Little Tokyo Service Center and Go For Broke National Education Center’s “Go for Broke Apartments” project reached a major milestone in receiving its zoning and environmental entitlements approvals and a preliminary recommendation for a funding award from the Los Angeles Housing Department.
With entitlements and the project’s first funding commitment secured, LTSC moves forward on this affordable housing project located in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles.
“We are so excited, together with our partner, Go For Broke NEC, to push forward on this project,” said LTSC Executive Director Erich Nakano. “We’d like to thank all of our community partners who helped make this project possible, especially Kevin de Leon, the Little Tokyo Community Council, Sustainable Little Tokyo, and the stakeholder businesses and cultural institutions on the First Street block.This project is years in the making, and is what the community and our partners have been seeking for a long time.”
“The preliminary recommendation for a funding award from the Los Angeles Housing Department represents a significant step forward for the building project,” said GFBNEC President and CEO Mitchell Maki. “GFBNEC thanks Councilmember Kevin de Leon and his staff, the Little Tokyo community, and our partners at Little Tokyo Service Center for making this all possible. We look forward to the positive changes this building will bring to Little Tokyo.”
Earlier this year, the City Council approved de Leon’s motion to expand the footprint of the Go For Broke project. This nearly tripled its original unit plan, growing from 77 units to 220+ units of affordable and permanent supportive housing, including housing for veterans experiencing homelessness. The project also includes much-needed ground-floor commercial and community space for legacy businesses, arts, green space and more.
The expansion was a huge win for the Little Tokyo community and a major step forward in securing community control over the historic First Street North block in Little Tokyo — a campaign the community has rallied behind for years. Little Tokyo is an important cultural hub for the Japanese American community, as one of three remaining Japantowns in the nation, and has been threatened by developers, rising rent and gentrification for decades.
Ground-floor commercial spaces are available. Direct inquiries to Debbie Chen, LTSC’s director of real estate, at dchen@ltsc.org.
LTSC is a social service and community development organization that has been creating positive change for the people and places in Southern California for 40 years. Starting with its home in Little Tokyo, LTSC preserves and strengthens the unique ethnic communities of the region where people, culture and collective future matter.