In the early days of Los Angeles, local Catholic women organized a charitable society to provide care for the homeless and the poor in an area of downtown Los Angeles that was known as Charity Street. Relief was offered through soup kitchens and food pantries. The various Catholic charitable groups that were providing services throughout the city were formally organized as the Bureau of Catholic Charities in 1919. When the agency officially became the Catholic Welfare Bureau in 1926, it served the extensive territory of Monterey, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties. The agency was incorporated in the State of California in 1937. In later years, Monterey and Orange counties developed their own Catholic Charities’ agencies. The agency separately incorporated as Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, Inc. in 1986.

To most effectively manage the delivery of services, the agency is divided into five areas that coincide with the Pastoral Regions of the Archdiocese. This structure enables Catholic Charities to maintain a presence in communities with the greatest needs while sharing common resources and administrative overhead.

Today, Catholic Charities operates 24 community centers and six homeless shelters, as well as a variety of programs serving the poor including: in-home services for homebound seniors; refugee resettlement; youth employment services; counseling; affordable before-and-after-school care: immigration assistance; pre-school for low-income children; and temporary worker centers. In addition, Catholic Charities oversees Catholic Youth Organization (CYO), which coordinates interscholastic athletics for the elementary schools of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

During the 2008-2009 fiscal year, the agency delivered more than 1.25 million services to more than 268,000 individuals, most of them women and children. Catholic Charities is one of the largest human services providers in California and is accredited by the Council on Accreditation for Children and Family Services.