By Jorge Casuso
July 13, 2026 -- Construction will start this month on an 82-unit senior housing project -- which includes supportive housing for homeless seniors -- at the site of a public parking lot near Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center.
Developed by Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (HCHC), the new affordable housing project on the surface lot at 1211-1217 14th Street will be accompanied by a 48-unit family apartment building, with at least half of the units two- and three-bedrooms.
When complete, Tierra Apartments will offer 40 affordable apartments for low-income seniors and 40 permanent supportive homes on a separate parcel for seniors aged 55 and older who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Two units will be occupied by management.
According to City staff, the "wrap-around supportive services" for at-risk seniors include "mental health services, crisis intervention, individual therapy, (and) rehabilitation and therapeutic groups."
The project offers "substance abuse services, life skills education, medication management, benefits assistance and connections to outside services as needed."
The project was amended in August 2024 with a 4 to 3 closed session vote by the prior Council to build the senior housing on two parcels and eliminate a third project at 1146 Sixteenth Street "to mitigate parking impacts," according to the minutes of the meeting.
The revised version of the project includes additional security and personnel for the building with homeless tenants and increases the size of the smallest residences from studios to one-bedrooms.
The City authorized a $13.5 million loan from its Housing Trust Fund to HCHC for development of the project that originally earmarked the supportive housing for the homeless, regardless of age.
Unanimously approved by the newly seated pro-housing Council in December 2024, the project was amended "to incorporate and modify the developments based on community concerns and feedback," City officials said at the time.
The 130 affordable units go towards meeting a State mandate that requires the City to plan to build 8,895 housing units -- 6,168 of them affordable -- by the end of the current eight-year housing allocation cycle on October 15, 2029.
So far, the City has approved 6,347 total housing units, a large majority of them market rate, with 480 currently under construction, according to updated figures posted on the City's Housing Progress Dashboard.
"The central challenge to getting more units through the pipeline is now the gap between approval and construction, as financing constraints and development costs have stalled housing projects across the region and state," Councilmember Dan Hall wrote in his latest newsletter.
Hall noted that the City's new Off-Site Affordable Housing Incentive Program helps address the challenge "by allowing approved projects to consolidate their affordable obligations into dedicated off-site locations."
A total of 11 projects have opted into the program, and three buildings are already under construction, Hall said.