HHF: East L.A.’s ‘Casa Del Corazon’ Reborn as Homeless Housing

OPEN HOUSE & PRESS BRIEFING, Thursday, February 14^th 12:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.

PUBLIC REMARKS at 12:30 P.M.

AHF celebrates 1^st anniversary of Healthy Housing Foundation with ribbon-cutting at its newest affordable housing site, Casa Del Corazon. This is the 5^th location launched by HHF since its founding in 2018.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14^th, East LA officials and community leaders join Healthy Housing Foundation by AHF to mark the foundation’s first anniversary with an open house and ribbon-cutting at its newest facility — Casa del Corazon (5379 Whittier Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90022) — repurposed to alleviate and address L.A.’s homeless crisis. This is Healthy Housing Foundation’s first facility in East L.A. and first facility for youth & students. AHF launched Healthy Housing Foundation last year to address the rampant affordable housing crisis sweeping the nation by providing fast, easy, and compassionate access to affordable housing with a focus on addressing the needs of low-income individuals, struggling families, youth, and those living with chronic illness.

Healthy Housing Foundation by AHF has focused on its quick and inexpensive model of adaptive reuse, renovating four historic Los Angeles buildings with a combined total of 583 units, using them to immediately house 321 individuals and families so far in its first year. In Fort Lauderdale, HHF is exploring plans for a newly-built, state-of-the-art affordable housing complex that will include over 500 micro-units.

The open house will showcase the Foundation’s renovation of the former hotel, a 37 room Single-Room-Occupancy (SRO) building in East LA, into housing for local college students and youth. Following the press briefing, guests will gather next door at Tacos Baja, a community staple, and enjoy a performance by Mariachi Arcoiris, the world’s first and only LGBT mariachi band.

WHAT:	PRESS CONFERENCE: HHF dedicates East L.A.’s ‘Casa del Corazon’ (homeless housing) ribbon-cutting and open house
	Housing advocates to host a celebration for the community to share how it is repurposing East L.A.’s Casa del Corazon as housing for students and youth.
WHEN:	Thursday, February 14^th, 2019, 12:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.
NOTE:	PRESS & PUBLIC REMARKS at 12:30 P.M.
WHERE:	Casa del Corazon 5379 Whittier Blvd., (East) Los Angeles, CA 90022
WHO:	Michael Weinstein, President, AHF
	Samantha Granberry, Executive Director, HHF
	Kathy Leal, on behalf of the office of Hilda L. Solis, Supervisor
	Oscar De La O, Bienestar or Robert Contreras, Bienestar
	Marissa Bowman, MBA, Associate Director of Housing Partnerships, PATH
	Lawrence Fernandez, Jr., Program Manager, LACADA
	Other honored guests in attendance:
	Toño Rocks (aka: Toño Estrada), Fashionista and blogger
	Dr. Keith Curry, President, Compton College
	Carlos Alvarez, Professional soccer player, Las Vegas Lights FC of the USL (midfielder)
	Marvin Martinez, President, East Los Angeles Community College
B-ROLL:	Tours of the renovated housing facility and a performance by an LGBT mariachi band.

While HHF focuses on children and families at the Hollywood Sunrise on Sunset location and individuals at its three downtown locations, it plans to concentrate on community college students at the new Casa del Corazon location in East LA. A 2017 study shows that 30% of community college students are without secure housing, and the student housing crisis in California is so dire that California lawmakers have recently introduced a bill that would allow students to sleep in their cars in campus parking lots.

“We’re using multiple approaches to address the housing crisis — new construction, micro-units, renovation of existing structures, we’re looking at all possibilities,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AHF. “The bottom line is we need viable solutions that are economical and fast. Communities can’t wait any longer; the situation is too dire.”

Background on The Healthy Housing Foundation

The launch of the Healthy Housing Foundation is an effort by AHF to address the exploding housing and homelessness crisis in Los Angeles and across the country. AHF purchased the Madison Hotel¹, in Downtown L.A. in October 2017, followed quickly by the January 2018 purchase of a 27-room motel² in the heart of Hollywood known as the Sunset 8 Motel (now the Sunrise on Sunset). The purchases of the King Edward Hotel and the Baltimore Hotel followed later in the year (in April and August, respectively).

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over one million individuals in 43 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us @aidshealthcare.

_________________________________
^1	The purchase price for the Madison Hotel was $7,575,000, (the parking lot was $450K – total $8,025,000.00 less a repair credit of $25K and a donation of $50K to AHF – net price $7,950,000) or approximately $36K per room or unit.
^2	The purchase price for the 27-room Sunset 8 Motel was $4.6 million, or $170,370 per room or unit.