Pasadena, Calif. – Marv’s Place, a model public-private partnership that provides permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless families in Pasadena, is being honored with a 2017 Congressional Recognition of Excellence Award.
Marv’s Place, which opened in 2016, was developed by National CORE (National CORE), in partnership with Union Station Homeless Services, the City of Pasadena, the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission, Citibank and First 5 Los Angeles. The 20-unit apartment community is the only permanent supportive housing in the Pasadena area available to formerly homeless families. It combines high-quality affordable housing with transformational social services such as career development, money management classes, and mental-health and substance abuse services.
The Congressional Recognition of Excellence Award (CREA) will be formally presented later this month by U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, who represents California’s 27th District. CREA is a Los Angeles countywide program that showcases and recognizes the various ways federal funding through the HOME Investment Partnership Program and Community Development Block Grants is benefitting communities.
“Marv’s Place demonstrates the need for federal funding. By leveraging federal resources as part of a broader public-private partnership, National CORE was able to help address the needs of homeless families and the challenges this community faced,” said Steve PonTell, President and Chief Executive Officer of National CORE.
The apartment community was financed in part through HOME funds and is seen as a model in the fight to end homelessness. On any given night in Pasadena, more than 600 individuals – many of them children – find themselves on the streets.
“The numbers alone tell us we have a long way to go when it comes to eliminating homelessness, but it is through innovative approaches that we can begin to make meaningful change,” PonTell said
To help ease families’ transition, the apartment homes at Marv’s Place are fully furnished. The life-changing social services located onsite include case managers who create an individual service plan (IPS) designed to help families rebuild their lives.
The overall neighborhood benefits as well. The site on which Marv’s Place was built had been home to a vacant apartment building, known as the Broadway Apartments, where it sat on blocks, having been moved from Fuller Seminary’s campus in a well-meaning, but failed attempt to preserve the building and provide affordable housing.
The new three-story apartment building is beautifully designed in a Mediterranean style with a central courtyard as its focal point. Amenities at Marv’s Place include a community room and kitchen, a computer center, onsite social services provided by Union Station Homeless Services, laundry facilities, an outdoor play area, and an enclosed parking garage and bicycle storage. With a walk score of 90, Marv’s Place is within walking distance of grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, and schools.
Marv’s Place was honored as Supportive Housing Project of the Year by the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing in 2016.

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About National CORE, Hope through Housing
National CORE, based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit developers of affordable housing. National CORE manages nearly 9,000 affordable, senior and market-rate units in California, Arkansas, Texas and Florida. Over its nearly two decade history, the Hope through Housing Foundation has provided more than 2 million hours of transformational social services such as financial literacy training, senior wellness, and preschool and afterschool programs. For more information on National CORE and Hope through Housing, please visit www.nationalcore.org.