Los Angeles Archdiocese to Build Housing in Southern California

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is planning to build affordable housing across Southern California, projects that can be quickly developed under a new state law that allows religious groups to fast-track new housing on properties they own.

The church, which is teaming up with a newly formed affiliated nonprofit developer, Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing Alliance, has land holdings across Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the largest in the U.S., encompassing 288 parishes and 265 schools. Archbishop Jose Gomez said in a statement that housing will be a growing part of the church’s charitable mission, LAist reported.

“With this new initiative we see exciting possibilities to make more affordable housing available, especially for families and young people,” Gomez said.

The initiative’s first project, known as Willow Brook, is a six-story apartment building with 74 units that will rise on land now used by Catholic Charities north of Los Angeles City College at 4665 Willow Brook Avenue in East Hollywood.

Willow Brook will reserve 20% of its apartments for youths transitioning out of foster care, with rents of between $400 and $500 per month. The remaining units will be reserved for low to moderate income community college students, who also are at risk for homelessness.

The apartment complex will replace St. Mary’s Center, a Catholic Charities facility that provides education to unaccompanied minors. The center will be relocated.

Amy Anderson, who served as L.A.’s chief housing officer under former Mayor Eric Garcetti, is now the executive director of the Queen of Angels Housing. The new nonprofit will explore opportunities to build apartments on underused parish parking lots, Anderson told LAist.

Other potential development sites include former Catholic schools or convents in areas where enrollment has declined. “The properties are in transition because our communities are constantly changing,” Anderson said. “It does create this opportunity to re-evaluate what can be done with that land.”

Anderson said Queen of Angels Housing will submit the Willow Brook project to the city for approval next month using the city’s ED1 program, which fast-tracks 100% affordable housing projects.

A state law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last fall, Senate Bill 4 (SB4)-known as the “Yes in God’s Backyard” law – allows religious institutions and nonprofit colleges to build affordable housing on their land, even if the property currently is not zoned for residential use.

According to a report last year by UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, religious institutions and nonprofit colleges across California own a total of more than 172,000 acres of developable land – the equivalent of five times the city of Oakland.