A $75-mil­lion sup­port­ive hous­ing com­plex slat­ed for con­struc­tion in L.A.‘s Venice Beach has received approval from the city’s plan­ning com­mis­sion. As Matthew Marani reports in the Archi­tec­t’s News­pa­per, the com­plex is a “joint col­lab­o­ra­tion between the Venice Com­mu­ni­ty Hous­ing Cor­po­ra­tion and the Hol­ly­wood Com­mu­ni­ty Hous­ing Cor­po­ra­tion that will pri­mar­i­ly house the for­mer­ly home­less and low-income ten­ants.”

Some Venice res­i­dents oppose the project, call­ing it “unsight­ly and detri­men­tal to the health and safe­ty of the area.” In online posts, one irate, anony­mous res­i­dent wrote: “why should 200+ home­less tran­sients live on the canals for free when I, as a local res­i­dent, could not afford the tax­es let alone the pur­chase price??” The eclec­tic neigh­bor­hood has become a flash­point in the debate over how to assist the unhoused pop­u­la­tion, which increased by 57% in 2020.

The devel­op­ment, which “will run abreast of Venice’s Grand Canal and replace exist­ing sur­face park­ing lots,” will cre­ate “140 apart­ments, approx­i­mate­ly 7,400-square-feet of com­mer­cial space, and a 360-car park­ing garage for res­i­dents and vis­i­tors to the neigh­bor­hood,” as well as a com­mu­ni­ty room and per­for­mance space named for enter­tain­er Gre­go­ry Hines. “Ren­der­ings released by Eric Owen Moss Archi­tects also reveal sub­stan­tial and pub­licly acces­si­ble land­scap­ing along the canal, includ­ing new plant­i­ngs, such as long grass and allees of trees, and stepped paving.”