Meta Housing to Build 65 Affordable Homes in Fullerton

Meta Housing has won the go-ahead to build 65 affordable homes in Fullerton.

The Sawtelle-based developer received City Council approval to build the 65-unit complex on a city-owned lot at 1600 West Commonwealth Avenue, the Voice of OC reported.

The Pointe Common Affordable Housing Project is expected to break ground in March and be completed by the end of 2025.

Plans call for an affordable complex going as high as three stories to be built on a triangle-shaped lot between West Commonwealth and a Union Pacific/Metrolink rail line. It’s not clear whether the project on surplus city land would include for-sale condominiums or apartments.

An environmental study said the homes “would be moderate for-rent affordable units.”

The complex includes 29 one-bedroom units, 19 two-bedroom units, 17 three-bedroom units, and 108 parking spots on 2.5 acres next to a city public works yard, according to a city presentation. Units would range from 580 square feet to 1,130 square feet.

Fullerton must have plans for 13,209 additional housing units before 2029, according to its state-mandated housing element goal.

Meta Housing, founded in 1993 by John Huskey, has developed 7,900 homes, including $1.7 billion in family housing projects, according to its website.

Its projects have also included a much-needed grocery store in South Los Angeles, adaptive reuse of a nine-story bank building in Chinatown for senior housing, and numerous arts colonies and housing for veterans and formerly homeless individuals and families.

In 2020, it broke ground on a $42 million, 65-unit affordable housing project at 7122 Westminster Boulevard in Westminster, of which 20 units were to be set aside for formerly homeless residents.

— Dana Bartholomew