LA County to convert East Hollywood apartments for homeless youth with Project Homekey

A newly built co-living apartment complex in East Hollywood will be converted to interim housing for homeless youth under the state’s Project Homekey program.

Los Angeles County has filed plans to buy the 29-room co-living facility at 1164 N. Kenmore Ave., Urbanize Los Angeles reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The three-story, white-and-charcoal complex is arranged as five-to-six-bedroom suites with shared kitchens and common spaces, according to the county notice.

The county says the fully furnished facility, centrally located near transit facilities and other neighborhood amenities, will be used for interim housing for transition aged youth (16-25 years old) who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. No renovation of the property is needed.

The second round of funding for Project Homekey, which in September provided $1.45 billion in grants for jurisdictions to purchase hotels and apartment buildings to repurpose them as supportive or interim housing for unhoused residents, is already being used in Southern California.

Notices distributed earlier this year by Los Angeles County pointed to 18 other properties from Castaic to Carson to be purchased using Project Homekey funds.

The City of Los Angeles also agreed to spend $506 million in Homekey funds to buy 16 hotels and apartment buildings, at an average price of $400,000 a unit, while such cities as Culver City and El Monte also bought properties with Homekey grants.

The Project Homekey site in East Hollywood sits a few blocks west of the Vermont/Santa Monica subway station, where non-profit developer Little Tokyo Service Center recently broke ground on a 187-unit affordable and permanent supportive housing complex.

[Urbanize Los Angeles] – Dana Bartholomew

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