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Garcetti Joins Leaders To Celebrate Opening Of Supportive Housing Facility In South LA

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -- Officials celebrated the opening of Residences On Main, a 49-unit housing facility in South Los Angeles on Friday to provide affordable shelter to families and young adults in need.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti joined housing advocacy representatives with the Coalition for Responsible Community, L.A. Family Housing and Development, and South L.A. councilman Curren Price in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Garcetti Residences on Main
Photo by: Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti

"This neighborhood is a great neighborhood and it's always had great stories,'' Garcetti said. "But it's closed off too many of those stories for too long because of a city that turned its back on the people and the areas that had so much hope.''

Of the 49 units on the formerly condemned property located at 6901 S. Main St., thirty-six are for people between 18 and 25, Fourteen units are set aside for homeless families earning between 30% and 50% of area median income, and one additional unit is reserved on the property for the manager.

Residences On Main is equipped with a full security system, community garden, courtyard, playground for children, computer lab and space for bicycles, according to the Coalition for Responsible Community.

"It feels amazing to be standing here at this beautiful building, knowing that it's already making a significant impact on the lives of individuals who will be living here,'' said Councilman Curren Price. "This is what we envisioned, building an unshakable foundation with pillars of strength that will allow individuals to fulfill their promise, the courage to blaze their own trails and to find their calling in life.''

Tenants of the newly opened facility, who are formerly unhoused families and transitional-aged youth, will pay 30% of their income toward rent each month, Garcetti's office said.

"What's really exciting to me ... is that this project will bring or allow the young people that are on our streets, once unhoused, to have an opportunity to live in their own unit,'' said Mark Wilson, CEO of the Coalition for Responsible Community.

Rent subsidies will be provided by the County Department of Health Services Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool program and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles through Project Based Section 8 vouchers.

Nearly half of the approximately 4,800 homeless people in Price's South L.A. district live on the streets rather than in shelters, Price said.

Councilman Price said the housing facility is the first completed permanent supportive housing complex in his 9th District, and his district secured $90 million to build another 900 units in five complexes, anticipated to be completed by the end of 2021.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)

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