A massive residential tower in California will provide homeless people with a swanky new living space and luxury amenities, including a café, gym and TV lounge.
The 19-story tower, which is set to open this month in Los Angeles’ Skid Row neighborhood, will provide sprawling views of downtown and the San Gabriel Mountains, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“We’re trying to make our little corner of the world look and feel a little better,” Weingart Center Assn. Chief Executive and President Kevin Murray told the outlet.
Murray, who devised the plan, launched it in 2018 alongside the affordable housing developer Chelsea Investment Corp. The tower will become the largest permanent supportive housing project in Los Angeles.
The 278-unit building for formerly homeless people will offer a slew of amenities in addition to a floor for caseworkers and property managers. These benefits include a café, a courtyard, a gym, an art room, a soundproof music room, a computer room and library, a TV lounge and six large balconies.
A commercial kitchen in the building will also serve a 600-bed shelter next door.
The building is one of three towers. The other two will be built on the perimeter of Weingart’s nonprofit headquarters.
The first tower includes 228 studios and 50 one-bedroom apartments. Each unit will come with a television.
The project is expected to cost approximately $165 million and will receive financing from Proposition HHH, state housing funds and $56 million in state tax credits. Each unit is projected to cost $600,000.
The building concept faces inward to insulate the tenants from the struggling neighborhood.
“Down here, it’s you don’t have to go out into Skid Row in order to walk your dog,” Murray told the Times.
Many local community leaders have spoken positively about the new construction.
Pete White, executive director of the Skid Row advocacy group Los Angeles Community Action Network, said more housing is needed in the area and the project stands as a testament to what a “stabilized” Skid Row can look like.
“I see the tower as providing a great need, a great housing need in Skid Row and a design that says poor residents are worthy,” he added.
