Since its founding in 1989, Hollywood Community Housing Corporation literally has changed the face of L.A.'s Hollywood and surrounding neighborhoods. For more than 18 years, HCHC has restored and preserved aging historic properties, giving them new life and purpose while revitalizing declining neighborhoods with vibrant new housing complexes for low-income adults and families.

By the late 1980s, the storied opulence of Hollywood had faded. Glitz and glamour had become seediness and decay. Increasing numbers of low-income families, many of them immigrants, had moved to the area, where, faced with a dire shortage of affordable, adequately-sized housing, they too often lived in inhumanely cramped and inappropriate quarters. Historic properties, many evoking the heritage of L.A.'s illustrious history as the film-making capital of the world, were targeted for demolition by profit-minded developers bent on replacing them with lucrative but lower-quality buildings..

Recognizing the destructive trend underway, the 13th Council District office took action. Former Council member Michael Woo, the Community Redevelopment Agency,and the Los Angeles Community Design Center spearheaded a community planning effort by marshaling the resources of long time community leaders, historic preservationists and concerned Hollywood residents. From this effort a community based solution was born: Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (HCHC).

A volunteer board of directors, consisting of community members, laid the foundation for the agency operations for the first two years. In 1991, the organization hired its first full-time staff member and began work on its first development, the rehabilitation of the historic Nelson Dunning House and new construction of 24 adjacent units of affordable housing.

Since then HCHC has developed 18 more housing complexes, creating over 600 units of safe, attractive and centrally-located affordable housing for 1,300 low-income adults and 800 children, with an additional 102 units now in development. Of these, 3 are properties designated as historic, architecturally or culturally significant. Two properties are reserved specifically for seniors and disabled seniors, 63% of HCHC's units are designated for families, 37% for individuals and 30% for disabled and/or formerly homeless.

In 1999, HCHC expanded its mission to provide a wide range of life-enhancing resident services. Currently, our team of resident service professionals provides parenting education, after-school programs, tutoring, child-care referrals, HIV education and prevention services, support groups led by a licensed psychotherapist, case-management, a food bank, and a computer training program for teens, among other services.

The history of HCHC is one of growth and change, of combating decline, and working with people of all ethnicities, ages, income levels and abilities to build a strong, vibrant and prosperous community.