Yusra Farzan
reports on issues affecting current and future college students, their families and communities.
Published November 24, 2023 5:19 PM
The Turnbull home decked out for Candy Cane Lane festivities in 2022. The family has begun decorating to welcome visitors to their neighborhood.
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Topline:
Neighbors on East Acacia Avenue in El Segundo, dubbed “Candy Cane Lane” every holiday season, are preparing for their annual light show. This year, the crowds are expected to be larger than usual due to Amazon Prime Video's new film "Candy Cane Lane," which was inspired by the neighborhood.
The back story: The neighborhood has its own Yelp page and has been decorating as a group for the holidays since 1949. The new film debuts Dec. 1 and stars Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross.
How to visit: Candy Cane Lane is free and open to the public on Dec. 9 through Christmas Day from dusk to 9:30 p.m. every night. Head to East Acacia Avenue and California Street in El Segundo. Keep reading to see photos from neighbors prepping their displays.
It’s the day after Thanksgiving. Most people are usually sleeping in, but 79-year-old Don Kehl has two ladders out and is directing his two sons, three grandkids and granddaughter-in-law on how to string up an elaborate Christmas light design.
“None of my family will let me on the roof anymore,” Kehl said, with a smile. “I'm just kind of down here telling them what they did wrong.”
The Kehl family decorates their home to welcome visitors to "Candy Cane Lane" in El Segundo.
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His decor, he said with a bellowing laugh, is “whatever was on sale at Home Depot on the 26th of December last year.”
Kehl lives on East Acacia Avenue in El Segundo, dubbed “Candy Cane Lane” every holiday season. The neighborhood has its own Yelp page and has been decorating as a group for the holidays since 1949. Starting Dec. 9, thousands of visitors will descend to enjoy the holiday light displays. This year, the neighborhood is expecting a bigger crowd, after the street inspired the upcoming holiday film Candy Cane Lane starring Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross.
The film will be released on Amazon Prime Video on Dec. 1. You can watch the trailer here.
Kehl thinks the film will bring more visitors, “but that's fine,” he said. “The reason we put these up is to attract people so the more people, the better.”
For the Kehl family, decorating each year is a treasured family tradition that now stretches to three generations. Don Kehl’s two sons, Tom and Russell Kehl, remember when their kids — now in their 20s — were young and would watch them put up lights with their dad.
“It's been fun to watch the kids go from, ‘Can I please go on the roof, can I please go on the roof, can I please go on the roof’ to running the show now,” Russell Kehl said.
Don Kehl instructs his grandson and granddaughter-in-law on how to string the Christmas lights around the window.
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Scott Brunnenkant, who has lived on the street for 34 years, was also busy putting up decorations Friday.
“The movie looks like a lot of fun,” he said, adding that the film’s screenwriter Kelly Younger used to live up the street. “He's a friend of ours, nice guy.”
Scott Brunnenkant with his decorations pulled out of storage ready to be put out.
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In addition to lights around the roof line, Brunnenkant’s decorations also include LED icicles, window garlands with lit-up wreaths and ornaments, fairy lights on the bushes, four electric trains on one side of the yard and teddy bears and elves on the other side.
He knew about the neighborhood’s tradition when he bought the house back in 1989 as the open house was held during Christmastime. Friends ask him all the time if holiday decorations are allowed as part of the HOA, he said.
“And I tell them, oh yeah, it's the Santa clause,” he chuckles. Technically there’s no requirement to participate, but neighbors joke that peer pressure gets just about everyone involved.
A community effort to pay the bills
Brunnenkant said his home’s electricity bill triples during the month of December and because the neighborhood decorates the cul-de-sac at the end of the road, that part of the neighborhood has its own address under Southern California Edison.
The "Candy Cane Lane" plaque.
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“There's a bill that comes with that,” he said, explaining that the neighborhood sets up a Santa tent at the end of the block that takes donations. “Some of that money is used to pay the electric bill for the end of the block and get the Santa suit cleaned and things like that.”
The rest of the money is donated to different causes like St. Jude’s Hospital, said Jennifer Turnbull, another neighbor who has co-chaired the Candy Cane Lane committee for around 15 years.
“It's a labor of love, worth every penny, worth every minute,” Turnbull said. “It's a lot but it brings joy to a lot of people.”
The Turnbull family stands in front of their home on "Candy Cane Lane."
