Homeless Initiative awards $4.5 million for housing solutions

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative announced the winners Friday of the first Housing Innovation Challenge seeking scalable permanent housing solutions for homeless people.

The initiative has awarded $4.5 million to five winners after receiving more than 50 proposals that were evaluated by a panel of experts. Each awarded project will result in the production of permanent housing for homeless families or individuals in Los Angeles County.

The funds come from Measure H, a county sales tax approved by voters in 2017 to fund homeless programs.

“Everyone who calls Los Angeles home should live in communities that afford them dignity and worth,” Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. “These novel yet practical solutions will allow the county and its private sector partners to scale up compassion and innovation in a thoughtful manner. This is truly Measure H at work.”

The funded projects are from:

— Brooks + Scarpa Architects Inc. for a project design of prefab kits that can be assembled on any typical 50 x 150 parcel ($1 million);

— Flyaway Homes, LLC, for a project to scale their model of leveraging private equity to develop supportive housing faster ($1 million);

— LifeArk, SPC, for a kit-of-parts building system that is developable on any lot size or shape ($1 million);

— United Dwelling, for a project to design garage-converted accessory dwelling units ($1 million);

and

— Restore Neighborhoods Los Angeles for a neighborhood shared equity model for accessible units built by-right in a traditional bungalow style courtyard ($500,000).

“The Challenge was issued at a critical juncture in the countywide movement to combat and prevent homelessness,” said Phil Ansell, director of the L.A. County Homeless Initiative. “While our collective efforts are moving in the right direction, this was a unique opportunity to solicit new approaches and continue to advance our efforts to help people move from homelessness to housing.”