Lifting Up LA, One Neighbor at a Time

We provide life-saving aid and long-term support to our city’s unhoused—because everyone deserves a leg up.

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The Problem

  • Every day, unhoused people in Los Angeles face dangerous conditions—from extreme heat to systemic neglect. Our city is in a crisis, and we believe change starts with care.

Our Story

  • Leg Up Los Angeles is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by Justin Martinez, a first-gen Angeleno with lived family experience of homelessness, violence, and displacement. We meet people where they are—with radical empathy, immediate aid, and long-term goals for housing equity.

What We Do

🌞 Emergency Response Distributions
We mobilize fast. When heat waves, rain, or crises hit, we hit the streets with water, tents, food, and care kits.

🧼 Monthly Essentials Outreach
Need-based supplies like hygiene kits, first-aid, weather protection, socks, and snacks—handed out person-to-person.

🏠 Transitional Housing Vision
We’re building a future where temporary shelter isn’t the end goal. We’re working to create spaces of healing, not just survival.

🤝 Local Partnerships
We collaborate with small businesses and mutual aid groups to multiply our impact.

🎨 Art & Activism
Through tattoos, murals, and community art, we build pride in who we are—and power in our presence.

Meet The Founder: Justin Martinez

Justin Martinez is a first-generation college graduate, nonprofit founder, and Los Angeles native. He created Leg Up LA after years of witnessing the deep inequities that shape his city—especially for those without housing. With lived experience in his family and a background in political studies, Justin brings both urgency and understanding to his work.

He is also an artist, athlete, and entrepreneur, blending street-level insight with creative action to build solutions rooted in dignity and care.

Follow justins journey on Instagram

Get Involved

Volunteer With Us
Email to join a distribution, pack kits, or lend your creative skills.

Host a Drive
Email to organize a hygiene drive through your school, gym, or workplace.

Tattoo for a Cause
A percentage of revenue from Justin’s studio, Wayside Studio, goes to Leg Up LA.

WAYSIDE STUDIO

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