According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, more than 146,000 Americans over the age of 55 experienced homelessness in 2024.
Finding affordable senior housing has become increasingly difficult, but in Los Angeles, a new development on what was once called “Mortuary Row” has opened up new possibilities.
The 16-block square in Los Angeles used to be home to countless funeral homes.
One of the largest — Pierce Brothers Mortuary — closed a few years ago. It was briefly a church, but attendance dropped during the pandemic, and now, it’s become an affordable housing complex for area seniors.
Called Washington View Apartments, the building — and its former hearse garage — is now home to 100 elderly neighbors who have their pick of 122 units that cost 30-60% of the area median income. The developer has also designated 91 of the units to formerly homeless residents.
In addition to a $33 million construction loan from a private bank, the Los Angeles city government lended an additional $12 million to revitalize the building, which was once the first full-service funeral home in Los Angeles.
The former Pierce Brothers Chapel had a storied history before its pivot to senior housing. Over the years, the chapel suffered two fires and withstood long-term damage. The adaptive reuse project has rehabilitated the front of the building and its chapel, its historic bell tower, and red tile roof.
The chapel was listed as a cultural-historic landmark by the city of Los Angeles, and developers worked to ensure this new development would not infringe on the building’s preservation. In fact, the Washington View Apartments were named a winner of the city’s 2023 Preservation Design Award for Reconstruction.
“When the project began, the Spanish Colonial revival-style mortuary was a partial ruin,” a web page for the awards summarized, adding that the small chapel is now its own studio apartment, and the large gathering space is a community area for residents.
“The stained-glass windows were repaired, restored, or reconstructed,” the summary concluded. “The mortuary and converted garage received a seismic upgrade and, with the courtyard, are ADA-compliant.”
All of this work has resulted in everyday people moving in and making themselves at home. In addition to apartments, the community includes three recreation rooms, open community spaces, and offices where residents can access case management and adult education classes.
“It’s a one-stop shop,” Louis Juarez, a resident of the complex, joked to The New York Times about living so close to the area’s remaining funeral homes.
But then he got serious: “I love it here,” Juarez, who before this spent a year living in a homeless shelter, said. “Every morning I wake up and it relieves all the stress from my life.”
You may also like: NY churches and developers work together to build affordable housing: 'A model of how real estate should be'
A version of this article was originally published in The 2026 Home Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image courtesy of Washington View Apartments
