Affordable Housing for Fire Victims Funded by State

Gov. Gavin Newsom is allocating more than $100 million in state funds to build affordable homes for victims of the Palisades and Eaton fires.

On Tuesday, the day before Los Angeles marked the one-year anniversary of the deadly wildfires, Newsom announced that $107.3 million in state money will be set aside to create 665 affordable rental units that will be offered first to those affected or displaced by the fires, according to Westside Current reporting and The Real Deal’s calculations.

The money comes from a Multifamily Finance Super NOFA, or notice of funding of application, issued by the California Department of Housing and Community Development last February. A separate statewide Multifamily Finance Super NOFA announced in September provided nearly $56.9 million for four other developments with 301 affordable rental residences in fire-impacted areas across Los Angeles County. The September NOFA allowed developers in local jurisdictions to request funding from multiple state housing programs through a single application, in turn expediting the development of new homes.

The funding from the February NOFA will support the construction of nine multifamily projects across Los Angeles County. On the Westside, they include the 80-unit Tierra Apartments in Santa Monica, the 40-unit U.S. Vets-WLAVA building at the West Los Angeles VA campus and the 176-unit Crenshaw Crossing development next to the Expo/Crenshaw Metro station. On the east side, the funding will support the 43-unit La Guadalupe project in Boyle Heights as well as the 100-unit Ramona housing project for seniors in Pasadena and 44-unit Colorado Crest Apartments, also in Pasadena.

Elsewhere in L.A. County, a 50-unit complex at 15804 Lakewood Boulevard in Bellflower, a 59-unit senior apartment complex at 233 North Second Avenue in Covina and the 73-unit Mercy Claremont project in Claremont will also get construction financial aid from the NOFA.

The developments benefiting from the new NOFA aren’t in burn scar areas and will not replace destroyed homes. Newsom emphasized that the state is “rebuilding stronger, fairer communities in Los Angeles without displacing the people who call these neighborhoods home.”

— Chris Malone Méndez