Venice Nonprofit Nabs Financing for Inglewood Affordable Housing

Venice Community Housing has landed up to $65 million in bond financing to build a 120-unit affordable housing complex in Inglewood.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the funding for the 79,000-square-foot apartment complex at 400 Centinela Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles and the Commercial Observer reported. It would replace “existing improvements” on a church property.

Plans by the Venice-based nonprofit developer call for a building with 120 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units for low-income and formerly homeless households earning between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income, plus parking

The project, dubbed Sankofa Place at Centinela, is being co-developed by the Inglewood-based Social Justice Learning Institute, which would build an 18,000-square-foot community services center to serve as its programming hub.

The Inglewood campus, designed by The Architects Collective and Aero Collective, would include a two-story brick colonnade and a rooftop crown, with a courtyard and garden.

Sankofa Place will be built several blocks west of Inglewood Park Cemetery, resting place of notables such as Ray Charles, Johnnie Cochrane and Edgar Bergen, according to the Commercial Observer.

Venice Community Housing, founded in 1988, owns and operates 17 apartment complexes with more than 250 units across Greater Los Angeles, in addition to 28 units of short-term housing for families, according to its website. It has more than 500 homes in its development pipeline.

The County’s bond financing is the second round of public funding made available for Venice Community Housing in recent weeks.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development last month awarded the nonprofit $14.7 million for a 78-unit affordable housing development to be known as 20th Street Apartments, at 1634 20th Street in Santa Monica, according to the Observer.

The award was part of a $185 million round of grants from the National Housing Trust Fund, which also provided financing to 17 other projects throughout the Golden State.

— Dana Bartholomew