Los Angeles: First Homeless Project Opens

From the Los Angeles Times, we learn that the first homeless apartment complex opened at what is called 88th and Vermont. It is located in the South Los Angeles neighborhood. It is a 62 unit complex that is opening slightly delayed (it was supposed to open in October of 2019).

The mayor lauded the change the 88th and Vermont project had made for a family of seven, who were among the first dozen tenants. After losing their home, they had couch-surfed, lived in shelters and motels, and “spent way too many nights in their car,” he said.

. . . Even that goal of 10,000 units is now too small, as it was based on past homeless counts when the population was smaller. With the number of people living in tents and makeshift shelters on the city’s streets ballooning to 27,000 out of 36,000 overall, and the number of chronically homeless Angelenos increasing, the current pace of construction is not keeping up.

. . . The 88th and Vermont project cost $34 million and received just under $9.7 million from Proposition HHH. At $549,500 per unit, it reflects the upward trend in the cost of housing. The most expensive HHH projects have run more than $600,000 per unit.



I previously mentioned that there was a complex that was costing just under $630,000 per unit. This particular one is coming in at $549,500 per unit. You really do have to wonder why they can't make cheaper units.

Steve Lopez of the LA Times suggests repurposing a hospital that is going through bankruptcy. He was told by the mayor that the city didn't have enough cash to buy the hospital. He calculates that if the city was able to get the building for $41 million (assuming no one attempted to outbid the city), it would be paying $112,000 per unit though additional upgrades would likely need to be made. It is almost like the city should have kept some money on the sidelines from Proposition HHH to buy up locations such as this hospital that would likely cost less than is currently being spent per complex.

In other news regarding homelessness, the LA Times has an article about the city cleaning up the trash around homeless encampments. As one would expect, the attempt to clean up the trash is getting hit from both sides. The article has comments from council members who say that the cleanups weren't happening on a timely basis. Homeless and their activists are saying that cloths and medicine are being tossed. They're also saying that having the police with those doing the clean-up leads to a lack of appropriate "outreach." Of course, the reason the police are there was due to confrontations with the homeless population. Reading all the various comments highlights the need for some serious negotiations or a city that is willing to have the backbone to ignore complaints from homeless activists and just clean up the city streets.