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The neighborhood typically gets about 8,000 visitors on opening night and 3,000 to 4,000 a night through Dec. 25 — the last day of the light show, Turnbull said.
With the movie release, Turnbull said, they are ready for additional visitors. To help things run smoothly, she asks that people use waste bins for trash.
What to expect on opening night
On opening night, Turnball said, people line up behind police barricades at the beginning of the block on California Street. Santa Claus arrives on a fire truck and “Candy Cane Lane” is pitch black.
How to visit
Candy Cane Lane is open to the public on Dec. 9 till Christmas Day from dusk to 9:30 p.m. every night.
Where: East Acacia Avenue and California Street, El Segundo
Santa Claus will be at his sleigh every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 7 to 9 p.m.
Visiting is free. Donations are welcome at Santa’s sleigh at the end of the street.
“He will wave his hand at each street, or each home, screaming Merry Christmas or ho ho ho, and those lights turn on and it's oohs and ahhs all the way ‘till he gets to the cul de sac where his sleigh is,” she said.
Jennifer Turnbull wraps Christmas lights in front of her home. Her display features thousands of lights.
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Turnbull’s home is one of the houses decorated with thousands of lights, she said, and Looney Tunes characters, all custom and made by hand.
Storage issues
Richard and Judy Doukakis, who have lived on “Candy Cane Lane” since 1986, begin decorating their home for Christmas after Halloween ends. They don’t decorate for Halloween because they just don’t have room for decorations, Richard Doukakis said.
Just some of Richard and Judy Doukakis' Christmas decor in storage.
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“There's probably 75 boxes,” Richard Doukakis said — of their Christmas decor — stored in multiple closets, the attic and the garage.
“I bought him a storage shed last year for Christmas, so that's helped,” Judy Doukakis said. “But storage is a problem.”
Richard and Judy Doukakis in the storage shed Judy bought Richard last Christmas to house some of their Christmas decor.
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New this year: Custom made Bluey characters
That did not stop them from ordering custom made Bluey characters decked out in holiday fare for this year’s holiday decorations.
The custom Bluey decor Richard and Judy Doukakis ordered for their holiday display.
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“I thought it'd be nice. It's so popular. My grandkids love it. So I had somebody make me those characters so they're going to be on my lawn now,” Richard Doukakis said.
Bill and Debra Mitchell also custom make their decor. Their blue front door is flanked by two candy canes on either side. After spotting them in a mail order catalog, the couple decided they could make them cheaper, so they did.
Bill Mitchell stands beside two candy canes he custom made with his wife Debra.
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Over the years, they have also made penguins and flamingos which will come out in the next few days leading up to opening day.
Back when the pair moved into the neighborhood in 1995, they didn’t know about the tradition.
“Right before it happened. I met a friend down the street and she said, ‘What are you doing for ‘Candy Cane Lane?’ And I said, ‘We know nothing about it,’” Debra Mitchell said. “And then he pops up with, ‘Oh, that explains the big manger animals, farm animals, that were in the garage when we looked at the house.’”
As polls close on Election Day and results start rolling in, these are some of the House races that will help explain how the midterms are unfolding.
Why it matters: Democrats appear poised to retake control of the House. If they do, will their majority be built upon a blue wave or a tiny trickle? A previous NPR analysis found both parties spending deep and wide in a competitive landscape that spans 70 districts, ranging from longtime tossups to newly-competitive seats in deeply conservative areas.
The backstory: Republicans came into Election Day with a narrow 218-214 seat advantage in the House and facing severe headwinds as the party in power. This midterm cycle has also seen a record number of departures from Congress, and polls show voters aren't happy about things like the economy and the ongoing war in Iran.
Read on... for more on the four types of house races to watch.
Democrats appear poised to retake control of the House on Tuesday. If they do, will their majority be built upon a blue wave or a tiny trickle? A previous NPR analysis found both parties spending deep and wide in a competitive landscape that spans 70 districts, ranging from longtime tossups to newly-competitive seats in deeply conservative areas.
Republicans came into Election Day with a narrow 218-214 seat advantage in the House and facing severe headwinds as the party in power. This midterm cycle has also seen a record number of departures from Congress, and polls show voters aren't happy about things like the economy and the ongoing war in Iran.
So what separates a good night for Democrats from a blue wave that sees dozens of House seats change hands? Here's NPR's cheat sheet to four types of House races to watch as results come in:
Early polls closing
The first results of the night with national implications will likely be from Kentucky's 6th Congressional District (KY-06) and Indiana's 5th (IN-05), two districts where polls close first (in the 6 p.m. ET hour) and whose 2024 margins for President Trump (15 and 17 points, respectively) could act as a preview for how much voters have soured on Republicans.
