Downtown Los Angeles broke ground Tuesday on a campus meant to do something most developments near a jail do not attempt: offer people leaving incarceration a place to land instead of just a place to pass through. The project combines health care, mental health services, workforce training and reentry support with 124 affordable homes on a site near Men's Central Jail.
The California Endowment and Linc Housing broke ground on what is described as a two-acre downtown Los Angeles campus, according to MyNewsLA.com. The outlet reports the Robert K. Ross Center for Hope and Healing is being developed at 800 N. Main St., near Men's Central Jail. The project's own site, however, describes the plan as transforming a 1.95-acre underutilized backlot at 1000 North Alameda St., according to the Ross Center project website — a discrepancy in the record that remains unreconciled.
The first phase calls for a 66,000-square-foot community care campus offering health care, mental and behavioral health services, workforce development, reentry and youth programs, along with food and basic-needs assistance, per the same report. A second phase will add 124 affordable homes for families and individuals earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income, with the housing phase expected to break ground in 2027.
Who Will Run the Services
Homeboy Industries will operate a workforce development and youth reentry center on site, offering case management, substance-use recovery support, job training and employment programs, the article notes. St. John's Community Health will provide preventive and primary care along with mental and behavioral health services, extending to homeless residents and people affected by the justice system.
The housing portion is planned to include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments alongside gathering spaces, outdoor courtyards, a children's playground and a fitness room. Ten of those units will be reserved for eligible disabled clients under the federal Section 811 Project Rental Assistance Program, and the development will also include two on-site managers' units.
A project element called the Enhanced Targeted Hire Program is intended to create construction and campus jobs specifically for local residents and people affected by the justice system, according to the same account. The California Endowment is providing the land and supplemental capital funding for the project, while Linc Housing is working to secure additional financing and partnerships to carry the development forward.
A Vision Years in the Making
The broader concept behind the campus, known as Hope Village, was developed beginning in 2019 by The California Endowment and Homeboy Industries, aiming to create housing and community services near the county's jail complex. The idea of building a coordinated district of housing, health and wellness services, workforce pathways and community-based supports near Men's Central Jail has circulated for years, according to Linc Housing. Hope Village is a proposed district of housing, health and wellness services, workforce pathways and community-based supports near Men's Central Jail.
At the groundbreaking, Father Greg Boyle said the center offers a different message to people who had been incarcerated, per MyNewsLA.com's account of the event. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez said the project represents the type of investment envisioned under the county’s Care First approach, adding that it will provide housing and support within residents' own communities rather than leaving people to encounter systems of care only during a crisis.
Brenda Solórzano said the center brings the vision of Hope Village to life and offers a national model for alternatives to incarceration, according to the same report. The center is named for Robert K. Ross, who served as president and CEO of The California Endowment for 24 years before retiring in 2024.
Part of a Larger Push Near the Jail
The Ross Center is not the only initiative aimed at reshaping the area around Men's Central Jail. Homeboy Industries and developer Frank McCourt have separately announced a $100 million fundraising campaign for an expansion of the Homeboy Industries campus near Union Station in Chinatown, according to Urbanize LA. McCourt has pledged $10 million to seed that fundraising effort.
That proposed project, called the Fr. Gregory Boyle Center for Radical Kinship, is intended to reimagine the surroundings of Men's Central Jail into what planners are calling Hope Village, Urbanize LA reports, and would include more than 200 units of supportive and transitional housing along with 35,000 square feet of space for mental health care, substance-use disorder treatment and job training. Together, the two efforts suggest a broader, if still unfinished, remake of the blocks surrounding the jail complex.
Construction on the Ross Center's first phase is anticipated to start in 2027, with completion and opening targeted for 2028 or 2029, according to the project's website. The California Endowment selected Linc Housing in early 2023 to lead the planning, design, funding, construction and operation of the development, following a nine-month community engagement process the Endowment ran in 2021 to gauge community needs for the site.
