History

The Weingart Center was originally the El Rey Hotel, a downtown building constructed in 1926. In time, the El Rey came under the ownership of the Weingart Foundation, a nonprofit California charitable organization, which donated the building to the Volunteers of America (VOA) for the purpose of providing a full-range of housing, detoxification, and social service programs otherwise unavailable in the downtown Skid Row area.

With support from the business community, the Weingart Foundation, Los Angeles County, the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, and a $1.6 million federal Urban Development Action Grant, the re-named Weingart Center opened in 1983 as the most comprehensive "one-stop" service center for homeless men and women in the Western United States. Some of the services offered in the building included a County-operated medical clinic, hot meals served in Skid Row's largest cafeteria, a VOA-operated drop-in-center for inebriates, beds for long-term alcohol recovery, and CRA and County funded beds as an alternative to sleeping on the streets.

There were high hopes that the Center would not only provide much needed services on Skid Row, but that it would also function as a beacon that would attract additional investment to revitalize the neighborhood. Despite the best efforts of City and County agencies, and the hard work of dedicated individuals, many of these hopes did not come to fruition, as the downtown homeless population grew increasingly larger through the 1980s and '90s, and such large numbers became increasingly difficult to adequately serve.

Ownership of the Center changed hands in 1984, passing from VOA to the newly formed Weingart Center Association (WCA) known as the Weingart Center- a nonprofit agency with a strong business orientation; WCA has operated the Center ever since. Nearby, are also WCA’s Access Center, and the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center. The Weingart Center is now a fully rehabilitated, 11-story shelter that provides health and human services to homeless adult men and women. As such, the facility provides safe, secure residential and supportive services to over 600 clients nightly, in fully furnished rooms and dormitories.

Today, WCA is financially stable and is widely respected as the service organization that has maintained the Weingart Center as the premiere agency of its kind in the West, and as a model for the nation.