Los Angeles-based nonprofit Menorah Housing Foundation will manage the proposed senior affordable apartments at the Hollywood Center development, according to an announcement this week by developer MP Los Angeles.  

The $1-billion project, slated for two parking lots flanking the Capitol Records Building, is highlighted by proposed skyline-altering towers rising to heights of 46 and 35 stories.  A total of 1,005 residential units are planned within the development, including the 133 senior affordable apartments, which would be situated in separate 11-story buildings.

Other components of the project, which is being designed by Handel Architects and James Corner Field Operations, include large plazas at the ground level and a series of amenity decks.  The developer is also studying the possibility of swapping out 104 of the proposed market-rate housing units to substitute a 220-room hotel.

MP Los Angeles and Menorah Housing both cite an increasing need for senior affordable housing, noting that a recent study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that more than three-quarters of low-income seniors in California are rent burdened.  In Los Angeles County, an estimated 58 percent of senior citizens are considered "severely rent burdened," meaning that their housing costs exceed 50 percent of their pretax income.  Consequently, Los Angeles has seen a 22 percent spike in homeless seniors in the past year, despite a slight decline in the overall homeless population.

Menorah Housing Foundation, which was established in 1969, manages over 1,200 apartments in 18 buildings across Los Angeles County, making it one of the largest operators of senior affordable housing in Southern California.  The units at the Hollywood Center development will cater to very-low-income and extremely-low income seniors.

Construction of Hollywood Center is anticipated to occur in two phases, the first of which would break ground in 2021.