This is Part 2 in EMPath’s Whittier Choice blog series. New blogs will be posted each week throughout the month of March. Read last week’s post here.

What stage is the project at right now?

• The project is about halfway done.
  
• Three new apartment complexes have opened in the neighborhood so far, with 89 replacement units for families from the old housing development. Some of these new buildings are on the original site of the old apartments, some are in the surrounding neighborhood.
  
• The first new building opened in March 2018. The next complex opened in October 2019.
  
• A third new apartment complex opened in January. Families are currently in the process of moving in.
  
• All new housing is mixed-income – a combination of low-income, moderate-income, and market-rate units. 100% of the affordable units available in the first two new buildings have been occupied by original Whittier tenants!
  
• With the support of their EMPath mentor, one family who was above the income threshold for an affordable unit was even able to move into a moderate-income unit.
  

How has EMPath been supporting residents?

• Providing 1:1 economic mobility coaching, Mobility Mentoring®. A team of mentors has been onsite to provide support and answer residents’ questions since demolition first began, and will remain onsite until construction has finished and all families have moved back in.
  
• Offering workshops on topics such as cooking, nutrition, utility bills, employment, summer camp, technology, and after-school tutoring.

Will all families move back?

Some families decide to stay where they were relocated to rather than moving again, for many different reasons.

• Some may feel more comfortable in the apartment they relocated to.
  
• Others may have personal reasons for not wanting to move back.
  
• Some families may not move back because occupancy guidelines are different. In a Choice Neighborhood, because the affordable housing is subsidized through project-based Section 8 rather than public housing, the head of household gets a bedroom of their own, and other family members of the same sex – regardless of age – are required to share a bedroom (unless there are medical needs). This differs from the regular public housing guidelines that residents were used to, in which children with a large age gap got their own bedroom. This means some families who were previously in three-bedroom apartments would be moving back into two-bedroom apartments, and choose not to move back for this reason.

What’s next?

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2022. As of this week, all residents have moved out of the last of the old Whittier Street Apartments that are still standing. Planning for their demolition will now move forward.

EMPath mentors will remain onsite supporting residents until the project is finished.

Read part 1

UPDATE: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the remainder of this blog series has been put on hold until a later date. We will circle back when there are updates available. In the meantime, check out EMPath’s COVID-19 resources and response pages.

Photo: The new Flat 9 apartments on Cabot Street, which opened in January 2020.