds $213M policy to end chronic homelessnessThe Last Skid Row in America Faces Increasing Gentrification View full entry
The phrases "public housing" or "low-income housing" do not generally conjure thoughts of architectural innovation. [...]
But it doesn't have to be that way, as several recent housing developments in Los Angeles prove. Instead, they pose the question: What if low-income housing was perceived as leading the vanguard of innovative, responsive architecture?
— kcet.org
Related: Michael Maltzan Looks to the Future View full entry
The system, which was first tried in 2013 on skid row, was designed to identify the most vulnerable homeless people and get them off the streets. Long-term or chronically homeless people, who are often jailed or hospitalized, are a quarter of the homeless population but consume 75% of the county's resources [...]
But the system, which has been described as match.com for homeless people, is also supposed to get families and others who fall into homelessness back in housing quickly
— latimes.com
Previous accounts of homelessness in LA County, particularly in Skid Row: The Last Skid Row in America Faces Increasing Gentrification View full entry
As shocking as it is to look upon the rows and rows of makeshift encampments and thousands of roving, hopeless people, perhaps even more shocking is this: Los Angeles is the last major American city with a single district of anything approaching this magnitude of homelessness and extreme poverty [...] — LA Weekly
