Homeboy Bakery Gets City Grant

Since its old bakery burned down last fall, Homeboy Industries in Boyle Heights hasn’t been able to come up with the dough to build a new one.

But the gang prevention outfit came a step closer Thursday, when Los Angeles Councilman Nick Pacheco presented Father Gregory Boyle with a check for $100,000.

The city grant ceremony was held on Alameda Street near Chinatown, on a lot the group’s umbrella organization, Proyecto Pastoral, is buying for $800,000.

Homeboy Industries, which provides a variety of jobs to about 70 young men and women, is one of several social service programs overseen by Proyecto Pastoral, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Dolores Mission Church.

The new Homeboy Bakery still needs about $500,000 for construction, Boyle said, assuming the project will be approved for an additional $1.5 million in federal funds.

When it opens, probably some time next year, the enterprise that employed 11 young men and women before it burned down last October will far outshine the old bakery on 1st Street, Boyle said.

He said the new two-story building will include a Homegirl Cafe and Catering Service, in addition to the bakery. It also will house offices for other Homeboy Industries businesses, such as landscaping and silk screening.

“This is a good location,” he said of the 33,000-square-foot lot. Its proximity to Union Station and downtown businesses will give the restaurant and catering businesses a good market, Boyle said.

More important, the area is gang-neutral, making it easier for young employees to feel safe.

“This says that our dreams aren’t shattered,” said Mike Garcia, an outreach worker for Homeboy Industries.

“My dreams aren’t to own a mansion or anything,” he said. After years of drug dealing to support his unemployed mother and four younger siblings, he said, “I just want to have a regular life with legitimate money, where the cops aren’t going to harass me. This bakery gives me that new life.”