AIDS Healthcare Foundation buys Hollywood motel, will create low-income housing

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is advancing its plan to create affordable housing in Los Angeles, announcing today its purchase of a Hollywood motel that it plans to turn into transitional housing for low-income residents.

The organization paid $4.6 million for the 27-room Sunset 8 Motel, located two blocks west of Wilcox on Sunset Boulevard.

“The homeless crisis in Los Angeles is a crisis,” says AHF president Michael Weinstein. “One that requires an across the board, ‘all hands on deck’ response rather than the well-intended, but sclerotic government effort we are witnessing by LA City Hall and County officials.”

Weinstein points to the high cost of creating affordable housing, citing a 2017 state budget summary that said new affordable units in California cost an average of $332,000 to build.

“Nothing should cost more than $200,000, and 50 percent of such units should be $100,000 and below,” Weinstein says.

Based on the purchase price, the Sunset 8 Motel’s cost per unit is $170,370 per room/unit, but that does not include the expense of renovating the property.

AHF announced in October that, in addition to offering healthcare and medical services, it would also begin to develop and provide affordable housing, with an emphasis on housing tenants with HIV/AIDS or other chronic illnesses.

The announcement coincided with the news that the organization had purchased The Madison, a single-room occupancy hotel on Seventh Street in Skid Row, paying $7.575 million. AHF is renovating the property to use for low-income housing; all current residents will be allowed to stay.

• AHF Transforms Sunset Blvd. Motel into Housing for Homeless Families [BusinessWire]
• AIDS Healthcare Foundation will get into the affordable housing game [Curbed LA]