Pacoima : Housing Complex for Seniors to Be Built

A new 75-unit affordable housing complex for low-income senior citizens will be built in Pacoima by a Los Angeles nonprofit group, housing officials announced Thursday.

The Pacoima project and several others in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, will be developed using $43 million in grant funds awarded this week to nonprofit housing developers by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The funds were authorized last year for spending during the current fiscal year, said a U.S. Senate staffer who follows housing issues. The grants were made available to nonprofit housing developers on a competitive basis.

The $6-million Pacoima project, to be constructed on a vacant lot behind the Multi-Purpose Senior Center on Glenoaks Boulevard, will be built by the East Los Angeles Community Union. The project is the group’s first in the San Fernando Valley, said Kristin Morrish, the organization’s vice president.

The nonprofit group also received a HUD grant to develop affordable housing in Monterey Park, Morrish said.

Other local nonprofit organizations awarded funds by HUD this week include the Salvation Army, which will use a grant of more than $6 million to develop or renovate senior housing in Glendale, and the Crippled Children’s Society in Pasadena, which received a $372,500 grant.

Acceptance of the grants requires owners to restrict occupancy to low-income residents or residents with disabilities for the first 40 years of operation, housing officials said. The grant funds come as Congress debates the future of other affordable housing programs affecting thousands of low- and fixed-income tenants in Los Angeles and other parts of the nation.

“The grants were good news in general for affordable housing in Los Angeles,” said the Senate staffer. “But for many other low-income tenants, this has little impact.”