Los Angeles taxpayers have forked over $165 million for a luxury homeless shelter that includes skyline views.
The 19-story building, which has 228 studies and 50 one-bedroom units, is part of a three-building project to support homeless adults, the Los Angeles Times reports. Each unit costs about $600,000.
The Weingart Center Tower also features a host of amenities.
Besides a floor of offices for case workers, conference rooms and property managers, the tower boasts a gym, an art room, a soundproofed music room, a computer room/library, a TV lounge, six common balconies, four of them with dog runs, and a ground floor cafe with a two-story glass wall facing a courtyard.
The music and art rooms were included to facilitate programming by outside organizations. [...]
Each room — 228 studios and 50 one-bedroom apartments — has its own TV, and the cafe will also bring residents together on movie nights. [...]
The concept is to have a campus that is inward focused — encouraging its 700 or so residents, when all three buildings are completed, to isolate from the influences outside, while also bringing a flavor of the Westside to the rest of Skid Row. (Los Angeles Times)
Financing for the project largely came from Proposition HHH, a supportive-housing program voters approved in 2016.
“I see the tower as providing a great need, a great housing need in Skid Row and a design that says poor residents are worthy,” Pete White, executive director of the Skid Row advocacy group Los Angeles Community Action Network, told the LA Times.
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L.A. just opened a luxury high-rise building equipped with a gym, an art room, a music room and a library for homeless people on your dime. pic.twitter.com/M05V3cBUqK
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) June 20, 2024
A new 19-story high-rise in Skid Row, built to house the homeless, has opened to mixed reactions. With a staggering $600,000-per-unit cost, the project includes amenities like a gym, lounge, and cafe.
— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) June 19, 2024
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/ML9XTBxEUQ
From LATimes: Los Angeles’ Skid Row getting a 19-story 165-million, taxpayer-funded high rise with homeless condos that includes gym, cafe and art studio.
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) June 5, 2024
At a time when ordinary residence are having trouble paying for their mortgage, insurance, rent, and taxes, individuals who… pic.twitter.com/4rI0CoQYFz
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