Supportive housing projects for homeless open in Venice, South LA

LOS ANGELES — A 35-unit permanent supportive housing complex for people who were previously homeless opened Thursday in Venice, becoming the second project funded by Proposition HHH to open this week.

The Rose Apartments, at 718-720 Rose Ave., will provide 17 units to transitional-aged youth, 17 to people who have experienced chronic homelessness, and one for a resident manager. The development also includes on-site supportive services, including case management, community building activities and career development programs. The project was developed by Venice Community Housing and designed by the architectural firm Brooks + Scarpa.

The PATH Villas Montclair complex — at 4220 W. Mont Clair St. in South Los Angeles — opened earlier this week and offers the same on-site services for formerly unhoused people living in its 45 studio apartments.

The two projects were partly funded by Proposition HHH, a ballot measure passed in November 2016 to use $1.2 billion to build 10,000 units for homeless Angelenos. The total cost of the two latest developments were not immediately available.

Proposition HHH has led to 25 permanent supportive and affordable housing projects totaling more than 1,500 units since it passed in 2016. More than 4,700 units in 74 projects are currently being developed, according to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office.

The rollout of Proposition HHH has been criticized, including by Controller Ron Galperin, for being slow and expensive, with the average cost of each unit rising to nearly $600,000 last year, up from $530,000 in 2020. Galperin, who released a report earlier this year called “The Problems and Progress of Prop. HHH,” found that one pre-development project was expected to cost $837,000 per unit, adding that costs could one day reach $1 million per unit if the city doesn’t make any changes.

Garcetti on Thursday celebrated the two projects’ openings, saying they “represent the steady drumbeat of progress we promised to Angelenos when they said ‘yes’ to Prop HHH, and empowered us to surge ahead with comprehensive solutions to homelessness.”

“These ribbon-cuttings are a clear marker of how far we’ve come in our mission to welcome Angelenos into high-quality, permanent supportive units that can end the vicious cycle of homelessness and make real movement toward ending this crisis,” he added.