AHF Adds East L.A.’s Pride Hotel to its Low-income Housing Efforts
AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation purchases 42-unit, 1955-era motel on Atlantic Boulevard in East Los Angeles to repurpose as housing for low-income and formerly homeless people
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AHF, the largest global AIDS organization, under its Healthy Housing Foundation banner, is pleased to announce the purchase of the Pride Hotel, a 42-unit, 1955-era motel in East Los Angeles, that it will repurpose as housing for extremely-low-income and/or formerly homeless individuals. The sale closed last week (February 23). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, no formal ribbon-cutting event or reception or ceremony will take place at this time.
The Pride Hotel becomes the ninth hotel or motel in the Los Angeles area that Healthy Housing Foundation has purchased and repurposed as homeless or extremely-low-income housing since 2017 when AHF first kicked off its housing program. In addition to the Pride Hotel, Healthy Housing also has two additional L.A. area hotel purchases pending in the near future for use as affordable housing—one on Skid Row adjacent to HHF’s King Edward and Baltimore Hotels and one near LAX. The organization is also well underway with plans and permitting to build a new, 250+ unit affordable/homeless housing development on L.A.’s Skid Row using pre-fab elements that will be built on two development lots next to HHF’s Madison Hotel, the first hotel property in Healthy Housing Foundation’s portfolio.
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.
Healthy Housing Foundation by AHF focuses on the quicker, much less expensive model of adaptive reuse of existing buildings as it repurposes them as housing for those previously unsheltered, homeless and/or for extremely-low-income individuals. It previously renovated and repurposed five historic Los Angeles buildings, and with these latest three buildings, AHF has now created a combined total of 791 units in its effort to more quickly house individuals and families. In Fort Lauderdale, HHF is also well underway with plans for a newly built, state-of-the-art affordable housing complex that will include over 500 micro-units.
“Due to the enormity of the homeless and housing affordability crises, we are taking a very broad approach to improve access to affordable and homeless housing. Our approaches include the renovation and repurposing of existing older hotels and motels, new construction, pre-fab construction, creation of micro-units—we’re looking at any and all possibilities.” said Michael Weinstein, President of AHF. “The bottom line is we need viable solutions that are economical and fast because communities—and people in those communities—simply can’t wait any longer.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.5 million individuals in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us @aidshealthcare.
Contacts
MEDIA CONTACT:
Ged Kenslea, Senior Director, Communications, AHF
+1.323.791.5526 cell
[email protected]
