Little Tokyo Service Center has received $69 million in public funds to build a housing complex in East Hollywood that will feature supportive units for the homeless and others deemed affordable.
The Los Angeles City Council awarded the funds to the Downtown Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization to build a six-story apartment building at Vermont Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.
The emerald green and white complex will sport pink stairways and include 24,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, with a food court for local vendors, according to its architect, Koning Eizenberg Architecture of Santa Monica.
![](https://static.therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SMV_V04-edit-705x392.jpg)
(Courtesy of Koning Eizenberg Architecture)
The project next to Metro’s Vermont/Santa Monica Station calls for 187 apartments. Of those, 94 units will be dedicated to permanent supportive housing for homeless residents, plus two unrestricted manager’s units.
The remaining 91 units will be for affordable housing for very low-income families.
According to an application to the State of California for financing, plans call for a mix of studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom dwellings with rents ranging from $591 to $1,474 per month.
The complex, clad in profiled metal siding, will include 7,000 square feet of supportive community space for play areas, laundries, picnic areas and community rooms.
The Little Tokyo Service Center project received a density bonus provided by L.A.’s Transit-Oriented Communities that allowed it to surpass zoning limits and build more homes.
Funds for the project include $56 million in tax-exempt bonds and approximately $12.8 million in multifamily conduit revenue bonds, according to Urbanize. The project was allocated a $24 million loan via Measure HHH, a $1.2 billion bond passed by voters in 2016 to more than triple L.A.’s annual production of supportive housing.
Little Tokyo Service Center, founded in 1979 by Japanese-American activists, has teamed up with other community organizations to build more than 1,000 affordable housing units for low-income residents and families, according to its website.
The nonprofit builder is behind similar affordable and supportive housing projects planned next to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo and at the former home of the Umeya Rice Cake Co. in Downtown.
[Urbanize Los Angeles] – Dana Bartholomew
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![Dean Matsubayashi, executive director at Little Tokyo Service Center and 414 Crocker Street](https://static.therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/493_umeya0523-150x150.jpg)
![Renderings of the Little Tokyo Service Center (KoningEizenberg)](https://static.therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/493-275M-approved-for-LA-affordable-housing-projects-250x179.jpg)