Mixed-Use Supportive Housing Serves as a New Cultural Landmark for Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles

Mixed-Use Supportive Housing Serves as a New Cultural Landmark for Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles

In Historic Filipinotown, a Los Angeles neighborhood that often goes by the nickname HiFi, the median income of residents is only 40 percent of Los Angeles County’s median income, and many residents are at risk of displacement. In 2017, Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), a nonprofit founded in 1972 to meet the growing needs of the Filipino-American community in Los Angeles County, reached out to affordable housing developer Linc Housing to ensure that community members could remain in their neighborhood. With county support, the partners developed HiFi Collective, a 64-unit supportive housing project that opened in 2022 and serves people who have previously experienced homelessness, offering wraparound services to help them improve their quality of life and adjust to permanent housing. SIPA also has located its new headquarters on the ground floor of the development and has conceived HiFi Collective as a new cultural landmark for the historic neighborhood.

County Support for HiFi Collective

The 5-story building consists of 63 studio apartments for households earning up to 30 percent of the area median income and a manager’s unit. Instead of rental applications, SIPA leases units through referrals from the Los Angeles County Coordinated Entry System. The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) provides referrals for 32 of the units. Because the development received No Place Like Home Funding, SIPA must reserve 31 units for housing residents diagnosed with mental illness, and the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health provides referrals for these units.

Each unit in the supportive housing community is equipped with basic furniture and household items. DHS has contracted with Linc Housing to ensure that residents have access to onsite social and supportive services. Funded under Measure H, a 2017 law that authorized a quarter-cent sales tax to fund homeless services and short-term housing, these services include mental and physical health care, employment counseling and job placement, and substance abuse counseling, which are provided in various community spaces on the ground floor. The amenities for residents include a community room, computer lab, community kitchen, indoor bike parking, laundry, and outdoor deck.

Maintaining a Cultural Presence

Historic Filipinotown has long been a starting point for Filipinos settling in the greater Los Angeles area and serves as the destination for area Filipinos to engage in activities such as garment shopping, catering parties, and receiving services from legacy Filipino organizations. Because of Historic Filipinotown’s role as a cultural hub for Filipinos in the city, SIPA decided to locate its new headquarters in HiFi Collective to expand the nonprofit’s presence in the neighborhood.

Before opening its offices at HiFi Collective, SIPA conducted its business both virtually and in a temporary space. The new location will serve as programming and social space for the entire neighborhood. SIPA offices will provide an afterschool program, psychoeducational workshops, short-term counseling, parenting classes, and Mental Health First Aid training. SIPA’s youth programs also include anti-Asian violence response and support and a Filipino summer program. The mixed-use space will also feature private offices, co-working space, a conference center, and a quiet room. Other spaces include a multipurpose room, a community kitchen, and a courtyard. To support entrepreneurs and small business owners interested in working in Historic Filipinotown or other Filipino-American communities, SIPA offices will also house the John Eric Swing Small Business Center, named after the late executive director of SIPA and community leader in the HiFi neighborhood.

HiFi Collective is also an avenue for SIPA’s continued support of art initiatives that create cultural markers. At SIPA sites, Filipino American youth have created artwork to foster their identity specific to living in Los Angeles. HiFi Collective’s design draws on neighborhood artistic expression by incorporating tropical colors that are seen at the SIPA gala event, in textile weaving, and the Philippine flag. At the eastern gateway of the property, a bold, illuminated “HIFI” sign serves as a beacon to the community throughout the day.

In addition to creating a new cultural landmark for the neighborhood, the partnership between SIPA and Linc Housing addresses the rapid changes in housing affordability that have placed vulnerable households in Historic Filipinotown at risk of displacement. HiFi Collective serves as a gathering spot for the larger community thanks to the new SIPA headquarters, set to open in summer 2023, and initiates ongoing community engagement that will inform SIPA’s strategic plan to meet additional neighborhood needs.