Los Angeles faces a severe shortage of housing for low-income renters. But buying land in such an expensive part of the state is often a challenge for affordable housing developers.
California lawmakers offered one possible answer for where to build when they passed SB 4, a statewide law that took effect earlier this year. It allows religious groups to fast-track new housing on properties they already own.
Now, the Catholic church in L.A. is laying out plans to do just that. The Archdiocese of L.A. announced Wednesday it will partner with a newly formed nonprofit called Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing Alliance to develop affordable housing in Southern California.
The church, already known for its efforts to assist immigrants and feed unhoused people, is aiming to use its extensive land holdings to help address the region’s housing crisis. Their first project — located on Archdiocese land currently used by Catholic Charities — will construct affordable apartments next to L.A. City College for community college students and youth transitioning out of foster care.
Amy Anderson, the executive director for Queen of Angels Housing, said the mission is to confront one of the region’s biggest moral dilemmas head-on.
“We're losing a generation of people to housing insecurity,” said Anderson, who served as L.A.’s Chief Housing Officer under former Mayor Eric Garcetti. “It's very difficult for people to live in health — mental health, physical health — and for them to get ahead when there's no physical foundation, no home for which to do that.”
How Catholic schools and convents could sprout new housing
Anderson said this work will be catalyzed by SB 4, but the idea predates changes in state law. She said L.A. Catholics in the church, philanthropy and business communities have been planning to get more involved with housing development for years.
The new nonprofit will explore opportunities to build apartments on underused parish parking lots, Anderson said.
As school enrollment declines and membership in religious orders dwindles, Queen of Angels Housing could also develop former Catholic schools or convents.
“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.”
Why it matters for other religious groups
California housing policy experts said it’s encouraging to see the Catholic church taking action to fulfill the promise of the state’s new “Yes In God’s Backyard” law.
“This is a big deal. It shows that religious organizations feel comfortable moving on to the next step,” said Muhammad Alameldin, a researcher with UC Berkeley’s Terner Center.
“The Catholic Church is one of the biggest religious institutions in the country,” he added. “They could really help set the first step to developing more faith-based lands into affordable housing.”
-
According to figures provided by the church, the Archdiocese of L.A. has:
- 288 parishes
- 265 elementary and high schools
- 4.35 million Catholics
Last year, Alameldin and his colleagues published a study that found faith-based organizations and nonprofit colleges across California own enough land suitable for housing development to equal nearly five times the city of Oakland.
But Alameldin said it’s one thing for churches to support the idea of new housing on their property — it’s another to actually construct it.
“Building housing is one of the most complicated things you could do,” Alameldin said. “A lot of religious organizations were sort of left in limbo. Like, OK, this is legal. What's the next step?”
What the alliance’s first project will look like
So far, Queen of Angels Housing has only announced details for its maiden project. Called the Willow Brook development, it aims to erect a 74-unit apartment building just north of the L.A. City College campus in East Hollywood.
Twenty percent of the apartments will be reserved for youth transitioning out of foster care. Research carried out in California has shown that 1-in-4 transitional age youth experience homelessness in their late teens and early 20s. Rents at Willow Brook for this group will range between $400 and $500 per month, a fraction of what similar market-rate units cost.
David Ambroz, a former L.A. Planning Commissioner and an advocate for foster youth who experienced homelessness when he was young, said the Catholic church is demonstrating that local institutions can step up to do more for these young adults.
“Imagine every foster kid in Los Angeles with the hope at the end of their tenure in foster care for housing and an education, as opposed to hopelessness, violence and instability in housing,” Ambroz said. “I am so bullish that this is a major first step in that direction.”
The rest of the Willow Brook apartments will be set aside for low to moderate-income community college students, who also face high risk of homelessness. About a quarter of California community college students experience homelessness at some point over the course of a year, according to a recent report from the state’s Legislative Analyst's Office.
The Willow Brook site is currently home to the St. Mary’s Center, a Catholic Charities location that provides education to unaccompanied minors. The classes are set to continue for the next school year, but will later move to another location in order to make way for the housing project.
What will the neighbors think?
Anderson said Queen of Angels Housing will likely submit the Willow Brook project for approval in late September through ED1, the city’s program to fast-track 100% affordable housing.
She said future projects could rely on a key provision in SB 4: the ability for churches to get streamlined approvals for apartments in areas normally reserved for single-family homes.
“We would look very closely at which sites we felt like it made the most sense to pursue something like that,” Anderson said. “Sometimes, single family-zoned property is directly adjacent to a commercial corridor, or directly adjacent to a multi-family neighborhood.”
The prospect of building low-income apartments near pricey single-family houses in L.A. remains controversial. City planners are excluding single-family neighborhoods (which make up 72% of the city’s residential land) from efforts to plan for hundreds of thousands of new homes.
Homeowners are already fighting proposals to let churches build on property acquired in the future. Maria Pavlou Kalban with the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association wrote in a recent letter to the L.A. City Council, “We oppose these organizations being allowed to build multi-family housing on land they acquired after January 1, 2024 in single-family neighborhoods.”
What’s next for housing by houses of worship
At this early stage, it’s unclear how much land the Archdiocese intends to put toward housing development. But local Catholic leaders are signaling that housing will be a growing part of the church’s charitable mission.
L.A. Archbishop José Gomez will serve as chair of the board for Queen of Angels Housing. In a statement, he said: “Through Catholic Charities and our ministries on Skid Row and elsewhere, we have been working for many years to provide shelter and services for our homeless brothers and sisters. With this new initiative we see exciting possibilities to make more affordable housing available, especially for families and young people.”
The Catholic church isn’t the only religious organization in L.A. pursuing affordable housing development. The Jewish congregation Ikar is working on a 60-unit project on the site of its offices in L.A.’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood, and the multi-faith organization L.A. Voice has been helping local churches develop early plans for projects of their own.
