The Brief

About five miles southeast of downtown L.A., a cluster of four rendering companies transform leftover meat, bone scraps, and sometimes entire carcasses from chickens, pigs, and cows, into ingredients for new products.

The facilities are located in Vernon, or just outside the city’s limits. Under a local air quality rule, rendering plants that produce certain types of products are required to post signs notifying community members where to report associated odor issues. But an LAist review found that two of these companies were out of compliance in recent years, and a third company has changed its business operations and avoided the pollution rule.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) regulates air quality in the region. Public records and the agency’s website show it cited two of the rendering plants, Darling Ingredients, Inc. and Baker Commodities, Inc., for not having the required signage posted during inspections. Both have fixed the problems since then.

The other company, Coast Packing Co., altered its business model and is now exempt from the rule.

How rendering odors have impacted local residents

The city of Vernon is home to about 1,800 businesses. Fashion Nova, a fast-fashion company that largely found success through influencers on social media, and Tapatío hot sauce both have locations in the city. Overall, the businesses produce a wide range of products: food, steel, plastics, and apparel.

Vernon’s city limits are just five square miles, and it’s almost exclusively industrial with just 222 residents. It’s surrounded by densely populated cities, including Bell, Commerce, Huntington Park and Maywood, as well as the Boyle Heights neighborhood and unincorporated East L.A.

For decades, community members have grappled with odors emanating from the rendering companies. They’ve described the smells as “nauseating,” “rancid” and “putrid.” To escape the odors, neighbors told LAist they shut their windows and avoid going outdoors — especially in the summer, when the stench can intensify.

How the odor rule works

In 2017, AQMD adopted a rule that forces rendering plants to take steps to keep potential odors from seeping into the community. Under the rule, the plants must:

• Store animal matter within four hours of receiving it
• Repair broken concrete and asphalt to keep odor-causing bacteria from forming in dirty water
• Wash outgoing trucks. 

The rule also stipulates that rendering plants must post signs on their property, indicating where community members can report odor issues.

These signs must include AQMD’s complaint hotline, 1-800-CUT-SMOG (1-800-288-7664), along with the name of the rendering company. The signage must be placed within 50 feet of a facility’s main entrance, with large lettering that contrasts with the background.

The details of the sign rule violations

AQMD’s data portal shows that the agency issued a notice to Darling in October 2018, telling the company to post the required signage. The company came into compliance that same month.

The data portal also shows that Baker received two notices about the required signage, one in 2018 and another in 2020.

In an email, AQMD spokesperson Nahal Mogharabi said air quality officials observed that Baker’s sign “was placed more than 50 feet from the main entrance of the facility” during an unannounced inspection in September 2018. The company’s guard shack also obstructed the sign from public view. AQMD confirmed that the sign was moved to comply with the rule by December of that year.

During another inspection in February 2020, inspectors noticed that Baker’s sign contained new “extraneous information,” which interfered with the public's ability to read the hotline phone number, Mogharabi added. Air quality officials issued a second notice. Baker made the required changes within two months of the notice from air regulators, and voluntarily added a translation for Spanish speakers.

In visits to each location, LAist found Coast is the only rendering plant in the area without the signage.

Chavis Ferguson, vice president of operations at Coast, said he had no comment. A spokesperson for Darling said they were not available by deadline. Baker, which is suing AQMD for shutting it down, declined multiple interview requests.

In an emailed statement, spokesperson Jimmy Andreoli II said Baker is “dedicated to finding sustainable ways to support California’s food production and restaurant industries with continued strict adherence to local, state, and federal environmental laws.”

Why one rendering company isn’t subject to the odor rule 

Founded in 1922, Coast is located along the L.A. River next to the shuttered Farmer John slaughterhouse and rendering plant building — famous for large murals of pigs grazing on an idyllic farm.

The company is currently exempt from the rule’s signage requirements, according to AQMD spokesperson Connie Mejia.

The signage requirements, she explained, only apply to facilities engaged in inedible rendering, which produce ingredients for products that are not for human consumption. This includes fertilizer, soap, and pet food.

When the rule was adopted in 2017, Mejia added, Coast performed this type of rendering and was subject to the rule. But they’ve changed their work flow since then. Right now, Coast processes animal tissue into products like lard. That work isn’t subject to the rule. Mejia said it’s “not as odorous.”

