St. Joseph Center in the News
St. Joseph Center works with local and national media to share news about our mission to address homelessness and poverty in the community. If you are interested in conducting media coverage of St. Joseph Center, please get in touch with us at publicrelations@stjosephctr.org.
- Joi Richardson, VP of External Affairs & Communications — jrichardson@stjosephctr.org
- Ty Andrews, Senior Communications Specialist — tyandrews@stjosephctr.org
A Shared Table: ChefsGiving Opens St. Joseph Center’s 50-Year Celebration
St. Joseph Center’s annual ChefsGiving in Venice was a huge success. Top local chefs, including celebrity Chef Bradley Miller, Emporium Thai, and Levain Bakery, served 150 guests to celebrate our 50th year of supporting the community.
“Chefsgiving is about more than food,” said Dr. Ryan J. Smith, St. Joseph Center’s President and CEO. “It’s about breaking bread together, honoring community, and uplifting the next generation.”
Jimmy Kimmel opens ‘Big, Beautiful Food Bank’ as Snap cuts hit families amid shutdown
A huge, heartfelt thank you to Jimmy Kimmel, Molly McNearney and the Jimmy Kimmel Live! team for opening the ‘Big, Beautiful Food Bank’ to support St. Joseph Center and other local charities. This action is directly helping us provide stability and essential supplies to individuals and families, including those who are unhoused.
The late-night TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live! is stepping up to help during the ongoing US federal government shutdown by opening a new center for food donations.
The ABC program announced the program, titled “the Jimmy Kimmel Live Big, Beautiful Food Bank” on Instagram on Tuesday, just after Donald Trump reaffirmed his plan to block Snap benefits despite a federal judge’s earlier
order for the administration to use emergency funds to continue the food assistance program.
“Cutting SNAP benefits creates uncertainty for American children, seniors and families,” the post said. “To support our community members in need, we’re starting a donation center in our Hollywood backlot to benefit the @LAFoodBank & @StJosephCtr … If you are in LA, please come by to donate food and if you are not, please consider supporting
your local food banks.”
Homeless Service Providers Worry That Funding Cuts Will Reverse the City’s Progress on Homelessness
The latest report from six L.A. County homeless service providers shows that while progress has been made, we are at a crossroads. As St. Joseph Center CEO, Dr. Ryan Smith, shared with Calo News, “We are excited about the decrease in homelessness…yet tectonic changes are happening in the homeless service sector.”
Historic funding cuts and ongoing economic headwinds are threatening to reverse the progress we’ve worked so hard to achieve. We are already seeing layoffs across the sector. In the words of Dr. Smith, “To sustain decreases in homelessness, you have to fund the folks who are doing the work.”
We see progress when we allocate resources with our values. This is a critical time to advocate for sustainable funding to ensure that our neighbors continue to have access to life-saving services.
Serenity Apartments Opens in South Los Angeles, Expanding Housing for Seniors
On August 21, Serenity Apartments—a new mixed-use, 50-unit affordable rental community for formerly homeless and low-income seniors—celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The $30 million development, located at 1623 W. Manchester Avenue, marks the City of Los Angeles’ 100th Proposition HHH housing project and will provide permanent supportive housing with 36 units reserved for chronically homeless and unhoused older adults.
St. Joseph Center is proud to serve as the social service provider lead for Serenity Apartments. Our team will ensure residents not only have a safe and stable home, but also access to on-site support, including case management, mental health services, benefits assistance, and connections to health care and community programs tailored for seniors.
The development was made possible through a public-private partnership led by John Stanley, Inc., Concerned Citizens Community Involvement (CCCI), and Innovative Housing Opportunities (IHO). Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, faith leaders from Southside Church of Christ, and community partners joined the celebration, honoring the vision first imagined by the late Dr. Carl C. Baccus in 1979. Future ground-floor space will also house programming by the Los Angeles Urban League, further anchoring the project as a hub of stability and opportunity in South Los Angeles.
Bread & Roses Café Feeds the Unhoused in a Restaurant-style Setting with Dignity
California Live’s Amber Pfister is in Venice Beach chatting with Chefs James Cunningham and Cristela Alvarado at St. Joseph Center’s Bread and Roses Café. Our eatery serves hot, nutritious meals to people experiencing homelessness in a restaurant-style setting that fosters dignity and respect. Meals are made fresh daily by a professional chef, and a dedicated case manager is on-site to connect guests to the services they need to get back on their feet.
Declining Homelessness Is Now A Trend In Los Angeles County
For the second year in a row, unsheltered homelessness is down across Los Angeles County and the City of L.A., beyond the margin of error. This is good news—and it matters. According to the newly released 2025 LAHSA Point-in-Time Count, unsheltered homelessness has declined by 9.5% countywide and 7.9% in the city, signaling real progress in the effort to move people off the streets and into stable housing. This marks the first sustained drop since the count began in 2005.
The good news continues closer to home. A new RAND study shows that homelessness is also declining in Venice, where St. Joseph Center serves as the lead for the Coordinated Entry System (CES). According to LAHSA’s count, on the Westside (SPA 5), homelessness has dropped more than 25% over the past two years, with additional decreases in South LA and Central LA, two other communities where we provide vital services.