There are plenty of local residents who could use help with affordable housing. This week, the Long Beach Housing Development Company (LBHDC) helped to ease the worries of 175 of those residents, who moved into Pacific City Lights—a brand new, all-affordable 42-unit rental housing development.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, one out of five Long Beach apartments is severely overcrowded, and 28% of renters pay half or more of their earned income on rent. Those are not numbers indicative of a revitalized community.
Pacific City Lights deliberately included 34 three-bedroom and eight four-bedroom apartments to help address the shortage of rental apartments equipped to handle larger family households. The complex comes complete with a tot lot, jogging track, mini soccer field and a computer room – all of which are readily available to residents. Its community room will host free after-school mentoring and workshops in parenting skills, job searching, and computer education.
“Pacific City Lights provides desperately needed decent, safe, and affordable housing for working families here in Long Beach,” said Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal, in whose First Council District Pacific City Lights is located. “By providing workforce housing for larger families, Pacific City Lights enables employees working in our schools, our hospitals, our grocery stores, and our hotels to afford top quality housing in our community.”
The LBHDC contributed approximately $3.6 million to this project, using funds dedicated to affordable housing.
This contribution leveraged the additional $10 million in public and private funding needed to complete the project.
Pacific City Lights could be a step in the right direction for a city that needs to rethink the way it provides housing.