Thanks to Congressman Tony Cardenas, this past week Penny Lane Centers was awarded $400,000 to assist tenants in our permanent housing project find jobs that do more than provide subsistence level wages. The goal is to help these deserving people find jobs that are occupations and align with some of their aspirations that they may have at one point in life given up on due to their circumstances. The staff employed by this funding will work directly with tenants day to day to truly transform their lives through better employment and by extension a greater sense of self dignity.
In addition to the $400,000, Abbey Road was awarded $1 million to refurbish a number of apartments currently used for housing for Transition Age Youth (TAY). These apartments were built in the 1940s so this money will help to modernize the apartments, improve the efficiency of water and power usage, ensure compliance with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and create a location where these young people who have been through so much already in their lives can be proud to call their home.
We have footings and are getting ready to pour the slab. Our drone footage gives you a birds eye view of the progress Bernards has made over the last month!!
Sun Commons continues to make progress. We are nearly finished with the exterior building stucco and are starting on our site work as well as our offsite (street improvement) work. We are also moving along on the inside of the units. Drywall is hung and we are manufacturing our cabinets for installation in the interior of the units. We are finalizing our lease up criteria and getting sign offs from all of our funders on our Tenant Selection Plan..
We will be sending out the lease up requirements as soon as we are finished in the hopes that some of your clients will find more affordable housing options at Sun Commons!
These two developments have just received their Phase 2 entitlement approvals from LA City Planning. Now we are in funding mode. So far both projects have HHH funding through the City of LA and The Rigby was awarded funding from the Los Angeles County Development Authority. We are putting together combined Multifamily Housing Program and Infill Infrastructure Grant applications for State financing through the Department of Housing & Community Development for both projects. We are moving these projects forward and expect to be breaking ground on The Rigby toward the end of next year followed 6-10 months later by The Main.
Abbey Road is continuing to look for our next two to three projects as well.
