It took two and a half years, but construction is now complete on the first housing and homeless services complex funded by a $1.2 billion bond approved by LA voters.
Local officials gathered in Sun Valley Thursday to celebrate the opening of the new Irmas Family Campus, a $52 million campus with a mix of permanent supportive housing, temporary bridge housing, a health clinic, and other on-site services.
“This is a place of warmth, growth, and essential service,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti, promising more ribbon-cuttings in the near future.
“When people say ‘where are the projects?’ They are coming,” he said. “The ability for us to build this is as fast as our ability to say ‘yes.’”
The multi-building campus has capacity for 49 permanent residents and 250 people staying in bridge housing. There’s also space for an additional 12 families in the bridge housing section. It broke ground in 2016 and was constructed in phases by nonprofit homeless service provider LA Family Housing.
Shortly after voters passed Proposition HHH in 2016, city officials agreed to spend $1.3 million on a service center for the campus, covering a little over one-quarter of the center’s estimated cost of $4.8 million.
The center includes shelter housing and support for residents. Permanent housing at the campus was not funded by HHH, meaning Angelenos will have to wait a little longer for the first affordable units produced by the measure. HHH is primarily aimed at subsidizing housing, but also includes funding for related facilities like those unveiled Thursday at the Irmas campus.
City officials have authorized funding for more than 100 projects under the measure, containing more than 5,000 units combined. Construction is underway on 1,347 of those units, according to the city’s housing department.
Backers of the initiative promised that it would allow the city to supplement the roughly 300 supportive housing units subsidized annually with city funds. With more than $1 billion of added revenue, raised through a property tax-funded bond, local officials aimed to produce 10,000 new units over the next decade.
Since then, construction costs have risen nationwide and changes to the federal tax structure have made low-income housing pricier to build. As a result, HHH is on track to come up well short of its 10,000-unit target—though additional revenue from the state could bring the city closer to hitting that total.
Comments
Fantastic. Keep these projects coming.
By LosFeliz$ean on 05.31.19 10:37am
Yes Ms. Garcetti. Fantastic.
By LAwastheplace on 05.31.19 9:11pm
At $52,000,000 for 300 "people" (not units), we can keep these coming for the next 100 years and never make a dent in the problem.
But we will bankrupt our city and enrich our politicians who created this mess, so there’s that.
By goingup on 06.01.19 1:45am
Your comment is going to trigger LosFelizSean. He can’t handle a discussion wherein anyone points out that these projects are too expensive, take too long to build and won’t solve – or even make a dent – in the homeless crisis.
By LADude on 06.03.19 9:19am
Yeah, because this is the only facility targeting homelessness in the city and there are no plans for any more.
[btw, using my name to make a non-comment comment to another poster is weak af. You got something to say, say it to me directly]
By LosFeliz$ean on 06.03.19 9:54am
Just like I said…
By LADude on 06.03.19 11:44am
…you said nothing and you’ve come up with no ideas for dealing with the issue in a way that would be quicker/cheaper.
By LosFeliz$ean on 06.03.19 11:56am
"you’ve come up with no ideas for dealing with the issue in a way that would be quicker/cheaper."
Since you keep track of prior posts (as evidenced by your tirade where you quoted someone else’s prior posts) please go cut and paste my post that provided a very specific plan to built shelters and beds quickly and inexpensively.
Like I said, you are triggered when anyone tries to tell you that the current corporate welfare scheme to use $1.2 Billion to build 6,000 beds for 50,000 homeless is not a good use of money or a solution.
Trigger in 3, 2, 1…
By LADude on 06.03.19 2:21pm
Your "plan" was so bad it wasn’t worthy of comment. You balk at price tags, but seem to have no issue with paying $60 million (a price paid specifically for use as a park I might add) before ANYTHING has been built, in a place where nothing can be built for several years anyway.
By LosFeliz$ean on 06.03.19 5:30pm
Not sure how serious you are, so I hesitate to ask…what do you think the city should do about homelessness?
By LosFeliz$ean on 06.03.19 11:59am
Curious to see if this will be successful in getting some homeless the help they need to function on their own without government help. I doubt it though.
That being said, we can’t afford to help all of the homeless people that are coming here. We’re already taxed so heavily. As I’ve said before, we need to curb the programs that attract homeless to Los Angeles and make it unappealing to come here.
