L.A. Community Is a Blueprint for Hope

A new multifamily development in Los Angeles shows how quality housing can help transition people out of homelessness while providing them permanent support. Nonprofit organization L.A. Family Housing (LAFH) and Gonzalez Goodale Architects collaborated on the three-story property, named Palo Verde for the site’s newly planted Palo Verde trees. Its 60 studio apartments were designed primarily for formerly homeless single adults living with mental illness, as well as a smaller population of low-income singles, with support-staff offices set aside to provide optional counseling for residents. The handsome structure also sends an invaluable visual message: Housing for this segment need not look different from housing for any other target market. LAFH received a $4.5 million operating subsidy from state funds that offsets general building operating costs.