CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 7, 2013 | By Gale Holland
A sleek apartment complex opened Thursday in the heart of skid row, offering what backers hope will be a beacon for the neighborhood's homeless residents and a portal to an increasingly revitalized east side of downtown Los Angeles. The $28-million Gateways Apartments, at the corner of 5th and San Pedro streets, has amenities such as an open-air atrium, solar panels and a smoking lounge with its own filtration system. The eye-catching design contrasts sharply with the more institutional facades of the nearby homeless shelters.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 25, 2013 | By Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times
Officials released the results of a pilot program Tuesday described as the Match.com of homeless services, designed to get the sickest, most endangered people off the streets and sidewalks of skid row for good. The 100-day project brought 20 government and nonprofit agencies together to build a computerized data-gathering and management system to quickly place hard-core sidewalk dwellers in housing with medical, rehab and social services. Under the new system, case managers seek out long-term homeless people under bridges and down back alleys and score them on their mental and physical disabilities, how often they visit emergency rooms or jails, and their general medical condition.
NEWS
June 13, 2013 | By Alissa Walker
With condo buildings sprouting from vacant lots and talk of lifting height restrictions on its high-rises, Hollywood offers one of the best illustrations of Los Angeles' push toward population density. In the heart of this quickly changing neighborhood, in an appropriately tiny storefront gallery, two exhibitions show the direction of L.A. through studies of micro apartments and multifamily apartments. "How Small Is Too Small" and "By-Right/By-Design," running until Aug. 4 at the WuHo Gallery, examine a future that, the exhibits propose, is already partially here.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 16, 2012 | By Wesley Lowery, Los Angeles Times
The Skid Row Housing Trust has spent decades revitalizing abandoned buildings and hotels in downtown Los Angeles' most destitute neighborhood to serve as shelter for the city's chronically homeless. But for its latest housing project, the trust abandoned its usual technique for a seemingly elementary construction concept. A 102-unit, $20.5-million complex is being built by stacking pre-outfitted apartments atop one another in a Lego-like fashion, limiting construction costs and fast-forwarding the project timeline.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 13, 2011 | By Nita Lelyveld, Los Angeles Times
Don't just walk by quickly, looking straight ahead. If you notice a person living on the street, don't pretend you don't. That's what Victor Rodriguez chose to say to a group gathered downtown one evening last week to hear from people who once were homeless and who know how it feels not to be seen. Rodriguez, 52, now lives in the Dewey Hotel Apartments, operated by the Skid Row Housing Trust, which develops and manages affordable housing in an effort to provide homes for the homeless.
HOME & GARDEN
May 22, 2010 | Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times
Ruben Reyes is making himself at home in his new apartment on San Pedro Street in downtown L.A., setting out his phone and his CDs, planning to shop for food and cleaning supplies. After years on the streets — including San Pedro — as well as in shelters and in prison, and after just one night in the Charles Cobb Apartments, Reyes, 31, says he "feels like a king." "It's nice, it's gorgeous," he said, sitting on the bed — a bed designed, along with the nightstand and dresser, to fit the small apartment and to be durable, but also to be as appealing furniture designed for people with money to spend.