Homeboy Industries gang program to expand near Men’s Central Jail

Homeboy Industries had launched a fundraising campaign to raise $100 million for a major expansion of its downtown facilities.

The gang member rehabilitation center has big plans to improve its campus near Men’s Central Jail downtown to house more people and teach more skills.

Homeboy Industries founder Father Greg Boyle and real estate developer Frank McCourt announced a campaign Friday to fund a complex that would provide temporary housing for people released from prison and provide services such as healthcare, drug addiction treatment, job training and career development.

McCourt, founder of McCourt Partners and former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, pledged the first $10 million to launch the campaign. Homeboy hopes to raise the remainder from corporate and philanthropic organizations as well as private donors over the next five years.

Homeboy was founded 37 years ago to help thousands of formerly incarcerated people and youth involved in gangs learn new skills and avoid returning to jail or prison.

Boyle said Homeboy currently has “the largest gang intervention rehab reentry program on the planet,” with 300 staff members working at a time and 500 interns, many of whom have completed the rehab program themselves.

Among the well-known businesses that employ interns Evboyu Oven And house girl cafe In Chinatown.

Boyle said a successful expansion could set a national example of how to break the cycle of young offenders returning to prison instead of becoming productive citizens because they see no other path forward.

“We are providers of hope for people who are strangers to hope,” he said.

Temporary housing will help them get their footing, he said, because 70 percent of the program’s participants are effectively homeless, sleeping in their cars or couch surfing.

Boyle said the first phase will be a 200-unit residence built on a parcel where damaged police cars were previously stored.

Next will be 35,000 square feet of space dedicated to essential services for interns, including mental health care, substance use disorder treatment, job training and career development.

Boyle said the expansion, designed by Culver City architecture firm KFA, will expand Homeboy Industries’ capacity to provide education, legal aid, healthcare and re-entry services. Other services include tattoo removal.

Father Greg Boyle, wearing glasses and a white beard, walks to City Hall with program enrollees at Homeboy Industries for the Father Greg Boyle Day observance ceremony on May 17, 2024 in Los Angeles. The empty space behind the fence is planned to be part of Homeboy Industries’ expansion along Alameda Avenue in Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Fr. as part of the expanded Homeboy campus known as. Gregory Boyle Center for Radical Kinship, Homeboy Art Academy It will expand to a new 5,000-square-foot space where hundreds of people can learn about creative expression in a variety of art forms.

Boyle said the arts program is among 14 social enterprises operated by Homeboy, which include food service, dog grooming and electronics recycling.

Boyle said that during an 18-month training program, trainees worked at all 14 social enterprises and gained new skills. “Once their 18 months are up, we find jobs outside Homeboy,” he said.

The Homeboy project aims to expand a cluster of charitable services in the neighborhood, including temporary housing for the homeless provided by the Weingart Center and an affordable housing and medical services complex planned by the California Endowment.

McCourt said the $10 million commitment is intended to “pump it up” to get the expansion started, and that his firm will provide real estate expertise to help direct design, construction and other aspects of the real estate development.

McCourt attended Jesuit schools, including Georgetown University, and said he was impressed by the approach Boyle, a Jesuit priest, took in addressing what McCourt saw as the “dehumanization” of people facing incarceration, gang life and other hardships.

“We need to get back to treating people with dignity, respect and providing opportunities,” he said. “Economic development helps because it brings jobs and vitality, but it’s really about caring for people.”