National CORE’s Santa Angelina senior affordable housing community, built on faith-owned land in the heart of Placentia, has earned a 2025 Award of Merit from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.
The elite award recognizes innovation in housing – which perfectly describes the unique partnerships, construction and service program that sets Santa Angelina apart.
Santa Angelina is more than housing – it’s an engaged, service-enriched community linked to the adjacent church and neighborhood. Through paseos, plazas, and courtyards, residents enjoy seamless access to shopping, pharmacies, restaurants and essential services.
Building affordable housing in California brings special challenges. Locations with the greatest level of services often bear prohibitive land costs and lack sufficient space to build. This is especially true of Orange County, one of our nation’s most affluent regions.
But National CORE is shattering those challenges through a groundbreaking partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the City of Placentia that not only delivers housing where it is needed most but which is also inspiring a movement that is accelerating solutions to our generational housing crisis.
Collaborating with community leaders, neighborhood residents and supporters at all levels of the community, National CORE created Santa Angelina on the grounds of the Episcopal Church of the Blessed Sacrament.
This 65-apartment community provides a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments for seniors ages 62 and older who earn less than 60% of the area median income (AMI). Twenty-one apartments are dedicated as permanent supportive housing (PSH) for seniors who have experienced homelessness or were at risk of losing their homes.
Placentia’s affluence ensures these National CORE residents enjoy rare access to robust services – some of the best healthcare available, a surfeit of available restaurants, stores and other essential amenities.
It’s never been more needed.
Seniors represent one of the fastest-growing populations experiencing homelessness. Orange County’s 2024 point-in-time count recorded a 28% increase in overall homelessness over two years, with more than 7,300 people without stable housing – 10% of whom are seniors.
Maggie, 64, was forced to leave her family home while caring for her son, who struggles with advanced muscular dystrophy.
The duo struggled to get by in hotels and motels on her $600 in monthly Social Security income – a ridiculously low amount in high-priced Orange County. As her son’s MD progressed, Maggie had to entrust his care to an assisted living facility, leaving her alone and depressed. A few months later, she was attacked by a dog at her motel, sending her to the hospital. The stress and isolation began to sap her health.
“I was getting sick from the constant stress and isolating myself and it made me have bad thoughts,” Maggie said. “I was so lonely. My son is my best friend, and it was very hard when he had to go to that facility. I was absolutely destroyed.”
Then she discovered Santa Angelina.
Bolstered by the security of a stable home, Maggie’s outlook has brightened. She is ecstatic to be able to live closer to her son and bring home her beloved dog, who had been staying with friends.
“My life is turning around,” she said. “I like that the Santa Angelina area has space to walk around with my dog and to be out and about to meet with other people. I’m still a little reserved but getting out there and being with others is a first step forward.”
Recent Comments