Victorville Farm Offers Healing and Hope to Unhoused Korean Americans
The story was co-published with The Korea Daily as part of the 2024 Ethnic Media Collaborative, Healing California.
Residents and volunteers at Victorville healing center
Hyoungjae Kim, The Korea Daily
About 87 miles from Los Angeles’ Koreatown, there is a farm in Victorville. Around 10 Korean Americans are preparing lunch at the outdoor dining area. Soy sauce-marinated crab and kimchi, brought from Los Angeles, are the specialties on today’s dining table. The people sit around a wooden table. Ranging in age
from their 20s to their 70s, the group includes residents and volunteers.
It is April 20, and we are at the Victorville Healing Center run by the Father’s Table Mission. With the support of Korean American benefactors, the Father's Table Mission purchased a $650,000 Victorville farm and converted it into a healing center for the homeless. The church uses the facility to help rehabilitate and rebuild the lives of the homeless.
After getting off the freeway, it takes about 10 minutes on a dirt road to reach the entrance. About 10 acres in size, the vast farm houses Korean, Hispanic, and Caucasian people experiencing homelessness who seek to heal their bodies and minds.
"If homeless people come to this place from LA, an environment is created to resist the temptation of drugs or alcohol addiction. Once you come here, you will have plenty of time to rest and experience nature," said Pastor Moody Ko of Father’s Table Mission.
Pastor Ko, congregants, and volunteers at Father's Table Mission have been helping the homeless in LA since 2008. As the number of Korean homeless individuals has increased, the Father's Table Mission also runs a shelter in Los Angeles (2551 W Olympic Blvd). The LA shelter provides beds on the second floor and meals for about 30 homeless individuals, including Koreans.
The LA shelter is a place for homeless people in immediate need of accommodation, but the facilities are poor.
He added, “When homeless people who used to live in the inner city of LA come to a farm like this, they sometimes feel alienated from society. They often get frustrated and want to go back to LA. That’s why we help them go back and forth between LA shelter and the healing center here.”
Each person is assigned a single room at the healing center. Han (29 years old), a second generation Korean American, a resident at the healing center, has struggled with drug addiction. He wandered around MacArthur Park and downtown LA after his mother died. With the help of an acquaintance, he came to the healing center and said his mental health has improved since. He happily answered a call from his father in LA.
David Oh, in his late twenties, spent four years homeless in San Francisco and LA, struggling with severe drug addiction, including methamphetamine. For the past 7 months, he has been in rehabilitation, going back and forth between Father's House LA Shelter and Victorville Healing Center. He has now stopped taking drugs and says, "It's bearable" with a smile.
“Even when I was sleeping on the street, there were people who fed me. The hardest part was when it was raining and cold. I made a lot of friends here, and I like it. I wish they could keep people off the streets because once someone gets hooked on drugs, it’s really hard to get off.”
Gloria Choi, 43, from Musan, North Hamgyeong, North Korea, said her heart has healed during a year-long stay at the Father’s Table Mission’s LA shelter and the Victorville Healing Center. In 2005, Choi defected from North Korea to settle in South Korea, where she married. In October 2018, she came to the United States for her son’s education. However, during the pandemic, her wholesale business importing clothes from China to Los Angeles went under. “I was bringing clothes from China and delivering them to stores in LA, but the money started to stop coming in. I worked hard and it was really hard to accept it. I was thrown out on the streets and left my son with a friend. I was sick for eight months with severe depression," she said.
Facing financial hardship and public shunning due to a failed business, Choi found solace at the Victorville Healing Center. “The healing center has a nice natural environment,” she said. “What homeless people need most is a place to feel home. Once I got better, thanks to the comfortable environment here, I felt the need to help new people who come to the center.”
Specialized help is needed
The Victorville Healing Center was established in 2022 by Father's Table Mission congregants and volunteers to support the rehabilitation and recovery of unhoused individuals.
The healing center consists of a main building, warehouse, garage, kitchen, and a greenhouse, used as a common room for the residents. The residents feel a sense of accomplishment as they tend to the 600 plum trees and 10 greenhouses on the farm. The greenhouses are planted with vegetables favored by Koreans, such as perilla leaves, lettuce, and green onions.
Recently, they also built an animal barracks, where they raise five goats, 15 chickens, 10 ducks, and five rabbits. However, the situation requires the development of a program and the recruitment of professionals to systematically operate the farm and healing center.
Pastor Ko said, "This year's plum harvest was ruined by a sudden cold snap in the spring," adding, "The farm could serve as a rehabilitation space and workplace for the homeless. By cultivating plum trees well and increasing the number of rabbits to 100, profits could also be generated."
Pastor Ko and the volunteers hope that the healing center would become a space that helps the homeless transform themselves. This is why they gladly welcome anyone who wants to stay at the healing center.
Pastor Ko said, "Two Korean individuals who were helped by our shelter for 3 years died of fentanyl addiction. Minority homeless individuals, including Koreans, Mongolians, and Chinese, lack tailored support. It would be great if the Korean community could come together and establish more community-based shelters."
This project is supported by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, and is part of “Healing California,” a yearlong reporting Ethnic Media Collaborative venture with print, online and broadcast outlets across California.