Democrats and Republicans alike have spent heavily in the Kentucky race, where Democrat Zach Dembo faces Republican Ralph Alvarado, so the increased investment is worth noting as a factor on the outcome. If Democrats flip one or both of these races, then it will likely be a long night for the GOP.
Florida also counts and reports its votes quickly, and is home to more than a half dozen races that are viewed as toss-ups or slightly favor one party or the other, so as these districts have projected winners there will be more insight into other races across the country.
Like the Kentucky contest, both parties have spent significant sums in races like the open seat in FL-22 with Democrat Pia Dandiya facing off against Republican Casey Askar and incumbent Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz versus Republican Scott Singer in the newly-redrawn FL-25 race.
In the final seven days of the midterms, a handful of House races have seen more than $10 million in ad spending, according to data from AdImpact. It's a sign of where both parties think the saying "It all comes down to turnout!" is more than a cliche. That includes districts in Michigan, such as MI-07, where progressive Democrat William Lawrence is challenging incumbent Republican Tom Barrett in a seat that Trump carried by just over one percent in 2024 and the open MI-10, where Democrat Christina Hines faces Republican Mike Bouchard.
New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in NY-17could be one of the rare Republicans who holds on to his seat thanks in part to his party's ad spending advantage in the closing stretch against Democrat Cait Conley.
Three of Iowa's four House races, IA-01, IA-02and IA-03are on the list of most expensive, in part because of the competitive governor and U.S. Senate races that are also on the ballot and driving up turnout.
This year's Supreme Court decision rolling back part of the Voting Rights Act led to many Republican-led states redrawing their House maps to eliminate districts that favor Democrats in a typical election year – but this year is not typical.
Now, the political environment has deteriorated so much that seats like AL-02, held by Democrat Shomari Figures, OH-09held by Democrat Marcy Kaptur and NC-01held by Democrat Don Davis are all considered toss-ups at best and favoring the Democrats at worst for Republicans.
In Texas, Latino voters seem poised to swing back to Democratic candidates and could prevent Republican Eric Flores from flipping the seat held by Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in TX-34or Tano Tijerina from unseating Democratic incumbent Henry Cuellar in TX-28.
As results continue to be reported, one thing to watch is how far into conservative communities the increased support for Democrats can go.
One race that has received a surprising amount of ad attention is in Arkansas's 2nd district (AR-02), where incumbent Republican Rep. French Hill faces a well-known challenger in Democrat Chris Jones. By the time polls close, closer to $10 million will have been spent in the final months on the Little Rock-based seat that Trump carried by 15 points in 2024.
There are also many districts in states that redrew their maps where the Republican gerrymander could backfire, likeOhio. In both OH-10held by Republican Mike Turner and OH-15 held by Republican Mike Carey, Trump won by closer to 10 points in 2024. They're also in a state with competitive governor and Senate races and stretch between the suburbs and exurbs of Dayton and Columbus with an electorate that could swing away from the GOP.
The margin in North Carolina's Senate race, where former Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to win against former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, could determine if races like NC-03are in play as well too. Rep. Greg Murphy's district absorbed more Democratic-leaning voters after the latest map redraw.
Vote centers are open until 8 p.m. People who are in line by 8 p.m. are legally allowed to cast their ballots.
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Topline:
All vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday to vote in person or drop off your vote-by-mail ballot. If you're in line by 8 p.m., you are legally allowed to cast your ballot.
What's next: Keep in mind that in tight races, particularly, the winner may not be determined for days or weeks after Election Day. The first batch of results (typically ballots received before Election Day) will be posted shortly after the polls close.
Election Day is here, and with it comes your last chance to vote in the 2026 general election.
So far, a lot of people have cast ballots. Early voting turnout in L.A. and Orange counties has been higher than the previous midterm cycle in 2022.
All vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday for in-person voting or to drop off your vote-by-mail ballot — in L.A. County, there are more than 600 to choose from. Remember: If you’re in line to vote by 8 p.m., stay in line. You’re legally allowed to cast your ballot if you get in line by the 8 p.m. deadline.
Tip: You aren’t required to bring your vote-by-mail ballot with you — those get voided during the check-in process.
