Nonprofit developer Linc Housing has opened Atlas, a 127-unit affordable and supportive housing community in Los Angeles. The new property features 60 one-bedroom homes for people who have been chronically homeless and 66 more units for individuals at risk of losing their housing.
Named after the Atlas butterfly, the community is Linc’s first completed Project Homekey development in the region. Homekey is the State of California’s program to remake underused properties into long-term affordable and supportive housing.
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Amenities at Atlas include a community room with computer stations, case management offices, long-term bicycle parking, outdoor courtyards, laundry facilities and rooftop deck.
Stabilizing rents and lives
Before it was transformed into Atlas, the structure at 1650 Florence Avenue in Los Angeles had been a recently-constructed yet uninhabited market rate apartment building. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles worked with the city and state to acquire the building with State Homekey funding, and it also provided project-based Section 8 vouchers that insure rent stability.
Many of Atlas’s residents came to the development via the Los Angeles County Coordinated Entry System and Los Angeles County’s Department of Health Services’ Housing for Health program. That initiative delivers funding for wraparound services for formerly homeless residents. Housing for Health also runs a Homeless Prevention Unit that leverages predictive analytics to pinpoint and aid individuals who are likely to descend into homelessness.
Services include mental and physical health care, substance use and employment counseling, job placement, education, financial coaching and community referrals. About 35 people were referred via this effort.
All residents also benefit from case coordination, health and wellness programs alongside workforce and financial development workshops.
Three months ago, Linc Housing broke ground on its latest scattered-site project in Eureka, Calif. The development, taking shape at the site of three vacant, city-owned properties, will contribute a quarter of its units to the city’s affordable housing plan.
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