Donor, Group Create Housing Fund

Philanthropist Glorya Kaufman has partnered with the Entertainment Community Fund to create five new affordable housing projects for artists in Los Angeles County over the next 10 years.

Kaufman has created a new revolving investment fund for the Entertainment Community Fund to increase the region’s affordable housing for artists via its Actors Fund Housing Development Corp.

The amount of Kaufman’s donation was not disclosed.  

Through offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Fund – formerly known as The Actors Fund – serves individuals in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance with programs including social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and secondary employment and training services. 

Kaufman supported the fund in 2018 with a sizeable donation that established the Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Theater at the Rita Moreno Arts Building, part of the Hollywood Arts Collective. The Moreno building is set to open next year.

The Hollywood Arts Collective is a $125 million affordable housing project in Hollywood. It consists of two buildings, the Moreno and the Cicely Tyson Residential Building, which includes 151 units of affordable housing.

Keith McNutt, the Entertainment Community Fund’s Western Region executive director, said that Kaufman goes above and beyond to show her compassion and care for others through her multitude of philanthropic endeavors.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath said that artists are critical to thriving, connected, and vibrant communities.

“It’s wonderful to see how the Entertainment Community Fund, with the support of Glorya Kaufman, is making continuous investments in affordable housing for Los Angeles County artists,” Horvath, whose district includes a big part of the central and northeast San Fernando Valley, said. “This partnership is an excellent example of how working across sectors lifts us out of our homelessness crisis as well as honors the contributions of artists to our communities and the important role that art plays in shaping our culture.” 

Kaufman, a Detroit native, met and married building contractor Donald Bruce Kaufman in the early 1950s. He went on to start KB Home. When her husband died in a plane crash in 1983, Kaufman began pouring her energies into philanthropy and established the Glorya Kaufman Foundation.