Homeboy Industries will convert the Monastery of the Angels into a medical facility

Current and former gang members have long come to Homeboy Industries to get their lives back on track, lured in part by their trust in Father Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest who founded the nonprofit nearly 40 years ago.

At Homeboy’s headquarters in Chinatown, people get jobs, tattoos, treatments and more. But in recent years, Homeboy said more and more people are coming in needing more help than the nonprofit can provide.

Dealing with substance abuse and mental health issues that require supervision and a place to sleep while in treatment, Homeboy has had to refer those people to outside organizations that provide beds.

That will change.

On Tuesday, Homeboy Industries acquired the Monastery of the Angels, a hidden oasis in the Hollywood Hills where Dominican nuns lived for nearly 90 years before leaving the site in 2022.

Homeboy plans to convert the 4-acre Spanish Colonial Revival property into a 60-bed community where ex-convicts and gang members can sleep and receive treatment.

The site, to be named Home of Angels, will provide 50 beds for substance abuse treatment and an additional 10 for people with serious mental health problems. There will also be inpatient addiction and mental health services.

Boyle said that by keeping people within Homeboy for all their services, there is a better chance that they will be successful.

“They’ll go, ‘Oh it’s Homeboy,’ ” Boyle said. “They will feel seen here, just as they are seen” at our headquarters.

The Monastery of the Angels has a storied history.

In 1924, a group of Dominican nuns founded the monastery. Ten years later, with the backing of some of LA’s wealthiest families including the Dohenys and Hancocks, they bought a large tract of land in Beachwood Canyon that was owned by a copper mine and moved there.

Local Catholic women raised funds to build the nuns a new cloister, chapel and office on the site in 1948, buildings designed by renowned architect Wallace Neff.

Those are the buildings that stand today. For years, neighbors have come to pray in the chapel and buy the famous pumpkin bread and candy. But reflecting a national trend of declining religious orders and congregations, the last monks left in 2022.

Sister Joseph Marie of Child Jesus, head of the Dominican Sisters of the Monastery of the Angels, said that in choosing who to sell the property to, the nuns “felt a deep responsibility to entrust it to a manager whose work reflected our own values.”

“In Homeboy, we see a partner who respects the spirit of this place and will carry forward its legacy as a haven of care, restoration and hope,” he said in a statement.

Homeboy said he plans to keep the location’s Spanish-style exterior and will continue to sell the popular pumpkin bread and sweets, though there may be some vacancies during the transition. It is also working to finally allow community members to return to pray in the chapel.

Treatment centers often face the comfort of neighbors concerned about safety, but Homeboy said the facility will be staffed and supervised around the clock and that “has a long history of running safe, well-run programs throughout Los Angeles.”

“If the Nazarenes see [our plans] since they really continue their service for perhaps a century, the hope is that the neighbors will feel … in good hands,” said Boyle.

Homeboy was founded by Boyle in 1988 and now bills itself as “the world’s largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry program.”

Most of the people Homeboy serves are homeless, sleeping in their cars or couch surfing, Boyle said.

Among other things, Homeboy runs an 18-month program where interns work in all 14 nonprofit social enterprises, including food service, dog grooming and electronics recycling. At the end of the 18 months, Homeboy finds them jobs outside of the non-profit organization.

Shirley Torres, CEO of Homeboy, said that Home of the Angels will prepare people to enter the program.

“This could be the bridge that will help in getting the full capacity that is suitable for people,” he said.

Major funding for the new recovery center comes from the California Department of Health Care Services, and Homeboy is partnering with the Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse to run the site. The opening is scheduled for the end of next year.

Father Greg Boyle, center, founder of Homeboy Industries, walks through the courtyard of the Monastery of the Angels with others.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

In addition to regular drug and mental health treatment, meditation walks are planned, including one through the courtyard of a Spanish-style building and another to the top of a hill containing a statue of Jesus overlooking the city.

There will also be educational, health and wellness classes and other group events, in part aimed at combating the growing loneliness that has been blamed for fueling people’s mental health and addictions.

“The cure for addiction is community,” said Boyle. “That’s what we always try to encourage.”

Inez Salcido, a former drug addict and gang member, said Homeboy welcomed her when other gangs turned her away.

As Homeboy’s director of recovery and wellness, he will play a key role in developing Home of the Angels programs.

“This is a dream come true,” he said. “It’s very exciting to see how this will take off and grow.”

Times staff writer Deborah Netburn contributed to this report.