LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A Los Angeles City Council Committee approved a proposal Wednesday to develop an affordable housing project in Lincoln Heights that has been eight years in the making.

What You Need To Know

  • The five-member Housing and Homelessness Committee voted unanimously to reinstate a contract and leasing agreement with the nonprofit Women Organizing Resources Knowledge and Services and GTM Holdings to develop five sites
  • However, only one site, the Grace Villas Project, is currently moving forward
  • The remaining four sites are anticipated to move forward at a later date, according to a report from the Housing Department
  • Grace Villas will include 48 units for low-income families, with 22 of those units reserved to special-needs households

The five-member Housing and Homelessness Committee voted unanimously to reinstate a contract and leasing agreement with the nonprofit Women Organizing Resources Knowledge and Services and GTM Holdings to develop five sites.

However, only one site, the Grace Villas Project located at 216-224 S. Avenue 24 slightly east of Dodger Stadium, is currently moving forward. The remaining four sites are anticipated to move forward at a later date, according to a report from the Housing Department.

Those other four sites have additional “due diligence items related to the LADOT existing parking spaces that are in the process of further evaluation,” the report says.

The motion authorizes the general managers of the Housing Department and Department of Transportation to reinstate the contract with the developers for one year, expiring on Aug. 4, 2024.

Grace Villas will include 48 units for low-income families, with 22 of those units reserved to special-needs households.

In June 2016, the city administrative office released a request for proposals seeking to develop five sites owned by the Department of Transportation. The goal was to “maximize the use of public land for the development of affordable housing,” the Housing Department noted.

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In 2017, the City Council and then-Mayor Eric Garcetti authorized the Housing Department to enter and execute a contract with Women Organizing Resources Knowledge and Services and GTM Holdings.

The project was put on hold as the city and developers identified key terms and conditions of the contract. Once those terms were agreed upon, the project was further held up as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Planning Department continued the process to develop the project in December 2022, and approved a land use entitlement to allow the site to be developed through the Transit Oriented Communities Program.

Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council agreed to move the Grace Villas project into the Affordable Housing Managed Pipeline in April, and the project received a funding award of $5.7 million in June.

The project will now head to the full council at a later date for consideration.