Six permanent “homekey” homeless housing projects were selected by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for state dollars, including five in the city of Los Angeles and one motel conversion project in Torrance that sparked opposition from many residents and local leaders.

Despite opposition from homeowners and business people, as well as members of the Torrance City Council, the Torrance hotel conversion project on Torrance Boulevard was included in a motion approved on Tuesday, May 27, that submits all six projects for state funding.

The state’s Homekey-Plus Program, created by Gov. Gavin Newsom, will consider funding these six permanent housing projects as a way to move unhoused residents in L.A. County living on the street, staying in shelters or other temporary housing for months and sometimes years into permanent apartments.

Supervisor Janice Hahn, who voted yes as part of a 3-0 vote, along with Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Hilda Solis, said many similar projects have faced opposition but have since been accepted by the community.

“With other Homekeys in my district, each of those neighborhoods have come to see this is a benefit for their city and community,” said Hahn, whose is the supervisor for District 4, which includes Torrance.

Many residents were concerned that the project was too close to a middle school, would add criminal activity to the area and make the neighborhood unsafe. City leaders said they were not consulted in advance and held a special meeting last week, asking the county to table the item. Business leaders said the homeless would live too close to the Del Amo Fashion Center and drive away customers from local businesses.

“This will not be beneficial to businesses and homeowners,” said Ray Uchima, a former city planning commissioner who works as a commercial real estate consultant. “They are very concerned about negative impacts on their business, They fear losing customers and paying additional security costs.”

Others from the community said the project would help the city’s image by helping to remove 120 of the city’s 355 unhoused from the city streets and into safe, secure homes.

“I am highly in favor of this project (in Torrance),” said Christopher Truman, a resident and a father of a 1-year-old boy. “I am very glad you are tackling this problem.”

Project Homekey-Plus is a state-funded program that provides funding to local jurisdictions to purchase and rehabilitate hotels or build new developments to be used as housing for people experiencing homelessness. Similar projects have received state funding and have been approved by the Board of Supervisors, including those in Hahn’s district.

“As supervisor, I get asked all the time about what I am doing to address homelessness and one of the things I point to is Homekey,” Hahn said. “Homekey works, and we are already making progress across the county. In San Pedro, we turned the run down old Best Western on Gaffey Street into the Louis Dominguez Veterans Center and are housing 100 local veterans.”

She’s also seen a successful project in Whittier, where a “drug-infested” Motel 6 was converted into permanent apartments for 97 people, she said. Other permanent housing for the homeless in District 4 include projects in Norwalk and Long Beach, opening later this year, Hahn added.

The county is asking for construction funding from the state, with the county transferring $5.2 million from its Department of Mental Health to help transform interim housing into 53 permanent units of the Huntington Villas on South Huntington Drive in Los Angeles.

L.A. County will add tenant services to the completed projects, including substance-use disorder supportive services and rental subsidies, the motion stated.

The other projects sent to Sacramento for funding include: taking an empty office building on the St. Vincent Behavioral Health Campus on Alvarado Street and turning it into permanent housing and building a whole new development in the Hollywood area at Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue.

The Extended Stay America motel in Torrance, at 3525 Torrance Blvd., was for sale and the owner’s broker found the Weingart Center Association, which rehabs motels into permanent apartments for unhoused people. It purchased the motel and now awaits funding for construction.

Weingart has completed apartments for the unhoused in many communities, including one project built on Santa Monica Boulevard in Westwood, across from a luxury car dealership, said Kevin Murray, CEO of Weingart and a former state senator.

“We are experienced in working with communities who very much care about their communities,” he said at the board meeting. “We will rehab the building and in the budget is a significant amount of replacement dollars to maintain it.

“We are not a blight on the community. We hope to be a benefit,” he said.

L.A. County needed to submit its applications for the six projects to the California Department of Housing and Community Development by Friday to get in on this round of grants. The county is eligible to receive $599 million in Homekey-Plus funding, according to the motion. Each project must be financed and completed in 24 months.

About $2 billion of the Homekey-Plus funding for permanent supportive housing for the homeless comes from Proposition 1, passed by state voters in March 2024.

List of  Homekey-Plus projects:

• The St. Vincent Behavioral Health Campus, 201 S. Alvarado St., Los Angeles, 90057. Conversion of office to residential. 172 units. Cost: $60,600,000

• Weingart Center Association, 3525 Torrance Blvd., Torrance, 90503. A motel conversion. 120 units. Cost: $55,165,000

• PATH Ventures, 4752 S. Main St., Los Angeles, 90037. Acquisition. 51 units. Cost: $24,375,000

• Residency at the Entrepreneur LP/ABS Properties, 1657-61 North Western Ave., Los Angeles, 90027. New Construction. 200 units. Cost: $15,000,000

• A LTSC Community Development Corporation project, 343 First St., Los Angeles. Adaptive re-use. 33 units. Cost: $11,400,000

• National Community Renaissance, 5350 South Huntington Drive, Los Angeles, 90032. Converting interim housing to permanent supportive housing. 53 units. Cost: $5,200,000