If Coast resumes inedible rendering — the smellier type of rendering — the signage requirements “will become effective,” she wrote. Coast still holds a license to conduct that work, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Why the signage matters 

Joseph Lyou, president and CEO of the L.A.-based nonprofit the Coalition for Clean Air, is a former AQMD governing board member and voted in support of the odor mitigation rule back in 2017.

“All you have to do is drive around [Vernon] on a bad day, and you will find absolutely disgusting odors from these facilities,” he said.

Lyou noted that people who live in the surrounding neighborhoods are predominantly working-class Latinos.

“The idea [behind the rule] was that the South Coast Air Quality Management District has the authority — and the responsibility — of providing some protection to this community,” he said.

We shared our findings with Julia Stein, deputy director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. She said the rule’s signage requirement is essential.

“When [community members] notice really strong odors coming from the facility, [the signage] is how they understand that there is actually a regulator that's involved,” said Stein, who previously worked as an attorney advising clients on regulatory compliance. “Without that signage there, folks might be experiencing those problems, but not understand that they have some sort of recourse.”

On top of the unpleasant odors, Stein added, these types of facilities often emit hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, which “can cause pretty significant health impacts.” Associated problems include skin and eye irritation, difficulty breathing, “and, potentially, even interfering with brain function,” she said.

The Trump administration says it’s planning to freeze about $10 billion in federal support for needy families in California and four other Democrat-run states, as the president announced an investigation into unspecified fraud in California.

The plans come on the heels of the Trump administration announcing a freeze on all federal payments for child care in Minnesota, citing fraud allegations against daycare centers in the state.

The state’s Democrat governor, Tim Walz — who ran for vice president against Donald Trump’s ticket in 2024 — announced Monday he was dropping out of running for reelection. He pointed to fraud against the state, saying it’s a real issue while alleging Trump and his allies were “seeking to take advantage of the crisis.”

On Monday, the New York Post reported that the administration was expanding the funding freeze to include California and three other Democrat-led states, in addition to Minnesota. Unnamed federal officials cited “concerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens,” The Post reported.

Early Tuesday, President Trump alleged that corruption in California is worse than Minnesota and announced an investigation.

“California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible??? The Fraud Investigation of California has begun. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

He did not specify what alleged fraud was being examined in the Golden State.

LAist has reached out to the White House to ask what the president’s fraud concerns are in California and to request an interview with the president.

“For too long, Democrat-led states and governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” said an emailed statement from Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the federal childcare funds.

“Under the Trump administration, we are ensuring that federal taxpayer dollars are being used for legitimate purposes. We will ensure these states are following the law and protecting hard-earned taxpayer money.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office disputed Trump’s claim on social media, arguing that since taking office, the governor has blocked $125 billion in fraud and arrested “criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers.”

Criminal fraud cases in CA appear to be rare for this program

Defrauding federally funded programs is a crime — and one LAist has investigated, leading to one of the largest such criminal cases in recent years against a California elected official, which surrounded meal funds.

When it comes to the federal childcare funds that are being frozen, the dollar amount of fraud alleged in criminal cases appears to be a tiny fraction of the overall program’s spending in California.

A search of thousands of news releases by all four federal prosecutor offices in California, going back more than a decade, found a total of one criminal case where the press releases referenced childcare benefits.

That case, brought in 2023, alleged four men stole $3.7 million in federal childcare benefits through fraudulent requests to a San Diego organization that distributed the funds. All four pleaded guilty, with one defendant sentenced to 27 months in prison and others sentenced to other terms, according to authorities.

It appears to be equivalent to one one-hundredth of 1% of all the childcare funding California has received over the past decade-plus covered by the prosecution press release search.

Potential impact on California families

The plans call for California, Minnesota, New York, Illinois and Colorado to lose about $7 billion in cash assistance for households with children, almost $2.4 billion to care for children of working parents, and about $870 million for social services grants that mostly benefit children at risk, according to unnamed federal officials speaking to the New York Times and New York Post.

In the largest category of funding, California receives $3.7 billion per year. The program is known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.

 ”It's very clear that a freeze of those funds would be very damaging to the children, families, and providers of California,” said Stacy Lee, who oversees early childhood initiatives "at Children Now, an advocacy group for children in California.

 ”It is a significant portion of our funds and will impact families and children and providers across the whole state,” she added. “It would be devastating, in no uncertain terms.”

About 270,000 people are served by the TANF program in L.A. County — about 200,000 of whom are children, according to the county Department of Public Social Services.

