Homeless Housing Fast-Track Helped Speed Up Hollywood Project's Opening: City Officials

HOLLYWOOD, CA — A new 62-unit apartment building for homeless seniors will welcome tenants later this month and officials say the two years it took to build demonstrates how the city is working to accelerate the pace of addressing the region's housing crisis.

Located at Kenmore and Santa Monica avenues in East Hollywood, The Wilcox's construction began in October 2021. Building was accelerated in December after Mayor Karen Bass signed executive directive No. 1, meant to speed up and lower the cost of construction of affordable housing projects, officials said Monday.

"This is what urgency looks like. Approval process that used to take six months now takes 47 days. Other projects that weren't going to be ready until 2025 are going to come online next year," Bass said. "And let me be clear, when we save time, we save lives."

Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, who represents the 13th District which includes East Hollywood, said he could not be more happy to open the building in his district.

"This is an example of the kind of policy that we know works," Soto- Martinez said. "What does not work is shuffling people from block to block, hoping that one day they're going to get into housing."

The city is faced with a need to build another 456,000 new units of housing (including 184,000 affordable units) in order to meet state mandates, Councilmember Nithya Raman said.

City News Service contributed to this report.