Homeless housing and services tower opens in Los Angeles

Homeless housing and services tower opens in Los Angeles

The lives of nearly 300 people will soon be changed thanks to the opening of a new apartment tower in central Los Angeles that was built to help those experiencing homelessness.

Weingart Tower 1A, a 19-story, 278-unit apartment and services building opened on June 19 to provide permanent supportive housing for homeless people in L.A.'s Central City East neighborhood, infamously known as Skid Row. The roughly $164 million project, financed in part through Nationwide's affordable housing tax credit program, is phase one of a two-phase project that is providing hope, options and wrap-around services to help the city's unhoused break the cycle of homelessness.

"When I was homeless it was like a little dark hole," Amya Backa, one of the tower's new residents told KABC-TV on the day of the tower's opening. "I went from being in that hole to just coming out, like, it's a lot of love and support out here … I'm so speechless right now."

Weingart Tower 1A is the first of two apartment towers planned for the neighborhood. When completed, Weingart Tower 1A and Weingart Tower 1B will offer a combined mix of 382 studio and one-bedroom apartment units to people transitioning out of homelessness. Tenants will be able to use vouchers from the Housing Authority of Los Angeles and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing. The development is funded by multiple public and private organizations, including the city of Los Angeles and the state of California.

"The whole concept of this building is to serve the whole individual," said Jim Andersen, chief development officer of the project's development company, Chelsea Investment Corporation, at the building's opening ceremony. "Not just give them a bed and a sink and a shower, but a place to grow and live and heal and express themselves and really rejoin and reenter active life. It's a place to grow, live and heal."

In addition to apartment units, the tower also provides on-site medical and mental health services, substance use counseling, legal and benefits counseling, life skills and wellness classes, job training, employment assistance, educational support and other services. Additionally, each residential unit includes household essentials, such as pots, pans, cutlery, bedding and towels, that will help residents get started in their new environments.

"Weingart Tower's unique approach of providing both housing and social services is what attracted us to this project," said Nationwide Chief Investment Officer Joel Coleman. "We hope the addition of those on-site services means residents will have the tools they need to successfully transition away from homelessness."

Projects like Weingart Tower are rare, he added,because of the economic challenges presented for developers. Nationwide's ongoing commitment to invest in underserved communities through its Affordable Housing Tax Credit platform helps make projects like Weingart Tower feasible.

Weingart Tower is expected to be fully occupied by September.

For more information about Nationwide's efforts to promote affordable housing, read Nationwide's 2023 Corporate Sustainability report.