2022 Exemplary Project: La Frontera Center of Hope Apartments

In May 2022, La Frontera’s Center of Hope Apartments opened in Tucson to assist low-income families and individuals experiencing homelessness. The 100-unit project took more than five years of planning and $14 million from nine different sources to complete, including a grant from the Home Matters Arizona Fund. 

As the capstone to a three-phase, multi-use facility which includes a 150-bed emergency shelter and medical clinic, this project is considered one of the best in the country of its kind, due to this multi-tiered and collaborative approach to addressing many of the issues around homelessness. La Frontera’s Center of Hope Apartments adds to the overall Center of Opportunity homeless campus with not just housing, but a variety of wraparound services, including a job-training center and educational opportunities from Pima Community College.

To make this project possible, the management team at La Frontera took over an old, disused hotel building near their administrative center and integrated it into their larger homeless campus. 

"It was different than anything we've ever done. It was more complex. There was a lot of heavy lifting. It was the type of thing that most people would walk away from," said La Frontera Arizona President and CEO, Dan Ranieri.
For many, these new homes provide stability. The cost of rent is based off each tenant's income, and no tenant pays more than 30% of their monthly income toward rent and utilities. If they have no income, they don't pay anything and a subsidy pays 100% of the rent and utilities.

Public partners for this project include the Arizona Department of Housing through its Trust Fund, the Pima County Industrial Development Authority which issued bonds for its development, and Pima County, which committed the provision of federal funds to the project.

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