Video: Senate leader, Steinberg propose $2 billion homeless plan

Sacramento Bee: In an opening to this year’s budget negotiations at the Capitol, Senate Democrats on Monday proposed a $2 billion bond to build homes for homeless people with mental illnesses. The measure would be funded by Proposition 63, the existing, 1 percent income tax on Californians earning $1 million or more per year to pay for mental health services. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León said at a news conference in Los Angeles that the money could fund construction of at least 10,000 housing units statewide.

 

“With a place to live, I can work towards a better life.”

Haniff is celebrating the start of a new career this Thanksgiving. Four years ago, Haniff’s life was ripped apart when his mother suddenly passed away. In between jobs, the death of his mother triggered a period of depression that rendered him unable to seek new employment. Haniff, a longtime resident of South Los Angeles, started sleeping on friend’s couches when money ran out, and eventually he turned to shelters on Skid Row. Haniff struggled to treat high blood pressure and kidney disease without the stability of a permanent home, and his health declined as he lost hope for the future.

Last year the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services referred Haniff to Skid Row Housing Trust’s Star Apartments, moving him into permanent supportive housing designed for people living with chronic health conditions. With both a medical clinic and a wellness center on site, the Star Apartments was a sanctuary where Haniff could heal.

With the foundation of a permanent home and a supportive community, Haniff graduated from L.A. Kitchen’s culinary job training program, and he was recently hired as a prep cook. “It wears you down moving from place to place, and you can’t find a sense of normal. You can’t do anything but exist,” said Haniff. “Now I have a refuge and a routine. With a place to live, I can work towards a better life.”

Help more people struggling with chronic health and mental health conditions escape the cycle of homelessness by supporting Skid Row Housing Trust’s innovative permanent supportive housing. Please consider making a recurring monthly donation to fund evidence-based programs that help residents build healthier futures. Take part in permanently ending homelessness in Los Angeles by giving today.

The 25 Best Inventions of 2015: Star Apartments

TIME: For decades, housing for the homeless has too often meant transient shelters or warehouse-­like abodes. L.A.’s Star Apartments aims to buck that trend by design; it functions more like a minivillage than a single building, says Maltzan of his third collaboration with Skid Row Housing Trust, a local nonprofit. In addition to 102 prefabricated studios, which are ingeniously staggered into four terraced stories, Star Apartments offers a ground-floor medical clinic and, above that, a garden, an outdoor running track and space for classrooms. The goal, says Maltzan, is to make the residents of its 300-sq.-ft. units—who are handpicked by the county department of health ­services—feel “like they’re part of a dynamic and intimate community,” a strategy that can help people, especially those struggling with homelessness and substance-­abuse issues, re-­establish stability in their lives.

The Six for Veterans

Listen to KNX 1070‘s piece on The Six, Skid Row Housing Trust’s latest permanent supportive housing development focused on the needs of veterans who are struggling with homelessness.

Improving and Increasing Permanent Supportive Housing

We are pleased to announce that the Los Angeles chapter of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has awarded our Housing Development team a $35,000 grant to increase and improve permanent supportive housing in Downtown Los Angeles utilizing HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Program.

RAD is a rental housing preservation strategy that allows properties to be converted from one type of rental subsidy to another in order to improve their financial sustainability. The LISC grant allows us to create a two-project strategy and timeline to rebuild and create over 200 units of permanent supportive housing.

Long term, the planning work conducted for this RAD pilot will allow the Trust to rebuild its oldest and most physically and financially demanding properties, thus expanding the available supply of permanent supportive housing while simultaneously improving the quality of our existing portfolio and the wellbeing of our residents.

The mission of LISC is to equip struggling communities with the capital, strategy and know-how to become places where people can thrive. In Los Angeles, LISC utilizes capital investments and capacity-building strategies to improve the economic, physical and social living environment of economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Learn more about LA LISC by visiting their web site.

Is prefab the future for affordable housing in Los Angeles? A case from Michael Maltzan Architecture.

The Architect’s Newspaper: The Star Apartments are Michael Maltzan Architecture’s third project for the Skid Row Housing Trust in downtown Los Angeles. In contrast to the firm’s 2009 New Carver Apartments—a sleek white cylinder with sharply faceted bays—Star is a rough-edged, asymmetrical stack of prefabricated units rising from an existing single-story podium of retail spaces.

LA mayor promises plan for ending homelessness

KPCC: Los Angles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Thursday promised he would release a plan in August that would be a blueprint to end homelessness in Los Angeles.

 

Creating Communities

Metropolis Magazine: In America, nineteen million low-income families are “housing insecure.” Housing specialist Katie Swenson discusses different strategies to begin tackling this urgent issue.

Architects rethinking design of housing for formerly homeless residents

NPR: On any given night, tens of thousands of people across the United States are living on the streets.

Many advocates are pushing for a new model, permanent supportive housing, to reduce homelessness. The model prioritizes a stable place to live and has been shown to keep people from falling back into homelessness.

California using healthcare dollars to run housing for homeless

Healthcare Finance News: The state is asking the federal government for permission to use Medicaid money to help put the most medically fragile homeless people in housing.