In honor of Veterans Day, California leaders announced $125 million in grant awards for the sixth round of funding of the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program (VHHP).
These awards will help 12 organizations to construct 16 properties with 861 affordable housing units across the state to serve veterans and their families, people experiencing homelessness, and seniors. Most of the homes are estimated to be completed within the next three years.
Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared at one of the funded sites—the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Campus—to discuss the significance of the VHHP program, which is administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development in collaboration with the California Department of Veterans Affairs and the California Housing Finance Agency.
The state has the highest homeless population in the country at 161,548, including 11,401 veterans, according to “The 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.”
Several VHHP-awarded organizations have more than one project in the works. The Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) received $15.5 million for two phases on one site, the largest award in terms of unit count with 245 homes. Its First Street North Apartments was renamed as such after the Los Angeles City Council approved expanding its footprint from 77 to 245 affordable and supportive homes. Sixty-three of the homes will be for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
“This part of town has always been the heart of Little Tokyo,” said Takao Suzuki, director of community development at LTSC, of the new apartments. The center’s plans for the mixed-use, transit-oriented development also include more than 40,000 square feet of commercial spaces for legacy small businesses as well as arts and cultural spaces that enhance the neighboring Union Center for the Arts, home to the oldest Asian American theater group in the country.
Suzuki added, “Because of gentrification, it feels like we have significantly less dedicated spaces for legacy businesses. With the increased anti-Asian sentiment taking place in America due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we feel that having a more positive and visible project is a good way to pay tribute and assert our presence in our community. Telling the story of [First Street North] allows us to weave in a narrative that educates and challenges what we’re going through as a community.”
Eight projects in Los Angeles County will be awarded in this round of funding, totaling more than $73 million in grant funds and 313 total veteran-specific units built.
In Northern California, nonprofit Satellite Affordable Housing Associates received two awards for developments in Pinole and Pleasant Hill, both in Contra Costa County.
The next round of VHHP will be released in early 2022 as part of the new streamlined application process, per AB 434, that allows applicants to select more than one funding source and receive awards from those sources at the same time.
To learn more, please view award list and visit the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program webpage.
