For more than a decade, the Go For Broke National Education Center, a nonprofit organization which educates people about Japanese Americans who participated in World War II, has sought to construct a new facility on a City-owned property in Little Tokyo.

Now, according to a motion introduced earlier today by Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar, that plan is being tweaked to accommodate affordable housing.  Go For Broke has requested a new lease for the triangular site just north of the Japanese American National Museum, which currently functions as a surface parking lot, with a term long enough to allow for the construction of low-income apartments catering to military veterans.  The proposed agreement would still allow for the construction of an "interpretive education center," as part of a development.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Go For Broke is partnering with another neighborhood institution, the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), which would help develop the proposed five-story building that could contain up to 70 residential units.  LTSC is based out of the ground-level of the nearby Casa Heiwa affordable apartments, which the nonprofit also developed.

Huizar's motion has been referred to the City Council's Information, Technology, and General Services Committee, which would need to consider the item before a vote by the full Council.

The partnership between Go For Broke and LTSC emerges as Metro is preparing to search for a partner to develop a property above the new Little Tokyo/Arts District subway station at 1st Street and Central Avenue - one block south of the 200 Central site.