Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price, Jr. and members of the ownership and development team of the $33 million RISE Apartments met on May 12 to celebrate the grand opening of the project that is located at 4050 South Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles. 

The new permanent supportive housing community will provide much-needed housing for homeless veterans and other homeless individuals earning 30 to 50 percent of the area median income (AMI) who are transitioning into a supportive housing community.

The five-story structure will have one level of subterranean parking and features 56 studio units and one one-bedroom manager’s unit. In designing the community, special elements were taken into account to address livability, comfort, and safety of the residents, as well as the long-term management of the building.  

Units will be fully furnished and include a kitchenette with refrigerator, stove, and microwave. Community amenities will include a community room, a residential courtyard, roof terraces, bike storage, covered parking, onsite management, and laundry facilities.  The building will also provide three supportive services/case management offices to be located on the fourth and fifth floors.

In addition to the residential community, there will be 3,400 square feet of community commercial office space.  This space will be designated for a community serving non-profit, RISE Financial Pathways, which is dedicated to serving low-income clients by providing training that improves the financial standing of individuals, launches and sustains small businesses, and strengthens neighborhoods.

RISE Housing, LP owns the apartment community. Gardena, California-based Highridge Development Company, LLC, and SRO Housing Corporation of Los Angeles are the developers. The general contractor is Alpha Construction Company, Inc., of Van Nuys. The architectural firm is Egan Simon Architecture of Playa del Rey. 

To finance the development, RISE Apartments has been awarded four percent of Low Income Housing Tax Credits from the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (“CTCAC”) which is paired with $16.2MM in Tax Exempt Bonds from the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee (CDLAC).  In addition, RISE has received an award for $9,500,000 million in Proposition HHH funding and $2,500,000 of the City’s Low and Moderate Income Housing Fund (“LMIHF”) from the Los Angeles Housing + Community Investment Department (HCIDLA), $1,008,000 in AHP funds from the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB), as well as a commitment for 42 VASH Project Based Vouchers and 14 Project Based Vouchers from the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA).

“RISE Apartments is one of a handful of permanent supportive housing (PSH) facilities opening in District 9 this year with nearly 900 total units scheduled for completion by 2022,” said Councilmember Curren Price, who represents District 9 where RISE Apartments is located. “While there is no shortage of need in our communities, these upcoming developments create life-changing opportunities for our most vulnerable, including our veterans that will reside at RISE where they will receive the care, attention and support to lift them up to create a more promising future.”

“The RISE Apartments is SRO Housing Corporation's first development outside of downtown Los Angeles and we could not have selected a better partner than Highridge Costa.  We are committed to addressing the dire affordable housing needs in Los Angeles and the RISE Apartments is just the beginning,” said Anita Nelson of SRO Housing.

“Given the severe lack of housing for our homeless veterans, we at Highridge Costa take tremendous pride in our ability to create high quality, safe and affordable places to live for those who selflessly served our country. We feel very fortunate that our ‘work’ creates such good for so many lives,” said Michael Costa, President and CEO of Highridge Costa.

 “We would like to thank all of the organizations and people who worked together, and the vital roles they played, to develop this affordable apartment community for the homeless, including our deserving veterans. Yet another example of a successful public-private partnership to create affordable housing” said Mohannad H. Mohanna, President of Highridge Costa, Development. 

For more information, visit www.housingpartners.com.

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