Weingart Center

History and Background

The Weingart Center was founded in 1983, when it was established with a grant from the Weingart Foundation. This grant was used to purchase the former El Rey Hotel, which was turned into a comprehensive homeless support-services center. The group’s services were available to homeless people, including drug and alcohol addicts. The Center provided detoxification beds, emergency short-term housing, health services, food, and clothing. Its services expanded to provide job-training services, and it entered into real estate in 2016, when it began its first permanent supportive-housing development. ¹

The Center came under scrutiny at the end of 2025, when it and its president and CEO, former California State Senator Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), were implicated in a questionable real-estate deal in which real-estate executive Steven Taylor was indicted on nine counts including fraud, identity theft, and money laundering after purchasing a property for $11.2 million and then almost immediately selling the property to the Weingart Center for $27.3 million. Murray was placed on leave from his position as the leader of the Center, though he resigned amid the scandal in December 2025 from his position on the board of the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, a government oversight board. As of November 2025, local media reported that “Investigators are looking into what Weingart and the city knew about the purchase.” ^{4  3}

In March 2026, news site American Greatness published an article on an O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) story claiming that the Weingart Center was allegedly involved with a scam in which homeless individuals in the Skid Row neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA were paid by activists to forge signatures of registered voters in the area for ballot initiatives. According to the story, several petitioners indicated they worked for consulting firm Populus Inc. ⁵

Financials

For the fiscal year ending in April 2024, the Weingart Center reported $101,904,234 in revenue, of which $94,922,124 stemmed from contributions and grants; $1,193,858 from program-service revenue, which took the form of development fees; and $2,975,403 from investment income. The Center received $93,986,187 in government grants, making up 92 percent of all its revenue. Only $814,057 was raised from non-government grants and contributions. ²

That year, the Center reported $45,339,561 in expenses, of which $5,421,797 was paid out in grants and contributions, $11,244,904 in salary and compensation, $257,068 in travel expenses, $720,954 in repairs and maintenance, and $7,513,244 in contracts with outside security contractor United Protective Services. ⁶

Despite being originally founded with a grant from the Weingart Foundation, in the fiscal year ending in June 2024, the foundation did not report any funding to the Center. ⁷

Projects and Initiatives

The Weingart Center administers a number of different relief programs for the homelss. Its two largest programs as of 2026 were interim and permanent supportive-housing programs, which were heavily funded by government grants. In addition to these housing programs, the Center provides a number of mental- and physical-health services, job-support and training programs, and educational programs. ^{8  9}

In May 2026, a thread on X (formerly Twitter) accused the group of receiving a $30 million grant to operate up to ten homeless shelters while charging the city $400,000 per bed whether they were filled or not while accusing the centers of being empty. ¹⁰

Leadership

As of 2026, Kevin Murray was president and CEO of the Weingart Center, a position he had held since May of 2011. He formerly served in the California State Senate as a Democrat representing Los Angeles for eight years from 1998 to 2006, and as a State Assemblyman from 1994 to 1998. In addition to his position at the Center, for which he received over $400,000 in total compensation in the fiscal year ending April 2024, Murray was on various boards. He has run a consulting firm, the Murray Group, for at least some time since leaving elected office. ¹¹

Murray fell under scrutiny in 2025 following investigations into a property deal with real-estate executive Steven Taylor. Taylor purchased a property for $11.2 million in December 2023 and sold it to the Weingart Center shortly thereafter for $27.3 million, over twice as much as its apparent market value. ³ In October 2025, Taylor was indicted by a federal grand jury on nine counts related to allegedly defrauding lenders and not following proper procedures. ³

As of January 2026, Murray had not been charged with any crime. However, he and the Center’s real-estate development director, Ben Rosen, were placed on leave by the organization in November 2025. As of November 2025, local media reported that “Investigators are looking into what Weingart and the city knew about the purchase.” ⁴

Critics have noted that Murray is one of many homelessness-related nonprofit leaders who have received pay increases since the Los Angeles government began spending lavishly on housing programs for homeless people. Murray’s salary had increased over 60 percent between 2015 and 2024, while inflation increased roughly 35 percent over that period. ^{12 13}