LOS ANGELES, Aug. 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Affirmed Housing, a leading provider of affordable housing throughout California, announces the grand opening of Lumina. Located in the Chatsworth neighborhood, Lumina is a new, supportive housing development with onsite services aimed at helping people experiencing homelessness, including formerly unhoused veterans and people with disabilities, transition to more stable lives. It is the first new apartment community for the unhoused in its district and one of the first projects of its kind to be built outside of the city’s southern and metro areas.
State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo remarked, “As the Chair of the Assembly Military and Veteran Affairs Committee, I’m especially proud that my own community of Chatsworth is housing veterans experiencing chronic homelessness. I have been working closely with Lumina to ensure people in our own community, with a focus on veterans, get off the streets and into this permanent housing with the services they need to get them on their feet for the long term. This project exemplifies our commitment to real solutions to homelessness and I’m so proud to have supported this solution from the beginning."
“We have advocated for our veterans with hundreds of mayors in Washington, DC so that they can receive the housing support and services that they deserve while also locking arms with our city partners to bring our unhoused veterans inside and prevent them from falling into homelessness in the first place,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. “Projects like this are an important part of our overall approach to save lives and bring people inside and further the City’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness. The number of people experiencing homelessness has dropped for the first time in years and we remain committed to urgently continuing this progress by bringing more people inside as more affordable and permanent housing is being built.”
Formerly the site of a vacant car lot, Lumina is a five-story development that delivers 54 studio apartments for households earning 30% of the area median income (AMI), with half reserved for unhoused veterans, and one manager unit. Lumina was developed with funding from California’s Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Program (VHHP) and Measure HHH, a $1.2-billion bond that Los Angeles voters overwhelmingly approved for the development of supportive housing for unsheltered individuals and families throughout the city.
“Housing resources, like Lumina, help break cycles of chronic homelessness by combining housing and supportive care and services under one roof,” said Jimmy Silverwood, president of Affirmed Housing. “Lumina is a safe, secure environment where residents can reacclimate and have seamless access to specialized resources that improve their quality of life. Lumina and projects like it that prioritize the health and wellness of occupants enhance lives and make our cities and communities better places to live.”
In addition to housing, Lumina features onsite case managers from The People Concern, who deliver specialized care and guidance to help the formerly unhoused residents build a more solid foundation for a healthy and safe future. Case worker offices are situated on the ground floor in a shared, secured office space, adjacent to a staff break room for easy tenant access. The building includes several shared amenities to encourage community engagement, such as a rooftop deck and nearly 2,000 square feet of ground floor space with bike storage, a laundry room and a large community room with media areas and a kitchen space. Sustainable elements are also incorporated throughout the building, including energy efficient appliances in each studio apartment.
Lumina is situated close to several off-site amenities that foster more independent living. Nearby are a pharmacy, grocery store and a park. Public transportation options are easily accessible, among them are a Metro bus transit stop conveniently located just steps away from the property and the Metro’s Chatsworth Station lies within half a mile.
About Affirmed Housing
Affirmed Housing is a leader in affordable, multifamily housing development, delivering safe, sustainable, high-quality communities for families, veterans, seniors and people experiencing homelessness. The company works with municipalities and private owners throughout California to promote housing stability and neighborhood well-being by leveraging deep expertise in public finance, low-income housing tax credits, and tax-exempt bond finance, as well as site selection, engineering, architecture, construction, relocation and marketing. Since 1992, Affirmed Housing has financed nearly $3 billion in affordable and supportive development, with more than 6,000 apartment units developed or under development in more than 70 communities. To date, Affirmed Housing has completed 22 supportive housing communities with nearly 1,500 apartment homes serving formerly unhoused Californians in operation, and more than 500 supportive homes are in the pipeline or under construction. The company has offices in San Diego and San Jose. Visit: www.affirmedhousing.com.
