SAN PEDRO
Little Sisters of the Poor facility in San Pedro.
Photo by Brad Graverson/The Daily Breeze Sept. 24, 2013
Fred Brown’s Recovery Services in San Pedro on Friday, March 13, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Fred Brown’s Recovery Services in San Pedro on Friday, March 13, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Little Sisters of the Poor with a tapestry of their founder Sister Jean Jugan. (Photo courtesy of Little Sisters of the Poor)
The Serenity Senior Village in San Pedro on Friday, March 13, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The Serenity Senior Village in San Pedro on Friday, March 13, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The Serenity Senior Village in San Pedro on Friday, March 13, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
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Little Sisters of the Poor facility in San Pedro.
Photo by Brad Graverson/The Daily Breeze Sept. 24, 2013
A town hall meeting has been scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. April 14 by Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker to share information and discuss plans to turn the former Little Sisters of the Poor home for the elderly in San Pedro into a residential substance abuse recovery facility run by the Fred Brown’s Recovery Services.
It will be held at the Peck Park Community Center, 560 N. Western Ave., San Pedro.
A representative of the Fred Brown’s Recovery Services said the nonprofit will participate in the meeting. State representatives also have been invited to attend and take part.
“We appreciate the opportunity to continue the conversation with the San Pedro community and will be participating in the April 14 Town Hall,” a spokesperson for Fred Brown’s Recovery Services wrote in an email responding to a request for comments. “Fred Brown’s Recovery Services has been part of San Pedro for more than 40 years, and our focus is on expanding access to much-needed, clinically supervised treatment services for individuals struggling with substance use.”
The statement said said the service “looks forward to sharing more about the proposed Serenity Recovery Campus, answering questions, and hearing directly from community members as this process moves forward.”
The Fred Brown organization’s proposal, relying on grant funding, has generated debate in the community and does not currently have the support of McOsker, who represents the Harbor Area on the Los Angeles City Council.
According to information provided by the South Shores Community Association, some 200 members attended the group’s March annual business meeting where McOsker spoke on the issue and announced his plans for the open town hall session in April.
A printed two-page “Project Overview” from Fred Brown’s Recovery Services has circulated in the South Shores neighborhood, which surrounds the site just north of 25th Street and sits on several acres at 2100 S. Western Ave., San Pedro.
The overview handout states that the nonprofit has “42 years serving L.A. County” and that the project mission at Serenity Recovery Campus would be to “provide whole-person, accessible, culturally sensitive care and housing that supports recovery and reintegration for veterans, the justice-involved, the unhoused and those with co-occurring conditions.”
Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker speaks during the State of the District at the Dalmatian American Club in San Pedro on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The overall vision, the flier stated, is to “create a permanent resource of dignity, care and healing for south Los Angeles County’s most vulnerable — safeguarding a decades-long legacy while meeting today’s urgent behavioral health needs.”
McOsker has said he has concerns about land-use issues, as well as controls over establishing such a facility near schools or daycare centers in the area. The population being housed by such facilities typically is transitional. Residents go through recovery programs and counseling, and then move out to more independence.
Among issues that could pose a problem for the change-of-use proposal is a daycare center that operates just down the street at a neighborhood church.
The Little Sisters facility had a long history and widespread respect in the port town, which has a strong Catholic community. Many had put their names on the home’s waiting list to someday stay there when the surprise announcement came on Feb. 18, 2020, that it would close. Looking to pare down some of the Little Sisters’ 167 homes around the world, the Roman Catholic religious order of nuns announced it would withdraw from San Pedro once a buyer was found.
The Los Angeles home, which goes back 116 years and originally was in Boyle Heights, moved to San Pedro in 1979, taking over the old home of Fermin Lasuen, a Catholic high school for boys that closed in 1971. The facility was home to about 100 residents. Seven sisters remained on staff and were reassigned to other facilities upon a new owner being found.
The one stipulation in that initial sale was that it continue to be a facility that would serve the elderly poor.
The subsequent owner, selected in 2021, was Grace S. Mercado, who operated three skilled nursing facilities in the state and described herself as a devout Catholic. But she since has sold.
According to documents obtained and provided by the South Shores Community Association, the current owner is Glen Capital Group, Limited Liability, which purchased the the property in June 2024 from Mercado. A lessee of that new owner — with no connection to the Fred Brown’s Recovery or former Little Sisters groups — at one point brought in some 70 recovery residents who later were evicted, according to information provided by the association.
The Little Sisters property consists of a 150,000-square-foot main building and a smaller retreat house, with a garden area among the property’s outdoor features. A sign out front now reads “Serenity Senior Village.”
McOsker said in March that he’s not opposed to the mission of recovery facilities, but questioned whether Fred Brown’s would be equipped to run a recovery center this large when most of their programs in San Pedro are conducted out of homes for a handful of folks spread out in neighborhoods.
Questions largely center on the size of the proposal, security, logistics and ongoing financial support for such a large operation, and its location near homes, a shopping center and a neighborhood church that operates a daycare facility.