Homes once slated for destruction to expand 710 Freeway will now be fixed up for low-income homeowners

After languishing for decades due to a contentious freeway project that never got built, empty homes in El Sereno that were once slated for demolition are now being prepared for new owners.

Leaders of San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity announced plans Friday to purchase and rehab some of the vacant properties currently owned by Caltrans. The state’s transportation department originally bought the homes to clear a path for a connection between the 710 and 210 freeways.

With those construction plans now officially dead, Caltrans has started putting the homes up for sale in batches. SGV Habitat officials say they’re closing on deals to buy 16 of the vacant properties. They plan to fix them up and sell them to low-income, first-time homebuyers.

“The oldest house that we're looking to purchase was actually acquired by Caltrans in 1961,” Bryan Wong, CEO of SGV Habitat, told LAist. “We're excited to jump in and get these things ready to go.”

The history behind El Sereno’s many vacant homes

Aerial view over time of the neighborhoods where the 710 extension was planned. Other properties were bought by the state along the route, but not demolished.

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Courtesy City of Pasadena/UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

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Caltrans bought hundreds of homes in the 1950s and 1960s in preparation for the 710 connection project. Originally a surface-level freeway that would have run through El Sereno and South Pasadena, the plans later morphed into an eight-lane underground tunnel.

After much resistance from surrounding communities, the $6 billion plan was officially killed when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law ending the project in 2019. That decision left these El Sereno properties with an uncertain fate.

A no-trespassing sign reading “state property” is taped to a boarded-up window in a home owned by Caltrans in El Sereno.

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David Wagner

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LAist

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Caltrans has rented out some of the properties to tenants. But many of the homes have remained empty and boarded up, becoming dilapidated eyesores. In 2021, state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo ushered a bill through the legislature to put the properties up for sale at their original acquisition price, as long as housing organizations agreed to use them as affordable rentals or sell them as affordable single-family homes.

Caltrans spokesperson Lauren Wonder said the department recently awarded 37 of the properties to housing organizations through a formal bidding process.

“No homeowners have lived in these homes since the ‘60s, ‘70s, or ‘80s, depending on when they were acquired,” Wonder told LAist via email.

Who will be eligible to buy the homes?

This map, which is oriented North to South from left to right, shows the location of many of the properties bought to make way for the 710 expansion. SGV Habitat is working to acquire 36 of them. Credit: Courtesy City of L.A.

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Wong said Habitat plans to remodel some of the homes, but others with extensive damage will need to be torn down. Some of the properties are completely vacant, requiring brand new construction. Wong said SGV Habitat plans to split some of the lots and build a total of 24 homes of varying sizes, some for individuals and some for larger families.

Once that work is finished, these homes will be occupied by actual homeowners for the first time in decades. The sales will be limited to first-time homeowner households earning up to 80% of the area median income. That’s $110,950 for a family of four in L.A. County, or $77,700 for a single-person household.

Wong said giving working families a chance to own a home in a neighborhood like El Sereno is crucial at a time when young adults — including his own two sons, now in their 20s — are fleeing California in search of affordable housing.

“The prospect of owning a house is just almost impossible, unless you have help from a relative,” Wong said. “When you lose that stability, you lose the fabric of communities.”

Families selected to own the homes will pay no more than 30% of their income on monthly mortgage payments, substantially bringing down the cost of ownership compared with L.A. County’s current median home price of $805,100.

The homes will also come with affordability agreements barring sales at market rates for the next 45 years, a move to prevent these new homeowners from making a windfall on a quick sale.

What about the Reclaimers?

Wong said all of the homes Habitat is buying are currently vacant. But during the pandemic, other Caltrans-owned homes have been occupied by formerly unhoused Angelenos who say the region’s crushing rents and home prices have led them to “reclaim” the homes.

Sandra Saucedo moved into a vacant Caltrans-owned home early in the COVID-19 pandemic after living in her car for years. The single mom said she became unhoused after losing her job as a nurse. Moving here helped her reunite with her children, she said, after they had been living with in-laws.

Sandra Saucedo with Reclaiming Our Homes stands outside the El Sereno home where she has lived with her children since 2020.

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David Wagner

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LAist

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The Housing Authority of the City of L.A. gave Saucedo and other members of Reclaiming Our Homes two years to stay and look for permanent housing, but Saucedo said they were never able to help her find an affordable alternative in the area. She and other “reclaimers” are now fighting eviction cases in court.

When asked what she thinks about Caltrans selling some of its homes to various nonprofits, Saucedo said it feels like the Reclaimers are being cut out of the conversation.

“Habitat for Humanity is not really looking to house any of the Reclaimers,” Saucedo said. “Their affordable housing is not affordable for all of us.”

The Reclaimers had hoped to see Caltrans sell more of the homes to the El Sereno Community Land Trust with the goal of keeping them not just “affordable,” but “deeply affordable.” Caltrans sold one property to the land trust.

Stay tuned for home sales timeline

Wong said the Reclaimers are welcome to apply for the homes once they’re put up for sale, just like everyone else who meets the eligibility requirements. He said Habitat aims to sell at least half the properties to households already living or working in El Sereno.

Caltrans officials confirmed that two of the homes going to SGV Habitat have already closed escrow. Wong said there’s still work to do on transferring the titles of the properties. The timeline for when the properties will be put up for sale is still being worked out.