Ramona Gardens

Ramona Gardens is a public housing development in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It is operated by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. Currently and historically Latino, it is also the home of the Big Hazard street gang, connected to the Mexican Mafia, and has been the center of the illegal drug market in all of Southern California.

The development abuts the Interstate 10 and is part of LAPD's Hollenbeck Division.

The Ramona Gardens project was designed by Housing Architects Associated, made up of Ralph Flewelling, George J. Adams, Lloyd Wright, Lewis Eugene Wilson, and Eugene Weston Jr.. They had previously designed the Utah Street housing project under the name of Utah Street Architects Association and designed the Aliso Village project under the name Housing Group Architects. The landscaping was by the firm of Bashford and Barlow.

The project was originally named Ramona Village, it was changed in November 1939 because it conflicted with the name of a private land development. At the time, Ramona Gardens was billed a "slum clearance and low-rent housing project". Construction began in February or March 1940, with a groundbreaking ceremony on March 16, 1940 attended by Governor Culbert Olson.

It was built on 32 acres (13 ha) with 610 apartment units in over 100 buildings. The planned cost was $2 million, 90% funded by the United States Housing Authority through the Housing Act of 1937. It was built by the Herbert M. Baruch Corporation.

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