LOS ANGELES, CA - AHF, the largest global AIDS organization, under its Healthy Housing Foundation banner, announced the purchase of the historic Barclay Hotel, a 158-unit, 1896-era hotel in downtown Los Angeles, that it will repurpose as housing for extremely-low-income and/or formerly homeless individuals. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, no formal ribbon-cutting event or ceremony will take place at this time.
To mark the acquisition and promote the adaptive reuse of existing older buildings as affordable housing stock, the Healthy Housing Foundation will also run a full-page advocacy ad in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times.
The Barclay Hotel becomes the eleventh 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 Barclay Hotel, Healthy Housing also has one additional L.A. area hotel purchase for use as affordable housing pending, near HHF’s Sinclair Hotel, which became part of AHF’s ‘family of housing’ in April. The organization is also well underway with plans and permitting to build a new, 250+ unit affordable 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. In Fort Lauderdale, AHF is also well underway with plans for a newly built, state-of-the-art affordable housing complex that will include over 500 micro-units.
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.
“AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation focuses on the faster, much less expensive model of adaptive reuse of existing buildings, repurposing them as housing for those previously unsheltered, homeless and/or for extremely-low-income individuals,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AHF. “We previously renovated and repurposed ten historic or older Los Angeles buildings, and with this latest building, AHF has now created a combined total of 1,183 units in L.A. in our effort to more quickly house individuals and families. Due to the enormity of the homeless and housing affordability crises, we need viable solutions that are economic and fast because communities—and the people in those communities—simply cannot wait any longer.”