Knock LA

The City Responds

Since Knock LA’s last investigation into Project Homekey Culver City, city officials and the site’s service provider Exodus Recovery have announced changes to policies that Project Homekey participants expressed were particularly harmful. 

During a July 14 meeting of Culver City’s Standing Housing and Homelessness Subcommittee, Dr. Dan Richardson, the City’s Human Services and Crisis Intervention Manager, outlined three proposed policy changes. The first would eliminate the facility’s curfew, allowing participants to enter at any time of day. The curfew was a site of contention after folks within the program alleged they had to sleep on the sidewalk as a result of being locked out. The second change would establish on-site listening sessions every other month between Exodus Recovery staff, Culver City staff, and Project Homekey participants.

The third policy Richardson spoke on proved more challenging to find a solution for. 

In Knock LA‘s conversations with program participants, one of the most frequently referenced policies is the requirement for welfare checks. For interim housing participants, checks occur every two hours within the facility. Exodus Recovery staff will knock on doors, announce themselves, and open the doors to rooms even throughout the night. Participants complained that the checks cause sleep deprivation and anxiety, harming their mental and physical health. 

Richardson said that Exodus Staff proposed a “no knock” policy after 8:00 p.m. under which participants may have the option to keep their window blinds open along with leaving a light on inside their room. This would allow staff to conduct welfare checks without causing disturbances or waking residents. While a needed shift, Vice Mayor Brian “Bubba” Fish stated that the “no knock” policy could still compromise privacy and make participants feel unsafe, noting that people could potentially observe participants while they sleep. 

“It’s not just staff that could look in, it’s anyone,” Fish said in the meeting. “It’s like, do I want to give anyone who walks up to my room the ability to look at me while I’m sleeping and vulnerable? I don’t have a solution to that.”

While Dr. Richardson stated that there have been no overdose deaths on the interim housing side of Project Homekey Culver City, a death by overdose did occur on the permanent housing side this year. According to program participants and county records, a man named Christopher Raabe passed away on January 26 in his permanent housing room. His death was the result of a fentanyl overdose. However, the permanent side does not perform welfare checks in the same way that the interim side does. According to claims from participants, Raabe’s body was not discovered by staff for 5 days, and a powerful odor surrounded his room for that duration until staff entered and found his body.

During the July 14 meeting, Richardson acknowledged structural issues that have created challenges unique to the Project Homekey Culver City environment. Richardson insisted that the Project Homekey facility is in fact a shelter, despite it being marketed publicly as a housing facility. He pointed out that the format of Project Homekey differs from that of traditional homeless shelters as a result of being situated in a former motel but that traditional shelter policies are being applied nonetheless. 

“The rules at Project Homekey are similar to other shelters or interim housing programs, and [they] can be said to be industry standard,” Richardson said. “Many shelters are a large room with a series of cots next to each other. Welfare checks in those environments are very easy. I think [the] point is the set up we have is causing some of the difficulty, I would acknowledge that is true. Having doors, having the place be more like studio apartments is making it more difficult to follow the laws associated with shelters.” 

Richardson’s statement points to one of the central sources of tension between Exodus Recovery and the people living at Project Homekey. If the physical structure of the facility does not resemble a traditional homeless shelter, how can one expect traditional policies to be functional? Why would one attempt to enforce the principles of a specific built environment into a container within which they do not fit? Furthermore, why would Project Homekey Culver City be referred to in the media as a “housing facility” and a “supportive housing project” when it was always going to be treated as a shelter by its staff?

Claims from Black Program Participants

The experiences of program participants have proven that this structural issue has severe impacts on the lives of people within Project Homekey. However, the mismatch between policy and built environment cannot be blamed for every issue. Through interviews with program participants, a pattern of alleged abuse and violence by Exodus Recovery staff emerged through claims recounted to Knock LA. A Black woman living on the program’s interim side, Chevela, said that on several occasions she had been sexually assaulted by staff, including people labeled case managers. During one instance, she alleged that she walked out of her bathroom after taking a shower and discovered a male staff member named Brian in her room. She claimed that on a number of occasions, male staff members have opened the door to her room without her consent, and that this occurred several times when she was not wearing clothes. She also told Knock LA that Exodus Recovery staff have continued to knock on her door to do wellness checks during the night despite the policy change that was stated in the July 14 meeting. 

Chevela also claimed that Exodus Recovery impeded her from obtaining an educational certification that would have enabled her to establish a career and generate enough income to move out of Project Homekey. In order to attend classes for the program, which centered on solar panel installation for businesses in Southern California, Chevela needed to travel long distances on a bus. She claimed that when she approached Exodus Recovery staff to ask for help getting a bus pass, they refused. A round-trip on an LA metro bus costs $3.50 per day. 

Another Black woman at Project Homekey, Adrian, claimed that she had been physically assaulted by two staff within the facility. According to Adrian, the staff accused her of smoking a cigarette in her room, an act against the rules but that she denied doing. She told Knock LA that the staff were telling her she had to leave, so she reached back into her room to grab her purse. While doing so, she claimed the staff members slammed the door shut on three of her fingers. 

“It started bleeding immediately,” Adrian said. 

Chevela told Knock LA that she heard Adrian’s scream from across the property. 

