A former Extended Stay America hotel In Carson that will become The Weingart Primrose.
Los Angeles County is partnering with two local homeless service providers and developers to convert hotels in Carson, Lancaster and Palmdale into a combined 309 studio apartments and interim housing units for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, thanks to a new round of Homekey 3.0 grants announced by the State of California, plus funding from the County of Los Angeles.
The State awarded $90.6 million in Homekey 3.0 grants to the projects, and the Board of Supervisors committed $30.2 million from the County’s American Rescue Plan Act funding allocation to meet the “local match” requirement. To pay for supportive services at the site, the County will tap Measure H funding, a 10-year quarter-cent sales tax approved by County voters in 2017 to prevent and address homelessness.
The latest projects bring the County’s total number of Homekey properties to 31, with a combined total of 2,129 units.
In Lancaster, the nonprofit Hope the Mission will purchase and renovate the Americas Best Value Inn and Suites on Sierra Highway to create 102 units of interim housing for participants of the County’s Pathway Home encampment resolution program. Pathway Home is a critical component of the County’s comprehensive response to the local emergency on homelessness the Board of Supervisors declared early this year. By leveraging emergency powers and partnerships with local jurisdictions, Pathway Home enables people living unsheltered in encampments to come indoors by offering immediately available interim housing paired with a comprehensive suite of supportive services, such as mental and physical health care, to help them regain personal stability and ultimately move into permanent housing.
In Palmdale, Hope the Mission will renovate and convert the former Knights Inn into 100 units of permanent supportive housing. Each unit will be retrofitted with kitchens.
“These new Homekey projects will provide critical housing and support services to people experiencing homelessness in the Antelope Valley and will expand our capacity to do so in a compassionate and comprehensive manner,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Fifth District. “I appreciate the County’s ongoing partnership with the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster, which have experienced their share of a growing homeless population. I am very pleased that Hope the Mission, a highly experienced developer based in the Fifth District, will lead conversion and management of these properties to meet urgent needs in the high desert region. The County is not only delivering important housing solutions, but also the critical wraparound services that stabilize people’s lives and end the cycle of homelessness.”
In Carson, the nonprofit Weingart Center Association will renovate a former Extended Stay America hotel to create 107 studio apartments, called The Weingart Primrose. It will include on-site wraparound services, various amenities such a community patio and pet area, and landscaping and security improvements. Some units will be upgraded to be accessible to people with physical disabilities.
“We must do everything we can to find safe, permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness. As we continue important efforts to build new housing to address this crisis, we must also actively pursue innovative options to use existing buildings to create more immediate housing options. Project Homekey is a great opportunity to help our unhoused neighbors. We are thrilled to have the Weingart Center as an experienced partner to deliver the Primrose project in Carson,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, Second District.
Following the Board of Supervisors’ emergency declaration on homelessness earlier this year, L.A. Care Health Plan and Health Net committed $114 million through the Housing and Homelessness Incentive Program (HHIP) to help increase the availability of permanent housing units in the private rental market for tenant-based subsidy holders experiencing homelessness. A portion of those HHIP funds will help provide the Carson and Palmdale Homekey 3.0 projects with financial stability by allowing for the use of tenant-based vouchers in the units that lack project-based vouchers.
For more about Project Homekey, as well as Los Angeles County’s multi-faceted, strategic efforts to address the current homeless crisis, please visit: homeless.lacounty.gov