On March 13, 2026, folding white chairs reflected the glow of sunshine in the courtyard of the Culver-Palms Methodist Church, a building scheduled to come down to make way for Jubilo Village, Culver City’s first affordable housing development since Tilden Terrace in 2013.
It was a sunny morning for both the church and the Community Corp. of Santa Monica, which have been working in partnership with the City of Culver City to bring to project into reality for almost seven years.
The crowd that gathered for the groundbreaking celebration heard from the Executive Director of the CCSM, Tara Barauskas, who noted the partnership with CPMC was “a match made in heaven,” and applauded the leadership of the church’s former pastor, Rev. Floyd McKeithien, as the originator of the idea. “Faith based housing partnerships are now a trend, and Culver-Palms was the trend setter.”
The current Pastor, Rev. Johan Dodge, spoke about kinship and kindness. He cited a recent interview with Trevor Noah, who offered that being nice and being kind are not the same thing. ” …many people mistake polite behavior for actual care. Niceness is performative, kindness is action.”
Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove told of being asked by Mayor Freddy Puza to help find funding to get the project over the finish line, and Kamlager-Dove said “Even with the current divisions in Washington, we found a way,” and came back with $850,000 in federal money for Jubilo Village. “We must allocate resources in a way that reflects urgent need.”
Mayor Puza also addressed the crowd, noting that “Breaking ground here today is a defining moment for our city. For too long, we did not build [this kind of] housing, and we can see in our current challenges what the results of those policies were. Creating housing for working families will help us to create the future we know is possible.”
While the ceremony was brief, it heard from a number of speakers, including Culver City Vice Mayor Bubba Fish, council member Yasmine-Imani McMorrin, Michelle Persoff, representing Assembly member Isaac Bryan, and Carlos Penilla, representing State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas.
Nedda Ismaili spoke on behalf of City National Bank, which was providing both a construction loan and supporting with an equity donation, and Deb Burkart of the National Equity Fund, who noted that not all of these affordable housing developments were able to make it to the finish line. “This is an important project, and it’s success is important to the whole community.”
Upward Bound House CEO Christine Mirasy-Glasco, stated that bringing people off the street was important work; having somewhere to move them to was essential. She quoted the average price of an apartment, and reminded everyone that “Working families, single parents, they need support. They deserve to be able to flourish and thrive.”
Tonesha Jones, a participant at Upward Bound house, shared very personal feelings about her own journey, and her focus on recovery and creating stability for her family. “To have a place where we can just feels safe; that’s a lot, that’s a lot.”
Jubilo Village will feature amenities such as a community room, reading room, children’s play area, teen play area, community garden, laundry rooms on each floor and outdoor gathering spaces. A subterranean parking lot will include 56 parking spaces (15 of which are EV-ready stalls), three EV-chargers and 44 bicycle stalls. The development will be fully electric and built to high environmental sustainability standards, with construction expected to be completed in 2028.
More than a dozen of the people who had worked for so long to bring the development to the starting point got to grab a ceremonial golden shovel, and dig into some dirt. The ritual was framed with cheers and applause.
Just moments later, actual workers in hard hats began to drill into the old church building, and the work was underway.
