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The Wilcox will be providing 61 housing units for unhoused elders in East Los Angeles. This affordable housing community will also provide services such as case management, mental healthcare, peer-to-peer counseling, and nutritional support to help seniors transition into more stable and independent lives.
Homelessness among seniors is on the rise with many experiencing homelessness for the first time after age 50. While many seniors are relying on their Social Security income, Rebecca Louis, CEO of Wakeland Housing & Development, says that Social Security is simply not enough to support L.A.’s unhoused population.
Rebecca Louis: We know that’s why our seniors are falling into homelessness at alarming, alarming rates. I was looking last night 40% of the seniors in the United States live purely just on Social Security income. Social Security income in Los Angeles is 1800 dollars a month. Stop and think for a moment what it would be like to be living here on 1800 dollars a month and think the rents actually are. Think about what you’re seeing in the grocery stores and poultry sitting at the gas pump at 1800 dollars. It’s no wonder. It’s just no wonder.
These 61 units among 7,000 more are all thanks to Executive Directive 1. According to L.A. City Planning, Mayor Karen Bass’s directive expedites the processing, clearances and approvals of shelters and 100% affordable housing projects in Los Angeles.
Karen Bass: I did come to this building to announce that more than 7000 units of affordable housing had been expedited in the first nine months of this year, including the one that we’re at today. So it brings me great joy to be here at the Wilcox less than two months later to see Angelenos moving in on the expedited process. We cannot let up and it just can’t take 6 to 9 months to get a simple approval.
The 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count estimated over 75,000 unhoused people, a 9% increase in the County. While the number is on the rise, unhoused people in interim housing has stayed at about 20,000 in the past year.
For Annneberg Media, I’m Zi Zhang