Solving L.A.’s homelessness problem would cost $2.5 billion

Spend a few hours with a group from the California Association of Realtors on an organized tour of low-income housing in Los Angeles, and you’ll learn a lot — especially if your tour guide is Leonora Camner, managing director of Abundant Housing L.A.

Using a microphone in our private bus, she began the tour by saying that homelessness in L.A. is a math problem.

Currently, 500,000 low-income and subsidized housing units are needed to eliminate the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. Each unit costs about $500,000 to build. That means we only need $2.5 billion to fix the problem.

Therein lies the math problem.

Despite the staggering costs, there are organizations chipping away at the housing deficit. One of them is Skid Row Housing Trust, which is committed to ending homelessness in Greater Los Angeles. The housing trust “provides permanent supportive housing so that people who have experienced homelessness, prolonged extreme poverty, poor health, disabilities, mental illness and/or addiction can lead safe, stable lives in wellness,” according to its website.

We toured Star Apartments with a housing trust representative. The 2013 structure was the first prefabricated modular building built in L.A. since 1970, which prompted some issues. There weren’t any local inspectors with expertise in modular construction.

Designed by the renowned Michael Maltzan Architecture, the units were built in Boise, Idaho, then stacked like blocks over a two-story concrete base. The units are very simple – a modest kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom.

They were designed to encourage residents to leave their homes to join community events, which is one component in discouraging them from returning to the street. There is a health clinic on the first floor and a community garden on the upstairs terrace.

The goal of Star Apartments is to provide a permanent home to people who do not currently have housing. It is a federally subsidized program using the Permanent Supportive Housing and Housing First models, where the goal is to house people first, then treat the physical and mental health challenges with the support of a case manager.

They also utilize the Vulnerability Index tool to identify people with the highest and most urgent needs as residents. The housing trust also brings in occupational therapists and social workers from USC, UCLA and Pepperdine to provide additional support services. Residents are required to contribute 30% of their monthly income to their housing costs.

The Skid Row Housing Trust manages 23 buildings, housing 2,000 residents with a 93% retention rate.

Star Apartments cost approximately $425,000 per unit to build (as opposed to an average of $500,000). The housing trust is one organization successfully chipping away at the problem. And prefabricated modular construction is now more common and continues to be more cost-effective.

Leslie Sargent Eskildsen is an agent with Realty One Group. She can be reached at 949-678-3373 or leslie@leslieeskildsen.com.