Sports LA Raises $4.4M for Union Rescue Mission

San Marino resident Steve Silk was one of two honorees at the recent Stanley Black and Bob Barth Sports LA event, an annual gala that aims to raise money for worthy causes throughout the city. This year’s beneficiary was Union Rescue Mission, a 124-year-old organization dedicated to providing comprehensive emergency and long-term recovery services that help people unshackle themselves from the grip of homelessness in Los Angeles.
Silk, a USC alumnus and senior managing director at the real estate investment banking firm Eastil Securities, joined Scott Minerd of Guggenheim Partners as the two benefactors at the recent event, which was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and raised $4.4 million.
“Steve Silk is a fairly new but an important and fast friend who has stepped up not only to fund our URM jobs program and Learning Center for this year, but he is rallying USC’s Marshall School of Business alumni to mentor our jobs program participants and students to volunteer and teach in our learning center,” said the Rev. Andy Bales, Union Rescue Mission’s CEO. “He has also rallied friends to visit Union Rescue Mission to enlist them in this life-saving, life-changing work.”
Silk has long been a supporter of the San Marino Schools Foundation, which helps raise funds for the San Marino Unified School District. Other San Marino residents who attended the event included Tim and Lisa Sloan, Jeff Buckner, Greg Forgatch, Frank Beardsley, Michael Scannell, James Ellis, Charles Reed and Andrew Barth.
At Eastil, Silk specializes in arranging major sales and joint ventures for the owners of large office and industrial properties. He is also a policy advisory board member for the UC Berkeley Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, and has been an adjunct faculty member at the USC Marshall School of Business since 2013.
The Sports LA event raised funds through ticket sales and a live auction that featured such prizes as Super Bowl tickets, courtside seats to a Lakers game followed by a meet-and-greet with Kobe Bryant, batting practice at Dodger Stadium and a Jamaican vacation, among others.
“We will use these funds to first renovate and prepare 13 new units, adding capacity for 13 moms and potentially 30 more children at our Hope Gardens Family Center,” said Bales. “Next we will find and purchase a URM satellite or two to multiply the hope and regionalize services in L.A. in order to eventually end Skid Row as we know it.”
More than 44,000 individuals live on the streets of Los Angeles County each night. The money from Sports LA has also allowed Union Rescue Mission to launch a capital campaign that Bales believes “will indeed change the landscape of homelessness in Los Angeles.”