$30 Million Invested by Firms in 1990 for Low-Cost Housing : Construction: The federal tax credit program will create 15 new projects statewide, with 12 of those in Los Angeles County.
California corporations invested an unprecedented $30 million last year in a federal tax credit program that will create 15 new low-income housing projects statewide, a dozen of them in Los Angeles County, officials said Monday.
In Los Angeles, the funds will mean 481 units of new affordable housing for low-income families in central Los Angeles and of refurbished hotel rooms for single residents of Skid Row.
The projects are coordinated by the California Equity Fund, a 3-year-old nonprofit organization that matches local nonprofit groups interested in building or refurbishing local housing with major corporations whose investments help create a pool of equity to leverage additional private and public financing.
A press conference was scheduled for today at Casa Guadalupe, a 22-unit housing complex in East Los Angeles that was built with CEF funds raised previously. At the press conference, officials including Mayor Tom Bradley and local corporate donors are expected to announce that corporations contributed $30 million in 1990 to the CEF low-income housing program, most of it for projects in Los Angeles.
At a press conference last year, Bradley and other officials announced a five-year goal of raising $125 million for the program, $25 million each year.
“For that extra $5 million we can build a minimum of another 100 units of affordable housing,” said Patrick Johnson, CEF president, in an interview Monday. “And we expect to do better this year than last year.”
CEF’s theme is: Allow corporations to “do well by doing good.” Corporations receive a return of between 10% to 18% interest on their investments, most of which are in the form of tax credits.
“What I like about the projects I’ve seen is that they work,” said James Montgomery, chairman of Great Western Bank, in an interview Monday. “You visit them a few years later and they still look good. They’re working.”
Most of the projects for 1990 are being built on Skid Row and in low-income areas around downtown and South-Central Los Angeles. Of the three non-Los Angeles projects that are being started this year in California, one is a large hotel in San Diego and two others are smaller projects in Oakland.
Sister Diane Donoghue, executive director of Esperanza Housing, which is based at St. Vincent’s Catholic Church, said ground is expected to be broken on their project next month for 10 three- or four-bedroom homes in South-Central Los Angeles.
Rents will be $332 to $425 on a sliding scale according to income, and families will be chosen according to a process determined by a board that includes a variety of local church and community reprepresentatives, she said.
“There is a boardinghouse right near where we’re breaking ground that charges $400 a month for one room, with a bath down the hall, room for a hot plate and $25 extra for each child,” Donoghue said. That means a family with two children would pay $450.
At Casa Esperanza, she said, a family with two children would be eligible for a three-bedroom apartment at a rent of no more than $425, and probably much less.
Certain rules are set for families accepted into the housing, she said. Among them: active participation in a tenants association and no drugs.
“One of the goals is not just to set up housing, but to try to stabilize a neighborhood,” she said.
Despite the success of the CEF program, it is expected to provide only a small fraction of the need for low-income housing in Los Angeles.
“The mayor is really behind this program,” said Michael Bodaken, the mayor’s housing coordinator.
“But we have a need for about 25,000 new households a year in Los Angeles. We build about 10,000 a year, of which about one-quarter to one-half are affordable. So we have a shortfall of 10,000 to 15,000 units overall, and for low-income people it’s worse.”
He and other officials involved in the program said they are lobbying to maintain federal tax credits for the program, which are renewed annually.
Affordable Housing Funding
In 1990, the California Equity Fund raised $30 million for creation or renovation of affordable housing in the state. Twelve of the 15 projects to be funded are in Los Angeles County. Work is expected to begin on these projects this year:
RESIDENCE ADDRESS UNITS Dunning House 5550-52 Carlton Way 26 Leonide Hotel 512 Main St. 60 St. Mark’s Hotel 611 E. 5th St. 91 Crescent Hotel 617 E. 5th St. 55 Olympia Hotel 1201 E. 7th St. 48 Hart Hotel 508 E. 4th St. 38 Las Americas Hotel 1205 E. 6th St. 60 Casa Esperanza 206 E. 3rd St. 10 Roberta Stevens Villas 27th St./Central Ave. 40 Central Avenue Villas 4051 S. Central Ave. 20 Watson Terrace 6128 S. 11th Ave. 12 Osage Apartments 11128 Osage Ave, Lennox 21
RESIDENCE TYPE Dunning House Family Leonide Hotel Single room occupancy St. Mark’s Hotel Single room occupancy Crescent Hotel Single room occupancy Olympia Hotel Single room occupancy Hart Hotel Single room occupancy Las Americas Hotel Single room occupancy Casa Esperanza Family Roberta Stevens Villas Family Central Avenue Villas Family Watson Terrace Family Osage Apartments Family
SOURCE: California Equity Fund
