This mixed-income community is helping ease LA’s housing crisis

According to the County of Los Angeles, roughly half a million additional affordable housing units are needed to meet the demand of low-income renters within its borders. “The surge in housing costs, decades of underdevelopment, and socioeconomic disparities, alongside insufficient affordable housing options, have led to more than 75,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in LA County,” says Audrey Peterson, director of real estate development at Holos Communities, a nonprofit developer that is committed to providing housing for all people. “The city has various avenues to address this situation, not only in affordable housing but also in market-rate housing.”

Traditionally, programs for low-income residents make it difficult for beneficiaries to grow financially because they lose program benefits once they make more money, which thrusts them back into a housing market they can’t yet afford. A more inclusive solution could enable low-income individuals to achieve economic mobility without risking their housing subsidies because of increased income. For individuals with a higher socioeconomic status, the same strategy could help them better navigate seasons of financial difficulty.

To address these issues, Holos takes a holistic approach to affordable housing and embraces sustainability, design excellence, and equity. A prime example of the developer’s work is Corazón Del Valle (CDV) in the LA neighborhood of Panorama City, which opened last year. Composed of three curving, mid-rise towers connected by an elevated courtyard, the development is the nonprofit’s largest project to date with 180 households. The podium also hosts a neighborhood clinic operated by the San Fernando Community Health Center (SFCHC), which will be open to both CDV tenants and the public.

Core to Holos’ ethos is limiting concentrations of poverty in single developments and creating environments indistinguishable from market-rate housing for individuals and families earning a range of incomes. Half of CDV’s households are studio and one-bedroom permanent supportive units, meaning they combine affordability with services for people with mental or physical health issues, or a history of homelessness or instability. The other half, mostly two- and three- bedroom units, is general affordable housing for low-income families. Affordability in the context of housing means that it costs less than 30% of tenants’ annual income. As of 2023, the threshold below which a family of four will be classified as low-income in LA is $100,900 per year.

In addition to affordability and community resilience, the project sets a high bar for environmental performance. “CDV embodies the housing and equity aspect of our mission while also meeting the organization’s sustainability goals,” Peterson says. The curved towers facilitate airflow through the courtyards, where shade structures and plantings provide additional cooling effects and make for a pleasant environment. A 288-panel solar array is designed to produce 203,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year and a backup system will power critical services in the event of a grid outage. A greywater reclamation system irrigates the landscaping, recycling as much as 72,000 gallons of water per year. CDV is also one of the county’s many cooling centers—an air-conditioned space where vulnerable members of the community can shelter during heat waves.

CDV emerged through a request for proposals by the County of Los Angeles in 2018. Originally planned with a relatively low density of 120 apartments, the community wound up calling for more. “We and our partners attended over 20 community outreach meetings and talked with over 200 people,” Peterson says. “The voice of the community was heard loud and clear. Neighbors wanted more units, something rarely heard, and we were able to increase the unit count by 30 percent.”

This presented Holos and the design team with a unique challenge and opportunity. Adding more units to the project complicated matters due to county and state regulations in place at the time that restricted funding to smaller developments. To deliver on the community’s request for more households, Holos decided to split CDV into two 90-unit buildings: CDV I and CDV II.

This bifurcated approach presented some inconveniences. For example, the team had to separate all critical systems, contracts, and operational procedures to ensure they functioned independently. But it also allowed Holos to pursue separate financing rounds for each building, expediting the process and securing a greater influx of county and state dollars without requiring additional funding sources beyond tax credits. This was all behind the scenes, however. To tenants and the public, CDV appears and functions as a single haven of affordable living—just bigger and better than it might have been otherwise.

“Our vision to offer a diverse range of housing options that cater to households with varying socioeconomic backgrounds and sizes has really come to life here at Corazón del Valle,” Peterson says. “The project serves a range of tenants from single individuals on social security to those community members entering the workforce as an office manager, teacher’s assistant, or secretary.” The community clinic also makes the project a bringer of health and well-being to the neighborhood.

“Corazón del Valle is exactly what it says it is—the heart of the valley—not only because of its location within the San Fernando Valley but also because this project will change lives,” said California Assemblywoman Luz Rivas in a funding presentation for the SFCHC satellite clinic. “This center is one of a kind—a place where people can live and receive much-needed healthcare.”

Looking ahead, Peterson is optimistic about the impact of CDV and its potential to inspire other developers. “We are hopeful that it will benefit the community and inspire other affordable housing developers to create projects that combat climate crisis, homelessness, and racial inequity.”