Homeboys, Incorporated

In 1988, Jesuit priest Greg Boyle, pastor of the Dolores Mission Parish on the eastside of Los Angeles, was tired of burying teenage men killed before their time. The parish sits in an "East Los" neighborhood full of public housing projects--the largest concentration of poor people in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River. At the time as many as eight different gangs staked out turf in the neighborhood, and fighting over illegal drug sales meant that rarely a week went by without someone being killed--usually a young man under the age of 25.

The city's response was Operation Hammer, which sent squads of police armed like soldiers into the neighborhood. Everywhere people talked about "the gang problem," and what a menace Latino teenagers are. But at all those funerals, Fr. Boyle saw that these gang-bangers were not some abstract problem to be solved, but human beings to be challenged and loved.

As he thought about why these young men join gangs, he began to realize that it was partly because no other organization--not even his parish-- offered as strong a sense of belonging to these young men systematically being left out of the American dream because of their ethnicity and economic status. He began to realize that most of these guys believed that at best they would end up in prison, and at worst, end up dead. Selling drugs was the only viable employment opportunity offered to them, and these were the consequences.

It was then that Fr. Boyle and some parishioners began the Proyecto Pastoral (Pastoral Project) to help the young men of East Los save themselves and create a better future. "Nothing stops a bullet like a job," became one of the Proyecto's slogans. Finding jobs for the "homeboys" was proving so difficult that the group decided to create jobs for them, and Homeboy Industries was born. This past year, HI spun off the Proyecto Pastoral and is now its own nonprofit organization. Homeboy's first industry was a silk-screening business, making t-shirts and hats. Then a bakery was born. Most recently, a graffiti removal service was created to apply for city contracts.

Homeboy Industries had a serious set back with the graffiti removal business though, as two workers were killed on the job. ("Hope and reality collide," Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2004). Ex-gang members themselves, the workers were gunned down because they were thought to be challenging the gang whose graffiti they were washing off. (To challenge a rival gang, another gang will often replace or deface the first gang's graffiti.)

Right now, Homeboy Industries is rethinking the graffiti removal project, as well as exploring new ways to provide jobs and dignity to young men too often abandoned by society until being offered a jail cell. Fr. Boyle, born and raised in working class Los Angeles and thus himself a "homeboy," says that HI is trying to offer an alternative future to the homeboys of East Los, "the ability to see what God sees, something other than an early death."

For more information, visit the Homeboy Industries webpage .

Catholic Connections

"In our tradition, human labor cannot be treated merely as a factor necessary for production--people are more than a "human resource." A person cannot be regarded as a tool of production. Work, at its best, helps people to share in the creative activity of God. Work helps each of us to realize our God-given potential and is a vital part of the way in which we contribute to the community. Workplaces should be structured to advance these human and spiritual needs. Work schedules should permit workers time to rest and be with their families. Steps must be taken to ensure that work does not lose its proper focus--work is an expression of our dignity."
Economic Progress: Looking Beyond the Numbers, Labor Day Statement 1997, Bishop William Skylstad, US Bishops Domestic Policy Committee

Reflection Questions

Which jobs typically open to teenagers promote human dignity, and which jobs demean the dignity of a teenaged worker?

Join us in our Forum to discuss these questions!