Ground Broken for Affordable Homes

Acknowledging 13 years of fund-raising help from Jerry and Pam Offsay, the L.A. Family Housing Corp. kicked off construction Sunday of Offsay/Steinhauser Village, a 15-family affordable-housing complex.

The complex, the first facility built by the housing group in three years, was named after the Offsays’ parents.

“Our parents were, and are, simple people,” said Jerry Offsay, a producer with Showtime Networks. “They didn’t have much money, but they made things work.”

The Offsays and about 50 other guests walked on the graded site at Victory Boulevard and Greenbush Avenue and listened as David Grunwald, L.A. Housing’s chief executive, described the development.

Nine two-bedroom units and six three-bedroom units will house 15 formerly homeless families. The development, which will cost under $2 million, will also feature a community recreation room, laundry facilities and a gated parking garage.

Five agencies, including the Los Angeles Housing Department, helped pay for the complex, which will have monthly rents of between $350 and $600.

The project is expected to be completed by September.

Based in North Hollywood, the L.A. Family Housing Corp. has developed 13 other affordable-housing complexes throughout the city. The Offsay/Steinhauser Village is the first such project in Valley Glen.

The corporation also helps more than 12,000 people each year through its shelters and transitional-living programs in North Hollywood and Boyle Heights.

Los Angeles County has about 75,000 homeless people at any given time, according to housing officials.

L.A. Family Housing has a waiting list of more than 2,000 families and has plans to build 1,500 housing units over the next 10 years in East and South-Central Los Angeles, said Daniel Howard, chairman of L.A. Family Housing’s board of directors.