Linc Housing is ready to put its Long Beach headquarters on the chopping block so more local families can get a roof over their heads.
The nonprofit has filed plans with the City of Long Beach to demolish its existing office campus at 3590 Elm Avenue, just north of the 405 Freeway, and replace it with a five-story, roughly 145,000-square-foot affordable housing complex. The project would bring 109 new homes, ground-floor offices and parking for about 69 vehicles, with apartments aimed at households earning roughly 30 to 70 percent of area median income.
According to Urbanize LA, Linc's May filing outlines a single five-story building that would combine those 109 residential units with on-site offices for the nonprofit, plus the 69 parking spaces. The existing office buildings on the site would be razed to make way for the new construction, shifting the property from a traditional office campus to a primarily residential use with a nonprofit back-of-house component.
The housing would span a mix of deeply affordable and moderately affordable levels, with units reserved for families earning between 30 and 70 percent of area median income. That income targeting is meant to catch households that are shut out of market-rate rents but do not qualify for the very lowest-income housing.
From 69 Units To 109
The new proposal reflects a sizable bump from what was previously floated in city records. The City of Long Beach's FY 2026 adopted budget notes an exclusive negotiation agreement with Linc for 69 affordable rental units at 3590 Elm Avenue. That document from the City of Long Beach also tags the site as a high-resource area for lower-income families.
Linc's May filing now puts the target at 109 homes, nearly 40 more units than the earlier budget reference suggested. The city agreement laid the groundwork, but the latest plan shows Linc trying to squeeze more housing value out of the same parcel.
County Cash Gives Project a Boost
The project is not just a paper exercise. It already has a major public funding pledge attached. At a May 18 event, the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA) announced a $39.8 million financing package for the Elm Avenue development, according to a press release from Linc Housing.
In that release, Linc President and COO Suny Lay Chang called LACAHSA's commitment "a catalyst for the affordable housing Long Beach families desperately need." The money does not guarantee the building will rise, but it puts a big chunk of the capital stack on firmer footing as the plan moves through local approvals.
The $39.8 million is part of a broader spending push. LACAHSA highlighted the Long Beach project as one piece of roughly $255 million in Measure A funded investments for housing production and homelessness prevention, also detailed in the Linc Housing announcement.
A preliminary credit memo in county records from LACAHSA also shows the 3590 Elm proposal scoring favorably in the agency's Notice of Funding Availability process. That preliminary nod signals the project is competitive in the county's affordable housing pipeline, which can be the difference between a plan that sits in a file and a project that actually breaks ground.
Linc’s Long Beach Footprint Keeps Growing
The Elm Avenue proposal is not arriving in a vacuum. Linc is already busy elsewhere in the city. The nonprofit recently broke ground on a 73-unit affordable family development at 4151 E. Fountain Avenue, another sign that Long Beach's affordable housing pipeline is picking up momentum. Together, the Fountain Avenue project and the new Elm Avenue filing highlight Linc's expanding presence in the city, as noted by Urbanize LA.
For 3590 Elm, the next steps are less glamorous but absolutely crucial. The project still has to clear Long Beach's entitlement process, undergo environmental review and make it through any required public hearings before any demolition crews show up at the current headquarters. City filings and meeting agendas will map out the timeline from here, and those will determine how quickly Linc can trade in its office campus for 109 homes aimed at families feeling the squeeze of Long Beach's housing market.
