AHF and its Healthy Housing Foundation hosted a groundbreaking and dedication ceremony on Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, January 16, 2022 to showcase their ongoing commitment to eradicate homelessness in L.A. and across the country. The new building, the “Renaissance Center” will be comprised of a 216-unit, 15-story modular high-rise which will serve as housing for extremely-low-income and formerly homeless individuals.
The Renaissance Center will become the 13th affordable housing site in the Los Angeles area that Healthy Housing Foundation has purchased and will repurpose as homeless or extremely-low-income housing since late 2017 when AHF first kicked off its housing program. Healthy Housing Foundation also has plans to build new affordable housing units in Ft. Lauderdale, FL near its AHF Southern Bureau Headquarters.
Notable speakers including AHF President Michael Weinstein, City Council Member Kevin de Leon, Sue Himmelrich Mayor of Santa Monica, and many others participated in the dedication. The ceremony was timed to honor Martin Luther King Day and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of housing justice advocacy. Housing for people of color, more specifically Black Americans, has been an ongoing issue for several decades. To date, more than half of Black Americans don’t own homes. This shows that discriminatory housing laws and practices continue to be a huge challenge.
“Today’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new 216 unit “Renaissance Center”, represents another milestone in the history of AHF,” said Cynthia Davis, MPH, Domestic Vice-Chair, AHF Board of Directors. “The fact that we are holding this ceremony, while also commemorating Martin Luther King Day, is a testament to AHF’s vision to ‘Fight For What Is Right’ while working tirelessly to end homelessness in Los Angeles County. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an advocate fighting for the civil and human rights of the disenfranchised, the poor, and the homeless; AHF is continuing his legacy of advocacy with the construction of the new Renaissance Center.”
AHF launched Healthy Housing Foundation in 2017 to address the rampant affordable housing crisis sweeping the nation by providing fast, easy, and compassionate access to affordable housing with a focus on addressing the needs of low-income individuals, struggling families, youth, and those living with chronic illness.
Click here to see more photos of the ceremony.