GB Construction has been tapped by TruEvolution to construct its innovative Project Legacy development – a new health and wellness campus providing transitional housing, health and supportive services and administrative offices as part of a public-private partnership between TruEvolution and the Housing Authority of the County of Riverside. The GB Construction contract is for $12.8 million.
Located in a region with diverse communities, the Inland Empire disproportionately experiences health inequities, disparities in access to care, lack of affordable housing, chronic homelessness, and language barriers. Project Legacy is an exciting new endeavor that addresses several of these social determinants of health, and is the only Project Homekey site that will predominantly serve the LGBTQ+ community. Specifically, 80% of those living in the Project Legacy housing program will identify as LGBTQ+, including those living with HIV, youth transitioning out of the foster care system, and senior citizens.
Project Legacy addresses the needs of its under-served demographics by providing housing for vulnerable populations experiencing homelessness through a one-of-a-kind community campus model where residential bungalows and comprehensive supportive services co-exist at the same location. Each of these craftsman-style bungalows will be personified by iconic representations in the community, both living and departed. Three will be named after living LGBTQ+ leaders and icons present: Reverend Benita Ramsey, George M. Johnson, and Twiggy Pucci Garçon. The remaining two residences, the James Baldwin House and Marsha P. Johnson House, will enshrine two historical figures in the LGBTQ+ community whom many have learned from and continue to honor.
On a block-wide site at the edge of downtown Riverside, Project Legacy, designed by Hopson Rodstrom Design, will transform a collection of 1920s bungalows into a transitional housing complex around a shared communal garden. An anchor community and administration building and ancillary gym and laundry structures will complete the campus and provide services to tenants. New porches attached to the rear of each house will provide shaded gathering spaces and a transition zone between the private homes and public garden complete with bleacher seating, large central meeting tree, activity plaza, vegetable beds, walking paths, stormwater swale and lush native planting.
Recently, Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes and Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes secured $10 million in FY21 California State Budget to complete the gap on construction for the project. This collective advocacy was in an effort to not only respond to the homeless and housing crisis in the State of California, but to strengthen the safety net for services for some of the region’s most vulnerable. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2023.
To learn more about Project Legacy, please click here.
To learn more about Hopson Rodstrom Design, please visit: www.h-rd.co
To learn more about TruEvoluton, please visit: https://www.truevolution.org/