Celebrating Innovative Housing for the Homeless
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas awarded a scroll recognizing an honor bestowed upon the Skid Row Housing Trust, whose Star Apartments project made it to TIME Magazine’s list of the 25 Best Inventions of 2015.
“Enhancing the pipeline of quality affordable housing for all residents, especially our most vulnerable, has become one of the most pressing issues of our time,” Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said. “The homeless crisis that exists in Los Angeles County requires a bold new vision and Star Apartments is a defining example of what can and must be done.”
TIME Magazine noted that most housing projects for the homeless tend to look like warehouses but that’s not the case with Star Apartments, designed by architect Michael Maltzan.
Completed in 2014 along a border of Skid Row, it features 102 prefabricated studios ingeniously stacked atop a medical clinic on the ground floor, as well as a Health and Wellness Center with a garden and outdoor running track on the second floor.
The Trust’s CEO Mike Alvidrez said Star Apartments represents “tremendous innovation happening in our own backyard.” He added, “We are happy to be able to effectuate solutions to homelessness right here in Los Angeles County to the admiration of the rest of the country.”
A nonprofit organization, the Trust is one of the largest providers of permanent supportive housing in Southern California, maintaining more than 1,800 units at 26 locations. It built Star Apartments with support from the public and private sectors, including $400,000 in funding from the Office of Supervisor Ridley-Thomas.
Star Apartments serves as the headquarters of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services’ Housing for Health program, which identifies frequent users of the public health system and puts them in permanent supportive housing. By putting a roof over their heads, and providing them with much-needed medical and psychiatric care, the program helps people avoid multiple costly trips to the E.R. and enables them to attain greater levels of stability, independence and economic security.
