Star Apartments Offer Starchitect Treatment for L.A.'s Skid Row Homeless

The new 100-unit, $40-million Star Apartments opened in Skid Row earlier this week is part of Los Angeles County’s Housing for Health initiative to house 10,000 of the most vulnerable homeless people.

1 minute read

October 11, 2014, 9:00 AM PDT

By Maayan Dembo @DJ_Mayjahn


On Wednesday, the Star Apartments were unveiled in the heart of Skid Row in Los Angeles, reports Gale Holland from The Los Angeles Times. The New Star Apartments is a 100-unit building "made out of prefabricated modules stacked like children’s building blocks at angles that jut out above the corner of Maple Avenue and 6th Street. Amenities include a community garden, running track, exercise and art rooms and a library."

The Star Apartments are part of a larger, $18 million "Housing for Health" program aiming to house "10,000 of the county's sickest, most vulnerable homeless people in the next 10 years." As part of that effort, the ground floor of the new complex "is occupied by the county Department of Health Services' Housing for Health division headquarters and a county medical clinic. The division moved from a downtown office tower to be closer to the epicenter of homelessness, officials said."

Developed by the Skid Row Housing Trust and designed by architect Michael Maltzan, the complex houses chronically and mentally ill homeless populations.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014 in Los Angeles Times

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