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Fairfax Tower

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In the midst of the 1980 presidential election the Carter administration was looking for ways to strengthen its popularity among potential Jewish voters. Taking advantage of these fortuitous circumstances, the Young Israel Development Corporation (YICDC) secured an eight million dollar federal grant for the 150-unit Fairfax Tower. The announcement of the grant was heralded with much this pomp and circumstance: the ceremony featured Vice President Walter Mondale, sporting a yarmulke for the occasion, touting the federally-funded housing project as a way to “fulfill that basic Biblical requirement that we honor our fathers and mothers.”
 
More than a political symbol though, the Tower also fulfilled a concrete communal need. The  apartment complex--equipped with kosher dining facilities, a landscaped garden, and an indoor/outdoor activity space-- was intended to provide local seniors with affordable, subsidized housing adjacent to commercial Fairfax Avenue’s shopping facilities, public transportation, and social service centers. As the Los Angeles Times reported, many local seniors who were “caught in the all-too-familiar vise that squeezes the elderly--rising rents and fixed incomes” saw the eight-story tower as an opportunity to live in an affordable and comfortable Jewish setting among peers. At the Tower's groundbreaking in 1981, 80-year-old Rose Winer explained to journalist John Mitchell, “Here is a real Jewish place. They are going to have Kosher meals here. I am a Jewish woman. I’m older. I need a place like this, for older people. You know, it’s very lonely. I’m by myself.”
 
 

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