If you haven’t registered yet or you’re worried you’ll have an issue, election workers can help you. California allows same-day registration. (Check your registration status here.) If you register at the same time that you vote, you’ll cast a provisional ballot. Officials will verify your registration information and count all ballots of voters who are eligible.
You can also drop your ballot in an official ballot drop box anywhere in the state before 8 p.m.
If you prefer to mail your ballot in, just make sure it’s postmarked by Tuesday. No postage is required. (Pro tip: If you’re mailing your ballot, take it into the post office to ensure it’s postmarked on time. It'll be counted as long as it arrives within 7 days of Election Day.)
You can also designate another person to return your completed ballot, as long as they aren’t paid. Make sure they fill out the envelope as directed for another person returning your ballot.
Here’s a map of ballot drop boxes near Metro stations.
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Lyft is offering discounted rides with the code “VOTE26.” You’ll get 50% off up to $10.
What to do if you can't get to your local vote center
Not to worry — if you’re out of town, you can drop off your ballot at an official ballot drop box or polling location anywhere in California. It will be routed to the correct county. There’s no need to drive back to the vote center closest to where you live.
The same goes for voting by mail. Remember: If you have a vote-by-mail ballot, you can get it postmarked at any post office. As long as it’s postmarked by Tuesday and arrives within 7 days of Election Day, it will be counted.
What to do if you make a mistake on your ballot
If you make an error on your vote-by-mail ballot, you can draw a line through it and make your correction.
You can also go to any vote center, request a new ballot and vote in person.
How to sign your ballot
Make sure to sign your ballot envelope with the signature that matches what your county registrar has on file, which is probably the signature on your driver’s license or state ID. Otherwise, your ballot might get flagged. If that happens, you’ll be notified by mail and will have a chance to fix it.
What to do if you come across an unfamiliar ballot item
It’s not required to vote on every item. If you haven’t had time to research, it’s OK to skip a race or ballot measure you’re unsure about — or several of them if you like. Whatever votes you do cast will still be counted, even if parts of your ballot are left blank.
Follow LAist’s Voter Game Plan. We’ll keep you updated as results come in after 8 p.m.
When will my ballot be counted?
Keep in mind that in tight races particularly, the winner may not be determined for days or weeks after Election Day.
Election results will start posting shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m.
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In L.A. County, the first batch of results released includes vote-by-mail ballots received before Election Day (8:30 to 8:45 p.m.), followed by early votes cast at vote centers before Election Day (8:45 to 9:00 p.m.), then votes cast in-person on Election Day. This process is expected to wrap up in the early hours of Nov. 4. Then, additional results will be released following a schedule you can see on the county's site. In California, ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 3 are counted toward the results as long as they arrive within seven days of the election.
County election officials must certify election results by Dec. 3.
If your mail-in ballot is rejected for any reason (like a missing or mismatched signature), your county registrar must contact you to give you a chance to fix it.
If you come across any other challenges, be sure to let us know. We have reporters out across L.A. County, along with staff standing by to answer your questions.
What questions do you have about this election?
You ask, and we'll answer: Whether it's about who's funding the campaigns or how to track your ballot, we're here to help you understand the 2026 election.
Editor's note: A version of this story was first published in 2022, and we continue to update it for subsequent elections.
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Erin Stone
covers climate and environmental issues in Southern California.
Published November 3, 2026 5:00 AM
Gayle Nicholls-Ali thanks the crowd at the end of the show. At left, Zaire Calvin looks on.
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Topline:
Eaton Fire survivors recently took their experiences to the stage. It's part of a national tour of disaster survivors putting on similar events in their own communities.
Why it matters: In a play by and for fire survivors, longtime Altadena residents Gayle Nicholls-Ali and Rasheed Ali turn interviews with displaced neighbors into a script for a play.
Read on ... for more about what the performance meant to the people who made it happen.
Altadena artist and muralist Austin Scott is painting a portrait in a courtyard outside the Union Center for the Arts in Little Tokyo. As a steady stream of people walk in, he sketches some details of the face of a woman holding a bouquet of flowers. She wears a wide-brimmed purple hat, her eyes are closed, her face tilts upward toward sunbeams.
Her name is Evelyn McClendon. The retired Pasadena school bus driver was the first victim whose body was found in the rubble of the Eaton Fire in Altadena.
“It’s going to be a portrait of her face made up of little portraits of all the other faces of the people we lost in the fire,” Scott says.
