LINC Housing plans affordable housing complex in Willowbrook

Affordable developer LINC Housing is on the move, with plans to build a third supportive housing development in the Willowbrook area between South L.A. and Compton.

The Long Beach-based developer has filed plans to construct a three story apartment building with 51 units at 126th Street and Willowbrook Avenue, with surface parking for 23 cars, according to Urbanize Los Angeles.

Plans for LINC’s latest project in the unincorporated community near Compton were published in an initial study by the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning.

The apartments would be constructed on a 1.2-acre parcel across the street from the Metro A line just north directly north of Mosaic Gardens at Willowbrook, another permanent supportive housing project built by the developer.

They would replace a child development center and playground now on the property.

LINC, which proposes a larger structure than allowed under zoning rules, boosted the number of units through the county’s density bonus ordinance. Current zoning permits 11 residential units.

When completed, the contemporary apartment building will be finished in metal, stucco and concrete, with wood accents, surrounded by a stand of trees next to a small garden on the southern property line.

D33 Design & Planning, which has partnered with LINC on other projects, serves as the architect behind the Willowbrook development.
Construction of the project at 12611-12625 S. Willowbrook Ave. is expected to take 21 months and to open for occupancy in 2025, according to the initial study.

LINC Housing Corp., a nonprofit development company founded in 1993 to serve as “the ‘linc’ between hope and home,” has nearly 8,900 affordable apartments across the state, and has developed more than 700 supportive housing units, according to its website.

In late 2020, it opened Springhaven apartments, a five-story, 100-unit apartment at 1854 E. 118th St. in Willowbrook, for which it sought $29 million in housing bonds.

Amid a push by Los Angeles to increase its inventory of lower-priced apartments, LINC teamed up with Search to Involve Pilipino Americans to build HiFi Collective, to include SIPA offices and 64 supportive housing units at 3200 Temple St. in Westlake-Historic Filipinotown. It is expected to open early this year.

Last March, the city approved $275 million in bond funding for eight affordable housing developments of 710 new units, for which Linc Housing was to receive funding.