Venice Beach Affordable Housing Project Wins State Funding

An affordable housing proposal in Venice is advancing with funding from the State of California, after a lawsuit accused city officials of stalling progress.

The Venice Dell Community, a joint project between Hollywood Community Housing and Venice Community Housing, received a $42.4 million conditional award from the Department of Housing and Community Development, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The project has an estimated budget of $133 million.

The funding shows that the proposed development meets key objectives for the state, including building on surplus public land, creating housing in high-resource areas and serving extremely low-income households, said Allison Riley, co-executive director of Venice Community Housing.

The development is slated to replace a Los Angeles Department of Transportation parking lot near the Venice Canals with low-rise structures containing 120 apartments, commercial space and replacement parking for residents and businesses. The 2.7-acre site at 200 North Venice Boulevard is bounded by Venice Boulevard, Pacific Avenue, Canal Street and Dell Avenue and sits just one block east of the beachfront.

Redevelopment of the site has been in the works for about a decade, though it’s faced obstacles over the years.

City Councilmember Traci Park, opposed the development in her campaign and has since proposed using a different site that hasn’t been entitled for affordable housing — a move some view as an attempt to kill the project.

The nonprofit L.A. Forward Institute sued the City of Los Angeles last year for allegedly standing in the way of Venice Dell’s progress. The complaint accused the city of stalling the project through a “series of administrative blocks” that started after Park’s election in November 2022, claiming city officials denied regular meetings with developers, failed to give approvals needed and redirected communication to the city attorney’s office.

Mayor Karen Bass was also named in the suit for allegedly deferring to Park rather than instructing city officials to advance the project.

— Chris Malone Méndez