Something like a memorial, he says, for the 19 people who perished.
Altadena muralist and artist Austin Scott paints a portrait of Evelyn McClendon, the first identified victim of the Eaton Fire.
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In front of the building entrance, as people eat tacos and chat, Emeka Chukwurah starts the music.
“Can you see it? We rising up,” he raps as his father, Onochie, and members of their band play drums, guitar and traditional African instruments. They specialize in Nigerian highlife fusion music.
Chukwurah lost his Altadena business, Rhythms of the Village, in the fire. The store sold goods sourced from countries across Africa and hosted drum, dance and Nigerian language classes.
They’re finally about to reopen in a temporary space.
“What we went through is life-changing. It was very traumatic,” Chukwurah says. “But to turn something so traumatic into triumphant moments like these and create new memories, I'm truly grateful for how far we have come.”
Emeka Chukwurah lost his business, Rhythms of the Village, in the Eaton Fire. He's close to reopening in a temporary space.
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Putting real experiences on stage
The idea for tonight’s play was born after the Eaton Fire, when photographer Gayle Nicholls-Ali and her husband, Rasheed, returned to Altadena after a trip to the Bahamas. Their home and community of 30 years were gone.
So they sought out their displaced neighbors. Gayle photographed them. The two collected more than 20 hours of interviews. After the fire, during mutual aid efforts, they happened to meet Sunder Ganglani, the artistic director for Cornerstone Theater Company. With Ganglani’s help, they turned the interview transcripts into the play’s script.
Union Center for the Arts is the theater home of East West Players, considered the nation's first Asian Pacific American theater company.
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“And so the four speakers on stage, all of whom are fire survivors, end up speaking around 20 different people, you know, from every walk of life,” Ganglani says.
Eventually, the nonprofit Extreme Weather Survivors, which connects disaster survivors with each other, got in touch as well. The play became a part of a national tour of similar events hosted by disaster survivors across the country ahead of the midterms.
On this October evening, the crowd settles into the seats of the David Henry Hwang Theater. Gayle Nicholls-Ali takes the stage to applause.
“Tonight is a chance to see one another more fully, to feel something together, to remember that we still belong to Altadena even if we're not living there right at the moment,” she says.
The show begins
The lights go down. Four actors walk onto the stage, one by one.
“My name is Rasheed. My name is Francesca. Shakira. My name is Sam. Darina. My name is Sunny.”
As they speak the stories, Nicholls-Ali rotates pictures of the people she interviewed, projected onto sheets hung behind the actors.
The performers onstage during "From Ashes We Gather."
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The building that houses this theater — the Union Center for the Arts — has been privy to some of the biggest events in Los Angeles history. It was a church for Japanese Americans before their mass incarceration during World War II, then a community center for Black Americans during the Great Migration. It was witness to racial attacks known as the Zoot Suit Riots, and was damaged by the Northridge earthquake.
Today, the art space and theater continues to be a place to process pain, to find refuge.
Like the actors in the play. All of them are fire survivors.
Their voices become a chorus with phrases repeated by survivors.
“Driving back to Altadena for the first time was really chimney after chimney after chimney…”
“They killed 19 of our neighbors.”
“This is our generational wealth. We don't want to lose that.”
The questions they were constantly asked: “How are you? Where are you? What's going on? Were you affected?”
Rasheed Ali performs the piece he composed for the play.
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At the close, the actors exit one by one. Rasheed Ali is alone on stage. The musician and composer sits at the keyboard and plays a piano piece telling the story of Altadena before, during and after the fire.
At the end of the night, some special guests take the stage, including Zaire Calvin, the brother of Evelyn McClendon, whose portrait was being painted earlier. He performs a rap he wrote with his cousin. The show ends with Medusa, who grew up in Altadena and is a hip-hop legend who has collaborated with icons like Tupac Shakur, Erykah Badu and Common.
A healing moment
Gayle Nicholls-Ali thanks the crowd at the end of the show. At left, Zaire Calvin looks on.
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After the show, as everyone packs up, Rasheed Ali is reflective.
“For me, it was a breakthrough,” he says. “The fire has a paralyzing effect on your creativity.”
Gayle Nicholls-Ali feels the same.
“I have not been able to feel creative because this fire is like a big knot in your stomach that you can't get rid of,” she says. “And so this helps to unknot the knot.”
Not just for her and Rasheed, she hopes, but for their community too.
Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published November 2, 2026 7:00 PM
The Skid Row Care Campus is L.A. County's main homeless services hub.
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Topline:
L.A. County quietly stopped handing out syringes and pipes at its Skid Row Care Campus in August and has ended its contract with Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, the nonprofit that ran harm reduction there, effective Tuesday.
Why it matters: The goal of these programs is to keep people who use drugs alive and free of infections like HIV and hepatitis, while working to connect them with services including treatment. The pause comes amid a growing cluster of HIV cases in Skid Row.
Why now: The county says the temporary pause stems “in part” from concerns raised by community stakeholders and local businesses.
What’s next: Homeless Health Care Los Angeles is laying off 134 workers. New providers have rehired many of them, the county says.
Los Angeles County quietly stopped handing out syringes and pipes at the county’s flagship services hub in Skid Row in August, and has now terminated the contract of the nonprofit that ran harm reduction programs there, the Department of Health Services told LAist.
The pause — which county officials said is temporary — began in August, “in part due to concerns that community stakeholders and local businesses raised to County leadership,” according to a statement provided to LAist by Thomas Lynch, a spokesperson for the county’s Department of Health Services.
The changes come amid a growing cluster of HIV cases in Skid Row and mounting pressure from the Trump administration and neighboring businesses on L.A. programs that distribute drug paraphernalia. Critics argue the programs enable drug addiction and contribute to crime in the area.
The goal of these programs is to keep people who use drugs alive and free of infections like HIV and hepatitis, while working to connect them with services including treatment.
In late August, the county Department of Public Health identified a cluster of HIV cases among people who live in and around Skid Row. As of Sunday, 15 people had been linked to it, 11 of them women, according to Becky Schlikerman, a spokesperson for that department.
In a statement, Schlikerman said both substance use and sexual transmission are being investigated as possible factors, and that the department is working with street medicine teams and harm reduction groups to expand HIV testing and prevention in the area.
“There is an active HIV outbreak in Skid Row, so reducing safe injection supplies to people who use drugs in this moment seems particularly dangerous,” said Ricky Bluthenthal, distinguished professor of population and public health sciences at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.
The Skid Row Care Campus still distributes naloxone — the opioid overdose reversal drug — wound care supplies and safe sex supplies, Lynch said, but “distribution of syringes and pipes is currently on pause.”
He also said they have not set a date for syringe services to resume, that the pause applies only at the campus, and that staff are referring people to syringe programs elsewhere.
The state lists 24 authorized syringe services programs in L.A. County, according to the California Department of Public Health. Two are based in or next to Skid Row.
Harm reduction services are provided across much of L.A. County, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
Darren Willett, director of the Center for Harm Reduction in Skid Row, in September of 2021.
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Provider layoffs
The county has also terminated its contract with Homeless Health Care Los Angeles effective Tuesday, county officials said. The county announced the change in an Aug. 28 statement, the same month the syringe and pipe pause began.
Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, one of L.A.’s best-known harm reduction providers, notified the state in September that it would permanently lay off 134 workers — including 117 employees at the Skid Row Care Campus — effective Tuesday, Nov. 3, according to state Employment Development Department records.
“Right now, HHCLA is being forced to say goodbye to some deeply valued staff and reduce services that some of LA’s most marginalized rely on every day,” the nonprofit wrote in an Instagram post in late September.
In the same post, Homeless Health Care Los Angeles said its jobs program for people in Skid Row “no longer exists.” The nonprofit said the program offered “real income, real pathways forward for people too often shut out of opportunity.”
The county is bringing in nonprofits St. Joseph Center and LA Community Health Project instead, officials said. Meanwhile, Social Model Recovery Systems will expand its existing services and Wesley Health Centers will continue providing healthcare on site.
In statements provided to LAist, L.A. County's health services and homelessness departments described the shake-up as “contractor changes” made as part of an effort to “strengthen operations.” Officials are updating campus protocols, “strengthening on-site safety” and expanding substance use treatment and healthcare, according to those statements.
County officials said they are committed to a transition that avoids disruption for people using the campus.
“Providers are hiring from within the Skid Row community and have worked hard to retain staff who were working for Homeless Health Care Los Angeles,” Lynch told LAist.
Those providers have hired more than 80 people so far, and nearly 90% previously worked for Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, according to the department.
Representatives for Homeless Health Care Los Angeles did not respond to repeated requests for interview or comment.
The nonprofit has worked in Skid Row since the 1980s and ran the campus’s harm reduction and overdose response programs. It celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.
