The Oaks | Transitional-Age Youth Housing

The Oaks transforms a formerly blighted Encino motel into a welcoming home for transitional-age youth experiencing or emerging from homelessness. Developed by Hope the Mission through California’s Homekey program, the 26-room, 38-bed community provides housing alongside mental health and behavioral counseling, life-skills coaching, one-on-one case management, job training and placement, and permanent-housing navigation.

The design reimagines the motel as a place of dignity, healing, and belonging. Along Ventura Boulevard, new landscaping and gardens replace a neglected frontage and give the property a welcoming presence on the street. Within the site, the former motor court has become a landscaped courtyard with intimate meditation gardens, gathering spaces, and quiet places for reflection. The architecture and landscape create a setting that feels residential, protected, and grounded in community.

The project initially faced considerable opposition from neighbors concerned about bringing transitional housing to the site. Those concerns formed an important backdrop to the design and development process. The completed building ultimately had a very different presence than the property it replaced. At the opening, neighbors approached the design team to thank them for transforming what had been a blighted motel into one of the most attractive properties on the block.

The Oaks demonstrates how good design can support vulnerable residents while improving the neighborhood around them. A property once associated with neglect and transience now provides young adults with a stable place to live, access to services, gardens, community, and a path toward permanent housing.