Los Angeles based nonprofit Logos Faith Development is testing modular construction as a way to expand its affordable housing program with faith based partners across Southern California. Since its formation in 2017, the organization has worked with religious institutions to convert underutilized church properties into new income producing affordable housing while maintaining property tax exempt status, a structure it uses to draw both developers and investors to projects that can be challenging to finance.
Logos Faith currently estimates its development pipeline at approximately $750 million, representing more than 2,000 affordable units across collaborations with as many as 30 faith based organizations. The group is targeting groundbreaking on five projects per year through 2028 and is evaluating whether modular building methods can help meet that pace.
The test case is the Logos Grant Housing Apartments at 105th Street and Central Avenue in South Los Angeles, where Logos Faith has partnered with Model/Z to deploy modular construction. The site is owned by Grant AME Church, and its characteristics were viewed by the development team as a good fit for a modular approach. While the project is still in the permitting phase, Logos Faith reports that one early result has been a shorter approvals timeline.
Permits for the South Los Angeles project reached Ready to Issue status in about nine months, compared with roughly 18 months that founder and partner Pastor Martin Porter cites as a typical timeframe for similar work. He views that improvement as a tangible benefit as the organization weighs whether to apply modular construction more broadly across its pipeline.
To date, Logos Faith has relied mainly on conventional stick built construction. Completed projects include the 71 unit Casa Paloma community in Orange County and the 49 unit Silver Star Apartments in Los Angeles, while the 138 unit St. Rest Community in Los Angeles has recently broken ground. Modular construction, by contrast, shifts much of the work to a factory setting where units are manufactured, transported to the site and then assembled, with the aim of tightening schedules and labor needs.
Porter points to both personal and professional ties with Model/Z founder Martin Muoto in explaining the decision to collaborate on the South Los Angeles project. He characterizes Muoto as combining vision with a pragmatic view of the housing market and notes that early feedback on the partnership has been positive.
Drawing on his prior leadership roles at national and regional real estate firms, Porter argues that affordable housing can deliver stable, long term returns, in some cases stacking up favorably to market rate investments. That outlook underpins Logos Faith’s willingness to invest in learning how modular works in practice, while still maintaining traditional construction as a core method.
Porter acknowledges that modular can face skepticism from some general contractors and lenders, who may view it as niche or unfamiliar. He also notes persistent doubts in the market about the profitability of affordable housing generally. Even so, he says perceptions appear to be improving as the Logos Grant effort advances and as funders respond to the prospect of producing more units more quickly and at lower cost.
The organization will use data from the South Los Angeles project to determine where modular fits within its broader strategy. The current goal is not to replace conventional construction, but to position modular as a meaningful share of future projects, potentially accounting for about half of the pipeline when sites and conditions are appropriate for high density multifamily development.
Porter cautions that modular is not a one size fits all solution, but views it as an option that deserves serious consideration for developers focused on adding affordable housing at scale on constrained urban sites.