A group of Skid Row community members and laid-off campus workers calling itself the Skid Row Coalition for Community Safety has launched a campaign saying L.A. County is “playing politics with people’s lives.”
“Supervisor Hilda Solis and LA County chose to cowardly abandon the recommendations of public health experts and the Skid Row community,” the group said in a statement on its website.
County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who represents the area and authored the 2022 motion that created the Skid Row Action Plan, told LAist in a statement that the decision to end Homeless Health Care Los Angeles’ contract was made jointly by the county’s health services and homelessness departments.
“Some services have been paused to allow the incoming provider to onboard staff and establish operations,” Solis said. “This is a necessary part of coordinating the transition.”
“I am proud of the Skid Row Action Plan and its commitment to expanding low-barrier services, health care, and pathways to housing,” Solis’ statement continued. “That commitment remains unchanged.”
Solis completes her final term next month and is on Tuesday’s ballot running for California’s 38th Congressional District, which covers parts of eastern Los Angeles and Orange counties but not Skid Row.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis. Solis represents Skid Row and authored a 2022 motion that created the Skid Row Action Plan.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Criticism of the campus
The Skid Row Care Campus opened in spring 2025. County officials call it the first community-designed homeless services hub in the nation.
The campus logs more than 2,700 visits a day, a count that includes repeat visitors, according to the county. It costs about $26 million a year to operate. Funding is secured through June 2027. The budget for the following fiscal year has not been finalized.
The campus in the heart of Skid Row drew scrutiny this year. In May, Fox 11 aired a segment featuring Estela Lopez, executive director of the Downtown Industrial Business Improvement District, who called the campus a “meth mansion.” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass told the TV station she was concerned about problems at the campus.
LAPD responded 693 times to the two blocks around it between January and late May, and recorded four homicides there in the first four months of 2026, according to LAPD figures first reported by Fox 11.
On Oct. 8, federal agents and LAPD officers carried out a drug sweep dubbed “Operation Save Skid Row,” centered about a block from the campus. Federal prosecutors charged 28 people and arrested 23, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In July 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to stop funding “so-called ‘harm reduction’” efforts. In April, federal health officials barred grantees from using federal money for pipes and drug test strips, on top of a longstanding ban on federal funds for syringes.
L.A. County officials have not said whether federal policy played a role in the pause. The campus is funded through opioid settlement money, Medi-Cal managed care plans, the state and the county — not federal grants, according to officials.
County officials and employees have credited harm reduction programs with helping drive down overdose deaths, which fell 6% in 2025 — the third straight annual decline — according to the county Department of Public Health.
A person walks past an encampment of unhoused people in the Skid Row community. Skid Row is home to thousands of people who are either experiencing homelessness on the streets or living in shelters.
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Getty Images North America
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Harm reduction’s track record
Harm reduction programs including needle and syringe exchanges started in L.A. more than three decades ago in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. L.A. County declared a local public health emergency in 2000 to authorize syringe exchange under a new state law, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report.
People who use fentanyl in L.A. have increasingly shifted from injecting it to smoking it, according to a 2025 study co-authored by Bluthenthal, with USC’s Keck School of Medicine.
Bluthenthal called the recent syringe and pipe distribution pause at the Skid Row Care Campus “obviously a setback.”
“Harm reduction programs, through providing social and material support, have been one of the most consistent pathways to treatment for people who are currently using illicitly purchased drugs,” he said.
In a statement on the pause, officials at L.A. County’s Department of Health Services said people who receive syringe services are three times more likely to reduce or stop using drugs and five times more likely to enter substance use treatment.
John Raphling, an organizer with the Los Angeles Community Action Network based in Skid Row, said his group is “extremely concerned that the county is cutting these services” and that Skid Row residents “were not at all consulted.”
“Harm reduction services, like those provided by Homeless Health Care, help save lives, prevent the spread of disease, and allow people to survive and work through their recovery,” Raphling said.
Some Skid Row residents see it differently — including Don Garza, who has lived in the neighborhood for 27 years and resides in a single-room-occupancy building there.
“It’s not helping anyone,” Garza told LAist. “It exponentially accelerates the overdose deaths.”
“The part of harm reduction that we still need is the overdose prevention, but without the pipes and the needles,” Garza said. “We still need the Narcan because Skid Row is not going anywhere, and people are still gonna OD, and they're gonna die.”
