An apartment complex now wrapping up construction in the Broadway-Manchester neighborhood could be the next property purchased by the City of Los Angeles through the Project Homekey program.

The second phase of Project Homekey, announced by California Governor Gavin Newsom in September, provides $2.75 billion for cities and counties across the state to purchase underused hotels to repurpose them as interim or permanent supportive housing. The program has allocated just over $358 million to jurisdictions in Los Angeles County, which must be spent by January 31, 2022.

The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, which manages the city's portfolio of residential properties, is planning to spend $49.5 million allocated through the program to purchase a 128-unit apartment complex now under construction at 1654 Florence Avenue. The proposed purchase price amounts to a per-unit cost of less than $387,000 - lower than the average $559,000 per-unit price tag of a Measure HHH-funded development in 2020.

The apartment complex would be purchased from its developer, Haroni Investments, which has built a number of similar multifamily buildings in South Los Angeles.

The project joins a handful of other prospective Project Homekey purchases by the City of Los Angeles, including three hotels located in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley.

Using $120 million in Homekey grants combined with $60 million from other sources, the City of Los Angeles used the initial round of Project Homekey funds to purchase 15 properties across Los Angeles during 2020, creating 744 units of permanent supportive housing. City officials expect that the program's second round could generate between 500 and 1,000 new supportive housing units.