WEST HOLLYWOOD—On Monday, January 22, the city of West Hollywood announced on its website that they received a $150,000 funding award from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), which aims to support the city’s housing goals. Funding is part of SCAG’s allocation of $45 million in Lasting Affordability Program funding in support of 14 innovative housing finance projects across Southern California.
According to a news release from the city’s website, the grant received will be dedicated to a feasibility study for the development of a community land trust within WeHo. The City’s Long Range Planning Division will examine the creation of a community land trust to expand approaches for attaining affordable housing and affordable homeownership.
The expected outcome from forming such a community land trust includes progress toward meeting West Hollywood’s objective of creating 500 new affordable housing units by the year 2029.
The Lasting Affordability Program is one of the three funding areas in the Programs to Accelerate Transformative Housing (PATH) program, which is part of SCAG’s REAP 2.0 Program Framework. REAP 2.0 is a statewide grant administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) that focuses on reaching state housing goals and climate commitments. It makes $45 million available to support programmatic level investments in housing trust funds, community land trusts, and catalyst funds.
SCAG is the country’s largest metropolitan planning organization, representing six counties, 191 cities and nearly 19 million residents. SCAG undertakes a variety of planning and policy initiatives to prepare for a livable and sustainable Southern California presently and in the future. For more details about SCAG’s regional efforts, visit www.scag.ca.gov.
For information about the project and Long-Range Planning in the region contact Francisco Contreras, West Hollywood’s Long-Range Planning Manager at (323) 848-6874 or at fcontreras@weho.org. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing call TTY (323) 848-6496.
By Trevor