Habitat for Humanity Breaks Ground on First Affordable Housing in Culver City

CULVER CITY, CA - It was a moment 11 years in the making -- the groundbreaking of an affordable housing project in Culver City.

Habitat for Humanity Greater Los Angeles broke ground Wednesday in the 4000 block of Globe Avenue in Culver City, its second housing development on the Westside. When completed there will be 10 single-family homes built there.

"We are excited to be working with the city of Culver City on this development," Habitat L.A. president and CEO Erin Rank said. "There are many hard-working families and individuals in this area that will benefit from our work."

Work started to bring affordable housing to Culver City started in 2005, former Culver City Mayor Scott Malsin said.

Around that time, the property on Globe Avenue became available. Caltrans was completing work on the I-405 widening project and needed to sell the property. By law, it can only sell the land for the creation of affordable housing, Malsin said.

Habitat L.A. became involved through a meeting at the Sony Picture Entertainment studio lot during a groundbreaking event for the studio's expansion project.

"I said, 'We need to get these people involved,'" Malsin said. "This is exactly right up their alley and the right fit for the neighborhood."

Neighbors, however, needed some convincing. The project should have been built by 2006, however, objections to the project were vehement. Neighbors were concerned about declining property values and crimes.

There was a misunderstanding about what affordable housing means, Mayor Micheál O'Leary said.

"There's a wrong way to do affordable housing -- the old way of doing it," he said. The "old way" was to build a housing project and bring in low-income people to the area.

"This caused the area to become crime-ridden," he said. What affordable housing is now is bringing people match that the demographic of the area but can't otherwise afford to live there.

"We don't want the children to grow up feeling stigmatized," O'Leary said.

Culver City is one of the more affluent cities in Los Angeles County. The median income for the average household is $82,582.

But to qualify for one of the homes, the family must make around the median income for county, which is around $53,000, accoding to the Census.

Someone making that amount in the county is going to have a hard time owning a home, Rank said.

Over time, with the work of several councilmembers, the neighbors warmed to the idea, partly because the issue had dragged on for so long that the buildings on the property fell into disrepair and deteriorated. The buildings have since been razed and only the dirt lot remained.

"They were glad to see the buildings gone," O'Leary said.

With the neighbors placated, there was still one more wrinkle to iron out. In 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown dissolved all redevelopment agencies and it took a few more years to transfer the property back to the city, O'Leary said.

In all, the project was delayed by 11 years, but the city is making good on its commitment to affordable housing. Culver City is waiving all permits, which saves Habitat L.A. around $200,000, according to O'Leary.

Even though the groundbreaking was Wednesday, the actual construction will begin at the end of this year and the homes finished by Spring 2017.