Los Angeles County officials broke ground this week on a 13,000-square-foot reentry facility directly across from Men's Central Jail, marking a permanent expansion of a program that has already helped more than 12,000 people since it began in June 2024. The site, at 955 N. Vignes St. in downtown Los Angeles, will become the county's first dedicated post-release navigation center built specifically to catch people the moment they walk out of custody.
The project, known as Warm Landing Place, currently operates out of a service trailer adjacent to the Inmate Reception Center, according to MyNewsLA.com. Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis said reentry begins the moment someone walks out the doors of a jail, framing the new building as a way to formalize support that has so far been delivered on an improvised basis. The program has also established a nearby 29-bed short-term transitional housing site as part of its existing footprint, per the same report.
Once complete, the three-level facility will offer 20 peer respite beds for people needing short-term stabilization, alongside voluntary housing assistance, behavioral health resources, health screenings and counseling. It will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, connecting participants with interim housing, transportation, food, water, hygiene supplies, behavioral health support, substance-use referrals and employment resources, according to the outlet's reporting.
A County Sheriff and a Reform Agency Team Up
The effort pairs the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department with the Justice, Care and Opportunities Department, the agency the Board of Supervisors created in November 2022 to streamline services across the county, according to LA County JCOD. Sheriff Robert Luna said the partnership supports successful transitions back into communities and aims to reduce recidivism, the news service reported. JCOD Director Songhai Armstead said the program provides resources, dignity and support from release onward, according to the same account.
The outlet quoted Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella in its coverage of the design-build project, which includes demolition of the existing single-story structure on the parcel and construction of a new building using trauma-informed design principles. Public Works issued a request for proposals for the design-build project, according to LA County Public Works.
From a $1.8 Million Office Building to a State-Funded Campus
The Board of Supervisors first approved a plan to purchase the Vignes Street property in May 2024 for $1.84 million, for what was then envisioned as a modest 10-to-15-bed operation, according to LAist. The board later established Warm Landing Place as a capital project in March and authorized Public Works to proceed with design and preconstruction, the MyNewsLA.com report noted. The Justice, Care and Opportunities Department was selected to receive a conditional state grant of more than $8.5 million from the California Department of Health Care Services, per the outlet's account.
The Los Angeles County JCOD confirmed the precise figure: on March 11, 2026, the state formally awarded the department a conditional grant of $8,769,750 through Round 2 of its Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program, funding the 20 peer respite beds and behavioral health space at the site, according to County of Los Angeles JCOD. That conditional grant will support expanded behavioral health infrastructure at the facility, MyNewsLA.com reported, and the California Department of Health Care Services provided it through the bond-funded infrastructure program.
A Corridor of Diversion Projects Near an Aging Jail
Data cited by Solis's office and reported by LAist shows that more than 60 percent of the estimated 75,000 unsheltered residents in Los Angeles County have spent time in the criminal justice system, underscoring the risk that people leaving custody without support can fall into chronic homelessness. The new center is on Vignes Street, as is the Hilda L. Solis Care First Village, a roughly $50 million, 232-bed modular housing campus that opened its doors in April and reached full occupancy by May 2021 on land slated for a parking garage serving Men's Central Jail, according to Urbanize LA.
JCOD's broader work is funded through the Care First Community Investment initiative stemming from 2020's voter-approved Measure J, which directs 10 percent of unrestricted county general funds into community programs and has distributed over $350 million to local organizations through 2026, per the county's own reporting. The initiative also supports community-based organizations.
The groundbreaking arrives even as the county's larger promise to shut down Men's Central Jail remains unresolved. Although the Board of Supervisors voted in 2020 to close the jail, and a Jail Closure Implementation Team exists, the jail's closure timeline remains unresolved amid efforts to expand community treatment capacity, according to LAist. Hoodline has reported separately on campaign proposals to demolish the jail outright as part of the ongoing debate over the facility's future.
