Nonprofit plans 6-story homeless-affordable complex in Koreatown

Development comes as LA continues to grapple with crisis

701-710 S New Hampshire Ave and Bridge Housing principal Ken Lombard (Google Maps, Bridge Housing)
701-710 S New Hampshire Ave and Bridge Housing principal Ken Lombard (Google Maps, Bridge Housing)

A major nonprofit developer intends to build a six-story, 95-unit homeless and affordable housing development in Koreatown.

San Francisco-based Bridge Housing filed its project application with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning on Monday.

The project is located on the site of a vacant social services campus near the corner of New Hampshire Avenue and West 7th Street, on the flank of the densely populated Koreatown district.

Fellow nonprofit Children’s Institute owns the land, which is about two miles away from its main campus in Historic Filipinotown.

Bridge’s plans call for a 50,000 square-foot apartment building with 93 studio apartments and two manager’s units, according to a project description. About half of the units would be reserved for permanent supportive housing for the homeless, and the other half set aside for low-income tenants.

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The project would include 12 parking spaces and 80 bike spaces. The developer would demolish one existing building, and the application calls for the reuse of a historic, three-story mansion on the site.

The apartments, located near multiple bus stops and the Wilshire/Vermont Metro subway station, would benefit from density incentives under Tier 4 of the city’s Transit Oriented Communities program, which grants certain zoning exemptions to projects located near public transit. It would also receive funding from Proposition HHH, the law California voters passed in 2016 to raise over $1 billion to finance homelessness projects and programs.

Bridge, based in San Francisco, develops and manages housing projects from offices in San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Orange County, Portland and Seattle.

The plans in Koreatown come as L.A. continues to fall short in efforts to address a homelessness crisis that periodically dominates the city’s politics, with recent city council debates over encampment sweeps. The city’s housing department also recently announced a plan to request $30 million from a state program to acquire three hotels to convert to homeless housing.

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