I am familiar with the teachings of this group, and I have met some of them over a period of days. Would like for the author to defend its rationale to classify it as a cult.
Their activities are more precisely described as a Christian live-in community (like the Amish are -- are they a cult also???), that have had a mission for decades of working with youth in trouble (and troubled youth, not necessarily the same thing) and the not so young. They have done this closely with the State of California. What they do is what we would now call a faith-based reformatory. If that, and community living, are reason enough to be called a cult, then yes, they are a cult. That characterization, however is not defended in this extremely brief article.
Like any Christian community that has made a difference in the soul and the spirit of many of the people that have passed through them (versus just filling up a hungry stomach), their leaders have had strong stances that have earned them quite a few enemies both within and without the community. I have quite a few of their tyrades in my e-mails. When their claims are cross-examined, they are more like personal offenses at the demands and dedication that a Christian life after the New Testament demands, specially when helping out difficult people in a way that really makes a difference.