LOS ANGELES — A 19-story apartment high-rise on Skid Row will soon be available to house homeless residents, officials announced Wednesday.
What you need to know: Weingart Tower 1 will also offer services such as employment and education assistance, financial and budget counseling, and health and wellness classes.
According to the center, occupancy is scheduled to begin at the end of July.
One of the center’s goals is to change the landscape of Skid Row and create a beacon of hope, said Kevin Murray, a retired state senator and CEO of the Weingart Center.
Two more towers (406 units total) are scheduled to open within the next four to five years.
Elected officials and developer Weingart Center held a ceremony Wednesday morning to celebrate the grand opening of the complex, which will include 228 studio and 50 fully-furnished one-bedroom apartments, a fitness center, computer lab, laundry facilities, music room and more. About 40 of the income-based units are set aside for veterans.
The development, called “Weingart Tower 1,” will also offer services such as employment and education assistance, financial and budget counseling, and health and wellness classes.
“This is not just a building,” former state senator and Weingart Center CEO Kevin Murray said at the ceremony. “This is about people and giving people dignity. Everybody deserves a good, well-designed environment.”
Move-in is expected to begin at the end of July, according to the center.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass noted that while the project began before she was elected, the development benefited from her Executive Order 1, which streamlines and fast-tracks affordable housing projects like Weingart Tower 1.
The $165 million project received funding from Proposition HHH, a grant approved by voters in 2016 to support housing projects, as well as $56 million in state tax credits. Each unit will cost just under $600,000.
According to Los Angeles City Comptroller Kenneth Mejia’s 2022 report, housing projects funded under Proposition HHH cost anywhere from $450,000 to nearly $837,000 per unit. Overall, the city has spent more than $1.1 billion in HHH funds on housing projects.
One of the center’s goals is to change the landscape of Skid Row and create a beacon of hope, Murray said.
Two more towers (406 units total) are scheduled to open within the next four to five years.
John Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, was critical of the multi-million dollar complex.
“Los Angeles voters approved Measure HHH to borrow $1.2 billion to build 10,000 units of housing for the chronically homeless, but at $600,000 per unit, the primary beneficiaries will be politically connected developers and consultants,” Coupal said in a statement to City News Service. “This level of spending per unit is completely unsustainable and will require further bond issuance and further tax increases.”
He also noted that the city of Los Angeles has been ordered by a federal judge to conduct an audit of its homelessness programs and spending.
“Until our elected officials answer the tough questions about where the money has gone and why the problems are only getting worse, voters should oppose higher taxes and more debt,” Coupal said in a statement.