“We heard this loud voice, excruciating loud voice, screaming,” she said. “All of us came outside. I could see Adrian, and she was upset.”

A third person living at Project Homekey Culver City, a Black man named Daryll, recounted an experience of assault by Exodus Recovery staff. At age 64, Daryll has survived a stroke and is also living with stomach cancer. He claimed that security guards pushed him to the ground once at Project Homekey. He also alleged that a former director approached him one day and said to him, “You haven’t died yet?” 

When asked to speak about harmful conditions within Project Homekey Culver City, a fourth person, a Latina woman named Rocio, told Knock LA, “There are a lot of people suffering here. A lot of people have left because they can’t endure it.” 

She continued to say that one of the most challenging parts of living at the facility is the lack of access to water. According to Rocio, water from the faucets is unsafe to drink. The participants’ water source is a five-gallon water cooler in the common office area. When asked, Chevela confirmed this to be the case.  

“If they run out of water, they run out of water and you’re just out of luck,” she said. 

Rocio stated that this shortage of water sometimes forces people to go out and purchase their own with their limited income. According to Water Code Section 106.3 for the state of California, “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.” 

When asked to comment on the provision of water within Project Homekey Culver City, Exodus Recovery provided the following response: 

“A five-gallon water cooler is located in the office area on the interim housing side for participant use. Staff replace the cooler as needed and refills are delivered on a monthly basis. If both the current cooler and replacement coolers are depleted, bottled water is made available to participants. An emergency supply of bottled water is also kept on site to ensure participants always have access to drinking water.”

Families Separated

Trey Bien, a Black man and former program participant, was living at the Project Homekey Culver City facility until September 2025. He said he was arrested and spent 42 days in jail before returning to Project Homekey, only to find that in his absence the Exodus Recovery staff had exited him from the program without his knowledge. He claimed to have written five different letters to the facility while incarcerated, stating that he had been arrested but that he intended to come back. He claimed that when he returned to the facility, the counselor he had been working with said that Project Homekey Culver City could no longer house him and that effective immediately, he would need to find another place to stay. 

Trey’s wife of 21 years still lives in the facility on the permanent side. 

“They promised us from the get-go that they knew we were together, and that they were going to try to get me over to [the permanent] side,” Trey told Knock LA. 

Trey claimed that he received a chilling reason from Exodus Recovery staff for not being able to return to the program and be reunited with his wife. 

“They’ve always said, ‘You guys know you’re a Black and white couple,’” he said. “I was getting warnings that for a Black and white couple, I would be the one to suffer.”

Trey also alleged that his visiting privileges have been revoked for unknown reasons. He told Knock LA that three months ago he stayed 7 minutes past visiting hours during the last time he saw his wife. As he was leaving, he claims the program director saw him and said he was no longer allowed to visit. According to him, the security guards were informed that he was not permitted on the premises anymore. Trey told Knock LA that after three months, he still has not received permission to visit his wife. 

“It has affected my life. That’s who I woke up with every morning,” he said through tears during an interview. “Me and that woman have been through everything. My son’s death, her ex-husband’s death when we were friends. I used to have motivation. I’d wake up in the morning and look to my right, there she is.”

Knock LA posed the question to Exodus Recovery about how long a person participating in the program can remain absent from the facility before being exited from Project Homekey Culver City. Exodus Recovery responded by emphasizing that the individuals living in the interim housing rooms are not considered residents; they are program participants. According to their reply, participants are exited from the program after 30 consecutive days of being absent from the facility without communicating with staff. 

“Exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis for situations such as incarceration, hospitalization, residential treatment, or visits with family,” their response stated. “Exodus works collaboratively with the City of Culver City to determine the most appropriate plan based on the participant’s circumstances.” 

Based on Exodus Recovery’s own policy around absence and exceptions, Trey’s case should have been reviewed and considered an extenuating circumstance. Instead, he claimed he is unable to see his family as a result of Exodus’s insistence. Trey added that he felt like the separation was retaliation for the times he pushed back on practices within the facility that he thought to be unfair. 

“I think I have a big, Black target on my head,” he told Knock LA. “Maybe I spoke up too many times.”

While reflecting on the pain this separation from his wife has caused, Trey said he felt they both would have been better off if they never encountered Project Homekey Culver City. 

“I’d rather be out there on the streets,” he said. “We were doing better out there on the street.” 

Since Knock LA’s first article about alleged harm done to Project Homekey Culver City participants, a total of nine people in the program have come forward to share purported accounts of abuse and neglect. While Exodus Recovery staff claim their approach to interim housing is rooted in protecting clients’ self-determination, the experiences of the Project Homekey Culver City participants say otherwise. From these personal accounts, another root cause of issues within the program becomes abundantly yet uncomfortably clear: Exodus Recovery does not see unhoused people as human beings deserving of care. Instead, they see them only as liabilities and dollar signs.

Rosalind Jones (she/they) is a queer, Los Angeles-based writer and community organizer. She is a contributor for the online publication Knock LA, a founding member of the social justice organization Community Solidarity Project, and authors a Substack titled ‘Another World is Inevitable’. Rosalind holds a BA in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College and a certification in Creative Writing from the UCLA Extension.