Representative Karen Bass and Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson Tour Construction Site

We were honored to give Congresswoman and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Karen Bass (CA-37) and City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson (District 8) a tour of the Isla Intersections construction site on May 9. Isla is one of our most ambitious projects to date and represents an excellent model for solutions to the housing and homelessness crisis in Los Angeles.

While there Rep. Bass toured a completed housing unit, and spoke with our Executive Director, Cristian Ahumada and Milo Peinneman, CEO of American Family Housing to learn more about the unique approaches Isla takes in providing services and housing to formerly unhoused communities.

Isla uses shipping containers arranged to minimize noise and air pollution from the nearby freeways, and the community will open on to a shared street and public space called the Annenberg Paseo. The shared space will contain a lush landscape called a living lung, comprised of trees irrigated by a greywater recycling system. The greenery in the living lung will reduce air, noise and light pollution from the surrounding freeways.

Isla Intersections is slated to be completed by late fall 2022, and will provide 54 new one-bedroom units with 53 affordable to households earning less than 40 percent of the area median income ($33,120 for 1-person household, $37,840 for for 2-person household, $42,560 for 3-person household).