The cost of living in the United States is at an all-time high. Rents continue to skyrocket to unreachable heights for middle and working-class Americans. As we watch the housing crisis trend in the wrong direction, the most egregious example of homelessness resides in California. In the state, 161,548 people are homeless on a given night.
At the epicenter of California’s crisis is Los Angeles, where the average rental price is $2,563—$1,000 more than the national average. At AIDS Healthcare Foundation, part of our longstanding call for accountability is reminding people that there is NO shortage of housing in California and beyond.
There is, however, a shameful shortage of affordable housing. That is why AHF developed the Healthy Housing Foundation to address the housing crisis in Los Angeles and other cities with high homeless rates. Since its inception in 2017, HHF has worked to house the homeless. Continuing its mission to ‘provide decent housing units at an affordable cost to low-income people, including families with children and those previously unsheltered or homeless,’ HHF has created 1,204 affordable units for low-income individuals using the adaptive reuse model of renovation.
Through adaptive reuse, HHF converts and repurposes old hotels into affordable housing units, proving that the model is a speedy and cost-effective way to provide homes to people in need. On January 16th, HHF broke ground on the Renaissance Center. A 216-unit, 15-story building to house low and extremely low-income individuals. And projected to open in 2024, HHF recently announced its first property, Biscayne House in Miami, FL as AHF’s next repurposed affordable housing unit. To learn more about the Healthy Housing Foundation and get involved to eradicate homelessness, visit healthyhousingfoundation.net or email Dominique Eastman at [email protected].