Former state Sen. Kevin Murray, champion of urban parks and homeless services, dies at 66

During eight years in the California state Senate, Kevin Murray was an eclectic legislator who championed urban parks, solar energy and recording industry artists.

His legislative record includes bills creating the Baldwin Hills & Urban Watersheds Conservancy and a program that installed a million rooftop solar systems.

His pursuit of those passions positioned Murray as a maverick Democrat, at times fighting traditional allies, such as environmentalists and labor leaders, and working on legislation with a Republican governor.

Murray, whose three decades of achievement were marred by his role in a real estate purchase that brought federal charges against a middleman last year, has died at 66.

Murray had devoted his last 15 years in public life to homelessness in Los Angeles as president and chief executive of the Skid Row-based Weingart Center, one of the city’s prominent homeless services and housing providers.

The Weingart Center announced his Nov. 10 death in a note on its website saying, “His commitment to addressing homelessness and tireless work leading our organization can never be adequately measured.”

A cause of death was not reported, but a colleague said he had been treated for cancer.

As much a maverick in the field of homelessness as he was as a legislator, Murray frequently criticized the prevailing emphasis on permanent housing as the primary solution to ending homelessness.

“We also need to expand transitional housing options, which provide indispensable, on-site mental health services, job training and life-skills education to help formerly homeless people be better neighbors when they move into permanent supportive housing,” he argued in a 2019 op-ed in The Times.

Kevin Murray, then CEO of the Weingart Center, speaks at a groundbreaking ceremony in 2021 for a supportive housing development in West Los Angeles.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

He also advanced what, in the world of homeless services, amounted to dissenting views on law enforcement and civil rights. He advocated for more policing to stop drug dealers and criminal gangs that prey on homeless people and for a path to “guardianship over people who are suffering from severe mental illness or are addicted to drugs or alcohol.”

Under his leadership, Weingart dramatically expanded its housing footprint from its flagship facility on Skid Row to five permanent supportive housing projects around the city and more in development. Murray led the development of the 19-story Weingart Tower in Skid Row, the largest homeless housing project in Los Angeles history, and a second planned 12-story tower.

His fall from grace involved the purchase of a 70-unit nursing home in Cheviot Hills using government money. In October 2024, federal prosecutors accused a real estate executive of using fake documentation to buy the building for $11.2 million, then quickly resell it to Weingart for $27.3 million.

Murray was not identified as a suspect but was placed on leave by the center pending an internal review and stepped down last year.

A Los Angeles native, Murray obtained a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Northridge, a law degree from Loyola Law School and an MBA from Loyola Marymount University.

He founded the Murray Group, a legal and consulting firm specializing in public policy and entertainment and was a senior vice president at the William Morris Agency.

He was elected to the State Assembly in 1994, becoming the first Assembly member to serve alongside his father, Willard H. Murray Jr.

In 1998 he became the state senator for the 26th District representing communities such as Hancock Park, Hollywood and Silver Lake.

“I still consider urban parks, along with solar energy, to be one of my biggest accomplishments,” Murray said in a 2021 interview for the California State Archives State Government Oral History Program.

“I was big on trying to get money for urban parks, and the biggest opponent of urban parks in low-income neighborhoods were environmentalists,” he said, “because they saw that — they saw it as a zero-some [game] financially in that they were more interested in saving the red-tail finch in the Palm Desert than they were in having Black kids have parks.”

Murray reached a compromise with former anti-Vietnam War activist and environmental advocate Tom Hayden to get money for urban parks in a major parks bond.

In addition to authoring legislation that created the conservancy for Baldwin Hills, Murray spearheaded a state effort to prevent development of a 68-acre parcel, preserving it as the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, a popular hiking destination with panoramic views of Los Angeles.

“Murray was at the front lines of environmental justice. His work in the Legislature improved local parks, regional open space, as well as alternative energy that changed our city and the state,” said David McNeill, executive officer of the Baldwin Hills & Urban Watersheds Conservancy.

He focused on solar energy as a “relatively easy” climate change solution, but his bill ran into Republican opposition because labor wanted a mandate for union workers. Even so, then-Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pushed a mandate through the Public Utilities Commission, and Murray then obtained passage of SB1, providing subsidies.

In 2021 he and Schwarzenegger attended an event marking the installation of the millionth solar roof in the state.

Murray is survived by his wife, Janice, and children Jordan and Matthew.