A 66-unit affordable housing development next to Selma Elementary reached a major milestone recently and is headed for a 2016 completion, developers announced Thursday.
Mayor Eric Garcetti joined Los Angeles Unified School District officials to celebrate the “topping off” of construction for Selma Communities Housing.
Representatives of Abode Communities, the project developer, said “podium-level” construction that includes the underground parking facility has been completed.
Construction on the project began in December 2014 and is expected to be completed by June 2016.
The project — built on a district-owned site under a 66-year ground lease — will be “permanently” affordable. It will house school district employees and families earning 30 to 60 percent of the area’s median income.
The building will have 117 parking spaces, with 50 spaces available during the day for school staff parking, which officials said will open up spaces in an area with scarce parking.
Los Angeles Unified School District Board President Steve Zimmer said he is “overjoyed to partake in this joint-venture with Abode Communities,” noting that there is “an urgent need for affordable housing in our city.”
Garcetti said more partnerships such as this are needed “to better leverage our limited resources to ensure these units are affordable to Angelenos at all income levels.”
He said it will help bring the city closer to his goal of getting 100,000 new housing units built by 2021. The city already has 25,000 units “in the pipeline,” he said.
Abode Communities President Robin Hughes said their mission is to “address the growth and disparity between affordable rents and working-wage incomes.”
“LAUSD’s land contribution is supporting a national model of how public and private partnerships can be leveraged to maximize resources and revitalize communities in need of affordable housing,” Hughes said.
The project benefited from $32.9 million in financing through public and private sources and was one of the last projects of the now-dissolved city of Los Angeles community redevelopment agency.
— City News Service