A new kind of foster care campus is planned next to William J. McAdam Park in Palmdale, built around a simple but rarely honored promise: keep brothers and sisters together. The 12-townhome village, developed by the nonprofit Together California, was co-founded by actor Christian Bale and is designed to house sibling groups of up to six children per home rather than scattering them across separate placements, as reported by CBS News Los Angeles.
The 4.67-acre parcel sits in the Antelope Valley region of Los Angeles County, roughly 60 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, according to the City of Palmdale. Together California broke ground on the site on February 7, 2024, and anticipates a 2026 move-in, per the nonprofit's own account of the project's groundbreaking and timeline.
A $22 Million Village Years in the Making
The project carries an estimated overall cost of $22 million to $23.8 million, backed in part by $1.7 million in public funding that the City of Palmdale and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors allocated in 2022, the city's newsflash post notes. Realtor.com's reporting on the launch adds that local government leaders in Palmdale helped secure the property and municipal backing that got the site off the ground.
Bale co-founded Together California with UCLA professor Dr. Eric Esrailian and executive director Tim McCormick after the actor began researching foster care separation back in 2008 while filming *The Dark Knight*, according to Friends of Foster Children. By the time the village broke ground, Bale had spent 16 years on research and fundraising before construction began, per the same account.
Inside the Design: Townhomes, a Citrus Grove and Transitional Studios
Architectural firm AC Martin designed the campus, which includes a 7,000-square-foot community building with a learning lab, a multi-purpose room, administrative offices, a shared kitchen, and drought-tolerant outdoor space featuring a citrus grove, according to AC Martin's project description. The firm's materials also describe solar panels and desert-adapted architecture woven into the campus.
Beyond the 12 three-bedroom townhomes, the village includes two studio apartments set aside as flexible housing for young adults transitioning out of foster care, per AC Martin's portfolio notes. That use matters because youth aging out of foster care face disproportionately high risks of homelessness, as Realtor.com's coverage of the project points out.
Why Sibling Separation Is So Common
The scale of the problem behind the project is stark. Los Angeles has more children in foster care than anywhere else in America, with more than 30,000 children in care at any time, according to Together California's own about-us page.
Keeping siblings together is the project's central aim. Together California's background materials describe the village as a response to sibling separation in Los Angeles County.
Live-In Foster Parents Anchor Each Home
Together California says full-time, professionally trained foster parents will live in the village, whose townhomes are designed to house up to six children, a structure detailed by FosterLove's update on the project. That live-in model is meant to distinguish the village from traditional single-family foster placements, with foster parents receiving ongoing training and support.
The site includes 11 multifamily structures, according to the same FosterLove report, marking steady progress toward full occupancy. As the Palmdale campus moves toward its anticipated 2026 opening, the next test for Together California and Los Angeles County's child welfare system will be how many sibling groups the village can actually serve, and whether the model can be replicated beyond this one 4.67-acre stretch of the Antelope Valley.
