The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved up to $20.3 million in bond financing for a 74-unit affordable housing complex in Claremont built specifically for veterans, including families displaced by last year's wildfires. The project, called Mercy Claremont, will rise as a three-story building at 1364 N. Towne Avenue.
According to Urbanize LA, the development is expected to cost $47.6 million to build and will include one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments reserved for households earning between 30 and 70 percent of area median income. TCA Architects is designing the contemporary low-rise building, which will also include a landscaped garden area, staff offices, parking, and community space. Mercy Housing California, the nonprofit developer behind the project, aims to break ground in summer 2027 and complete construction by fall 2028, per the same report.
All 73 residential units are designated for veterans, split between 54 apartments for families with a veteran head of household and 19 units set aside for veterans who were previously unhoused, according to Mercy Housing California. One additional unit is reserved for an on-site property manager. New Directions for Veterans, working alongside the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, will provide on-site supportive services, including a full-time case manager handling mental health assistance, addiction treatment referrals, and medication management, with three total staff members offering resident services and financial literacy programming.
A Site With Deep Local History
The project is planned for a 1.89-acre parcel. Mercy Housing California purchased the land using its $47 million California Land Acquisition Fund, a private-equity-style tool the organization launched in April 2022 with partners including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and The California Endowment to snap up land quickly in competitive markets, as detailed by Housing Claremont. That fund let the nonprofit secure the site well before public financing was in place.
The City of Claremont granted entitlement approvals in October 2024 through Senate Bill 35, the state law that allows streamlined, by-right ministerial review without public hearings for projects that are 100% affordable infill housing. The county's newly approved bond financing builds on an earlier commitment: the Board of Supervisors previously awarded a $3.4 million grant to Mercy Claremont, part of a broader $35 million financing package in October 2025 that supported 529 affordable homes across Claremont, Boyle Heights, and unincorporated East Los Angeles.
Wildfire Recovery Meets Veteran Housing
Mercy Claremont was originally conceived as a dedicated community for low-income veteran families and formerly unhoused veterans, but the project was folded into California's broader wildfire relief response following the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires. In January 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom allocated $107.3 million in state housing funds to support nine Los Angeles County developments, including Mercy Claremont, prioritizing survivors displaced by those blazes, according to Patch. That funding came through the state's Multifamily Finance Super NOFA program, designed to accelerate recovery housing without altering local zoning rules.
The project's resident mix and service model are patterned after Baldwin Rose, a veteran housing community Mercy Housing California built in El Monte that opened in 2019 — the organization's second completed veteran community in that city. Tenant screening for Mercy Claremont will include credit checks and will bar applicants with misdemeanor convictions within the past three years, felony convictions within the past four years, or listings on the national sex offender registry, according to Housing Claremont. HUD occupancy rules will also cap density at two people per bedroom plus one additional occupant.
Fitting Into Claremont's Housing Mandate
The development also feeds into Claremont's larger obligations under the state-certified 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment, which requires the city to plan for 1,711 new housing units between 2021 and 2029, including 866 units for low- and very-low-income households. The City of Claremont says state housing officials certified the city's compliance after it identified 38 opportunity sites for new development.
With county bond financing now approved, Mercy Housing California is positioned to receive the remaining financing needed to move the Mercy Claremont project forward. As construction approaches in 2027, one open question will be how tenant prioritization ultimately balances local Claremont housing needs against regional demand from wildfire survivors and unhoused veterans across Los Angeles County.
