LA’s latest homeless housing project, at nearly $600K a unit, opens in Skid Row

The biggest homeless housing project so far in the city of Los Angeles celebrated its grand opening on Wednesday, June 19, with elected officials and homeless services providers expressing hope that it will help improve and transform Skid Row, the epicenter of the region’s homelessness crisis.

The first of two high-rise buildings that will make up Weingart Towers and will house the homeless is now complete.

Weingart Tower I, the 19-story, 278-unit high-rise overlooking downtown L.A., features amenities like a cafe, a club room where residents can lounge and read or watch TV, a gym, music and art rooms, a computer lab, dog runs, terraces with community gardens and common balcony areas.

Tower I, which is at 555 S. Crocker St. near 6th Street, features 228 studio apartments and 50 one-bedroom apartments, three of which are for onsite managers. Forty units are reserved for veterans.

Each apartment comes fully furnished, with a full kitchen and private bathroom, plus heating and air conditioning. The facility, which will soon welcome its first residents, is described as “high-quality apartment living” on the Weingart Center’s website.

“This is not just a building. This is about people, about giving people dignity and respect,” said Kevin Murray, president and CEO of the Weingart Center Association.

The first tower cost an estimated $165 million, according to media reports.

During Wednesday’s grand opening ceremony, speakers said the costs break down to roughly $595,000 per residential unit. That includes the cost of construction, financing and the purchase of furniture and other supplies to outfit each apartment.

Part of the project was funded through Proposition HHH, a $1.2 billion bond measure that Los Angeles voters approved in 2016 to fund affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.

Murray, who previously served in the California state Assembly and state Senate, and other speakers at Wednesday’s event, said people who have been living on the streets deserve a place they’re proud to call home.

Having a gym where people can work on their physical therapy, or a music or art room for art therapy, are important to helping residents heal physically, mentally or emotionally, they said.

“We’re not just trying to house people. We are trying to keep them housed,” said Murray, who said the amenities will help keep residents engaged, give them a sense of community and help them maintain stability.

L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, whose district includes Skid Row, spoke of the support that residents of the neighborhood deserve.

“Skid Row is a neighborhood. It’s a community,” Solis said. “It’s not something to be looked down or thought of as second-class. It really does need this uplifting.”

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass also cited the need to provide outlets like art and music to help residents heal from traumas they’ve experienced while living on the streets.

To Angelenos who have been critical of the handling of Prop. HHH funds, Bass said it’s projects like Weingart Tower I that show how such bond measures benefit communities.

“Now we can see what HHH has done,” Bass said.

“Skid Row is the epicenter of the unhoused situation in our city, but it also provides the hope and the opportunity  … and we will see the transformation of Skid Row,” she said. Bass said she hopes the Weingart project will serve as a model that can be replicated citywide.

The Weingart tower provides “permanent supportive housing” with onsite counseling, case management and other support services for residents.

Although these services will be offered, there are no requirements for residents to participate in counseling, substance abuse treatment programs or other services for which they qualify.

Murray said other renters in the city, including those who live in other subsidized housing and receive Medicare or social security benefits, aren’t required to participate in programs as a condition of being a tenant.

“There is no reason our clients, who just happen to be low-income, should have to have these barriers that they don’t have,” he said.

Rent will be based on income, and many tenants who end up at the Weingart Towers will likely use federal Section 8 housing vouchers to help pay their rent.

Construction of Weingart Tower I began in September 2021. The second tower, a 12-story high-rise featuring 104 units, is in the pre-development stage. Combined, the two towers will provide 382 residential units, four of which will be for managers.

The Weingart Center is also in the midst of building a separate 17-story, 302-unit permanent supportive housing development across the street from the Weingart Towers site.