By princsskmb on 05.31.19 12:15pm
The "program" you’re describing is "the weather." It’s the best climate in the country. California is always going to attract people for that reason, whether they have no home or they’re a billionaire. Dealing with that simple fact is part of the cost of living here, and we should all be realistic about that, roll up our sleeves, and pay that cost. Funding homeless services is ultimately a very small price for that.
By logovisual on 05.31.19 12:57pm
While I do agree that weather does attract some homeless people, I still look at places such as SF and Seattle and see similar issues. These places don’t have the greatest climate and still have a massive homeless epidemic at a much larger rate than say Miami, FL.
By ewilliams1911 on 05.31.19 1:46pm
Cities like LA, SF and Seattle, as well as NYC and Vegas (which also have much higher homeless rates than Miami), attract "dreamers" in general, don’t they? Naive, desperate escapists who often lack money and education and are battling mental illness and/or substance abuse. They either hope to make it big in these cities, or find a place where their outsider personalities will fit in. (It’s amazing how so many people still have antiquated, romantic ideas of these places, as if it’s still 1967 in San Francisco, 1984 in LA, 1992 in Seattle.) But they can’t find work and can’t pay rent, and by then it’s too late to go back. Miami just does not give off the same "anyone can make it here" vibe as these cities. (That said, Florida does have a significant homeless population; much larger than that of Texas.)
By mtkscat on 05.31.19 2:45pm
lol fuck off. Where exactly are you from? We’re not "attracting" anything — our housing issues are mostly coming from within.
By SCdroog on 06.17.19 3:48pm
You’re right, weather is certainly something that attracts the homeless. However, things like generous social programs and lax enforcement (or not at all) of laws that would make urban camping challenging also serve to attract these social leeches from other parts of the country.
By princsskmb on 05.31.19 1:07pm
They are — by and large — longtime Southern California residents. That hasn’t changed, even though politicians and others often assert that Southern California’s homelessness crisis is caused by homeless people coming from somewhere else.
Three-quarters of homeless people report they were living here when they lost their home. and more than two-thirds have lived in L.A. County for more than ten years.
At the same time, about 19% of the people LAHSA surveyed became homeless in a different state — a percentage that has remained pretty steady in the last few years. So, yes, some of the homeless population came here from other places, but most people on our streets are longtime locals.
https://laist.com/2019/06/04/los_angeles_homeless_rate_increase.php
By logovisual on 06.04.19 11:25am
Well I hope it gets a good number of people back into being productive citizens who can take care of themselves long term. We need some return on our investment.
By LAoneWay on 05.31.19 1:31pm
It’s actually costs more , if they’re unhoused. Maybe we can get back to seeing people as citizens, rather than throw aways. This country should not have homeless…….
By Wackyone1968 on 05.31.19 2:12pm
Oh. I thought you wanted to ship the homeless to "outer space" because "it’s pointless to help those people". Maybe that was just a different personality of yours?
By LosFeliz$ean on 05.31.19 9:59pm
I never said ship them off . I’m all for helping those who want to help themselves.
By Wackyone1968 on 06.01.19 2:04pm
LosFeliz$ean
Supposing you could just "ship" people without due process, where are you thinking?
Posted on May 11, 2019 | 9:37 AM up reply
Wackyone1968
Outer space. I’m tired of seeing the walking dead. It’s pointless to help those people. I think of me first . Sorry their in the situation their in. Karma is not kind.
Posted on May 11, 2019 | 9:42 AM up reply rec (4) flag
LosFeliz$ean
Thanks for thinking realistically, it’s a big help when it comes to addressing this issue.
Posted on May 11, 2019 | 12:14 PM up reply recs (2)
https://la.curbed.com/2019/5/10/18564446/venice-homeless-shelter-metro-lawsuit-bonin#508583744
By LosFeliz$ean on 06.01.19 2:09pm
Wackyone1968
Yes and properly values plummet. Best if they’re shipped to some place else
Posted on May 11, 2019 | 9:25 AM up reply rec flag
C’mon man.
By LosFeliz$ean on 06.01.19 2:13pm
Thanks for removing all doubt that you have no life or a real job if you took the time and effort to do that.
By Transplant Trash on 06.02.19 6:25am
Further, since you’re commenting (ranting? insulting?) at about 5 times the rate I am, the numbers suggest you have even less of a life than I do!
By LosFeliz$ean on 06.02.19 7:58am