LOS ANGELES—Baldwin Park may become the affordable housing market that Los Angeles desperately needs. Southern California has a 600,000-unit housing shortage, and as a result, prices are quickly rising. ROEM Development pinpointed Baldwin Park as the ideal location for its Metro Village development, a low-income, transit oriented project that opened earlier this month, and the developer is hoping that it will serve as a catalyst for other low-income projects in the market.

“With a shortage of more than a million housing units statewide, the housing crisis has entered epic proportions,” Alex Sanchez, EVP of ROEM Development, tells GlobeSt.com. “The six-county Southern California region has a shortage of 600,000 units, according to a recent Southern California Association of Governments report. So it's clear that the San Gabriel Valley area is in high demand and feeling the pinch of rising rental costs. Metro Village, which received 2,000 resident applications, not only provides 69 units of housing affordable to residents earning up to 60% of the county's area median income, but also links that housing to transit.”

While this market has phenomenal dynamics—near transit and job centers—it is also is grave need of affordable options. “The project is in an area in need of more housing that's affordable to lower incomes,” adds Sanchez. “In August the Baldwin Park Housing Authority opened its Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) waiting list for the first time since 2003. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that more than 8,400 people applied to be put on that wait list for housing vouchers. The BPHA currently has 715 active clients participating in the program and 3,309 applicants on the waiting list, according to its website.”

Metro Village aims to bring other developers to the area by highlighting this demand and its own success. It sits in a prime spot adjacent to the Metrolink and is in walking distance to many amenities. The community also has a new city hall plaza. All of these things offer the potential for more of these types of developments. “It connects Baldwin Park residents to jobs in the greater L.A. basin, Sanchez adds. “We believe that the Baldwin Park area and this project in particular can act as a catalyst for future affordable housing developments in the area.”

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