“Any pause in funding for their cash benefits – which average $1000/month - would be devastating to these families,” said DPSS chief of staff Nick Ippolito.

Ippolito said the department has a robust fraud prevention and 170-person investigations team, and takes allegations “very seriously.”

It remains to be seen whether the funding freeze will end up in court. The state, as well as major cities and counties in California, has sued to ask judges to halt funding freezes or new requirements placed by the Trump administration. L.A. city officials say they’ve had success with that, including shielding more than $600 million in federal grant funding to the city last year.

A union representing California childcare workers said the funding freeze would harm low-income families.

“These threats need to be called out for what they are: direct threats on working families of all backgrounds who rely on access to quality, affordable child care in their communities to go to work every day supporting, and growing our economy,” said Max Arias, chairperson for the Child Care Providers United, which says it represents more than 70,000 child care workers across the state who care for kids in their homes.

“Funding freezes, even when intended to be temporary, will be devastating — resulting in families losing access to care and working parents facing the devastating choice of keeping their children safe or paying their bills.”

Federal officials planned to send letters to the affected states Monday about the planned funding pauses, the New York Post reported. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, state officials said they haven’t gotten any official notification of the funding freeze plans.

“The California Department of Social Services administers child care programs that help working families afford safe, reliable care for their children — so parents can go to work, support their families, and contribute to their communities,” said a statement from California Department of Social Services spokesperson Jason Montiel.

“These funds are critical for working families across California. We take fraud seriously, and CDSS has received no information from the federal government indicating any freeze, pause, or suspension of federal child care funding.”

Housing officials in the city of Los Angeles say a pandemic-era voucher program is set to run out of money later this year, putting thousands of renters at risk of homelessness.

The federal Emergency Housing Voucher program was launched in 2021 as a way to get vulnerable people off the streets and into housing during the COVID-19 crisis. The city of L.A. received more than 3,300 of the vouchers.

With federal funding now running out, the city is preparing to wind down the program. On Monday the city’s housing authority said it had told 2,760 tenant households and 1,700 landlords that unless new funding is found, vouchers will expire by November or December of this year.

“We are providing this notice nearly a year in advance because our families deserve the respect of time to prepare, but this is not a notice of resignation,” said L.A. Housing Authority President Lourdes Castro Ramírez said in a news release. “We are exhausting every avenue — at the local, state and federal levels — to bridge this funding gap.”

The Housing Authority said each household using a voucher had an average of 1.58 members. That puts more than 4,000 Angelenos at risk of losing their housing later this year.

Homelessness progress could be reversed

Congress originally intended the program to continue through 2030, but last year, the Trump administration announced funding would end sooner. The program’s demise risks reversing L.A.’s reported progress at stemming the rise of homelessness.

After years of steady increases, the city has registered slight reductions in the number of people experiencing homelessness for the past two years. In 2023, the region’s homeless services authority reported 46,260 people experiencing homelessness in the city of L.A. By 2025, that number had fallen to 43,695.

The accuracy of those official counts has been questioned by local researchers, but elected officials have cheered the numbers as a sign that the tide is turning in addressing one of L.A.’s most vexing problems.

With thousands of renters now at risk of losing a key resource helping them afford the city’s high rents, sharp increases in homelessness could be on the horizon, said Mike Feuer, a senior policy advisor with the Inner City Law Center.

“They're going to fall into homelessness, and they're going to increase L.A.'s homeless population by almost 10%,” Feuer said. “Those are the implications of what the Trump administration is doing.”

Voucher holders have low incomes; many have kids

According to L.A.’s Housing Authority, about 1-in-4 voucher holders has children and 1-in-5 is elderly. And about 40% are disabled. These households have an average income of less than $14,000 per year, and they receive an average of $1,789 per month in rental subsidy while paying about $350 out of their own pockets.

The loss of federal funding for Emergency Housing Vouchers is distinct from the issues facing renters using Housing Choice Vouchers, another federally funded program often referred to as Section 8. Existing vouchers in the Section 8 program have continued to be funded, but federal funding reductions have caused city officials to cut the amount of rent new vouchers in that program can cover by 10%.

L.A. Housing Authority officials said they have dedicated staff reaching out to tenants to explore other housing resources that might keep them housed after the vouchers expire.

Manuel Villagomez, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles specializing in subsidized housing, said with city and state budgets strapped, tenant advocates are not counting on California to find alternative funding sources to continue the program.

“It seems like it's a tragedy in the making,” Villagomez said. “We're preparing for the worst.”