A former rice cake factory in downtown Los Angeles is now serving up affordable housing for hundreds near one of the city’s largest homeless populations.
The nonprofit Little Tokyo Service Center has opened The Umeya, a 175-unit complex on the site of the century-old rice cake company near Skid Row. The $100 million, six-story project includes 88 units of permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless residents and 87 apartments for low-income households, as well as 13,000 square feet of community and commercial space.
“We’re going to move people in who might not have survived another year or two on the street, but they have a completely different outcome now because of this housing,” said a statement from Josh Hoffman, director of homeless services at Little Tokyo Service Center. The group has developed more than 1,350 affordable units citywide and has five additional projects in its pipeline; it also provides community social services in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles.
The Umeya opens as Los Angeles grapples with a housing affordability and homelessness crisis. A recent University of Southern California report found that LA County has completed fewer than 100,000 housing units since 2021, far short of the 700,000 units required by 2029, including nearly 300,000 affordable homes. Vacancy rates are among the lowest in the country, and average rents are 32% above the national average.
Homelessness in Los Angeles has ticked down for a second year in a row, with the 2025 point-in-time count showing a 3.4% drop in the city and a 4% decline countywide, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. But with more than 72,000 people still unhoused across the county, many living in tents, cars or makeshift shelters, officials and real estate professionals say the crisis remains staggering despite recent progress.