(Editor’s note: Part I of this story ran last night. Tonight, CTN tries to find out how many of the 600 luxury apartments will go to the homeless.)
The West Edge will have 600 luxury apartments.
The West Edge, formerly Martin Expo Town Center, formerly Martin Cadillac received City approval to build 163,000 square feet of office space, 600 luxury apartments, a fitness center, eight restaurants and an open-air plaza in 2016.
Planning and Land Use Management committee chair Jose Huizar (in custody) and Councilman Mike Bonin, who agreed with Huizar that the deal should bypass the PLUM committee, took the vote straight to City Council, which approved it 12-0.
Construction, which started in 2019, is at the corner of Bundy and Olympic in West L.A. and is a block from the Metro’s Expo/Bundy station and about the same distance from the 10 Freeway, where it connects to the 405 Freeway.
Councilman Mike Bonin
Bonin in an April 2021 tweet said, “People are living and dying on our streets. All over the city, people are demanding urgent action. That means we need a broad menu of solutions — projects, programs, policies — and we need to put them in place all over the city, including the Westside.”
West Edge is being developed by Hines, USAA Real Estate and Philena Properties (Martin family).
Circling the News emailed Hines corporate and also Councilman Mike Bonin’s director of communication Erica Campbell, and asked, “Of the 600 luxury apartments, how many will go to lower income and how many will go to the homeless?”
Hines Senior Publicist Madison (ULM) Przywara responded in an August 8 email that “20 percent of the units (121 out of 600) are set aside for Very Low Income and Workforce housing.”
Przywara explained that to qualify for very low income, a single person would have to make $41,700 or below. She also said that they partnered with the People Concern, which helps place formerly homeless.
Workforce housing seems to be a relatively new term and focuses on housing built to serve families that have income levels between the true affordable housing options and luxury housing.
It is defined as those who earn between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income. The AMI in Los Angeles is $91,000, so that means those luxury apartments would go to people who earn between $72,800 and $109,200.
CTN emailed Przywara and Campbell back and asked of the 121 units are many are set aside for homeless, how many for very low income and how many for workforce housing?
Przywara responded on August 10, “I am still working on getting your responses to the questions. I will try to get you something as soon as I can.”
Bonin’s representative has not responded.
As soon as CTN finds out how many of the luxury apartments will go to the homeless, we will update the story.
Sue, who of us would know this without you? Thank you. (Appreciated even though it’s bound to be a depressing response as well as a “Somehow missing” project? And thank you in advance that you will report on that, too!)
You go girl. Don’t let go.
It would be interesting to know if the developer or his representative contributed to Bonin or Bonin’s campaign fund, or to anything else of benefit to Bonin.
I’m not clear about this. Are they apartments with rent required or condos with mortgages? Will the workforce units require a lower payment? Will the designated homeless units require payment or no payment at all? Lumping the two groupings together allows for vagueness about the number of units for each category.
Have they announced when people can apply for units? Where can one see on the internet what is being offered?
Thank you for your reporting.