The Skid Row Housing Trust was an admired nonprofit developer known for housing many of Los Angeles' most vulnerable residents. The organization is now in jeopardy after a series of regulatory setbacks, operating losses, and other troubles, according to Los Angeles Times reporters Doug Smith and Benjamin Oreskes.
"A Times examination found that the implosion of the celebrated housing nonprofit was a long time coming. The trust was undone in part by a challenging financing model for the housing stock it set out to save — single room occupancy buildings that it had bought over a period of 30 years to preserve them as low-income housing," says their article.
"Through the years, the costs of keeping these buildings habitable only grew as a profoundly vulnerable residential population prone to substance use disorder and other impairments caused damage and chaos. Financial mismanagement and little stable leadership worsened problems."
The story shares that one nonprofit developer describes Skid Row Housing Trust's troubles as one of the industry's "worst-kept secrets," and others say it has led to soul-searching within other housing nonprofits.
Click on the link below to read the article.
Affordable housing industry leaders stress to Affordable Housing Finance that the troubles at Skid Row Housing Trust are not representative of the industry, which has a strong, successful record of building and investing in permanent supportive housing for people who have been homeless. The Los Angeles Times recently published an editorial with additional perspective.
"The trust’s downfall is not a result of its permanent supportive housing model, which relies on housing people first then providing them support services — case managers, therapists and other health professionals," reads the editorial.
