L.A. Program Seeks to Boost Construction of Homeless Housing

Los Angeles officials want housing for homeless residents built faster and at a lower cost. The L.A. City Council recently voted to put aside $120 million from Proposition HHH, a $1.2 billion bond to build 10,000 units of supportive housing.

The funds are for a new pilot program that will solicit proposals for 1,000 units of quality housing that can be built quickly and will be cheaper than other projects, which are now costing more than $550,000 per unit, up from $400,000 before the proposition. The program will consider a range of housing options, including prefabs, granny flats, and shared housing.

"In addition to being an experiment in new housing types, the pilot also is a call for ways to bypass the traditional method of financing affordable and homeless supportive housing, which requires developers to assemble grants and loans from local and state programs as a foundation for highly competitive tax credits," reports Doug Smith.