Topline:
More than a month and half after L.A.’s devastating fires, the recovery is just beginning. And even for the residents of burn zones whose homes survived, the road ahead is complicated.
Health concerns: Some residents are staying in their homes in the burn zones, waiting for insurance to cover cleanup and worrying about their health as debris removal continues around them.
Read on ... to learn more about how two Altadena residents are coping and for recovery resources.
On a sunny day in late January, Tamara Carroll returned to her home on Navarro Avenue in west Altadena for the first time. It survived the Eaton Fire, and she was coming back with an insurance inspector to assess the damage.
“ I don't know how I feel,” Carroll said. “I'm grateful I have a house to come back to, but it's a long journey ahead.”
Her group of girlfriends were there to support her — close friends she’s known for some 35 years.
"We come together in happiness and sadness ... all the events of life,” said friend Barri Brown. “This is one of those times where we come together and put our arms around each other.”
More than a month and half after L.A.’s devastating fires, the recovery is just beginning.
Even for residents whose homes survived, the road ahead is complicated.
Some are staying in their homes, worried about the health effects as they wait for their insurance to cover smoke and ash cleanup, and watch as debris removal continues around them. Others are staying elsewhere, and still not sure they’ll ever return for good.
For those whose homes still stand in the burn zones, homeowners insurance and personal property insurance should cover most damage, including smoke damage, said David Russell, professor of insurance and finance at Cal State Northridge. But there can be limitations.
“ In some cases, smoke damage is a tricky one because reasonable people can disagree about whether or not there's a smell of smoke or if it's damaged,” Russell said. “The policy is really about physical damage. And it's less about if you don't feel safe.”
Russell said personal property insurance may cover only the depreciated value of objects like couches and mattresses. Russell added that residents should not be afraid to ask their adjusters about additional coverage and to document everything if you disagree with the assessment.
Here are some more resources to help you navigate insurance and recovery after the fires:
Carroll didn’t evacuate the night the Eaton Fire broke out, putting out spot fires in her yard and her neighbors’ yard as she watched homes burning a couple blocks down the street.
Once the flames died down, she stayed in her house for nearly another week without power, water or gas.
“It was just cold. I had no heat, and I was sleeping in my clothes,” Carroll recalled. “I was hyper vigilant: I had my backpack. I slept in my shoes. And it just became too much on my psyche.”
She left for a hotel in Burbank, which her insurance is covering. But she’s been replaying the night of Jan. 7 in her head, and rewatching the videos she took on her phone.
“I keep replaying those moments where I see the flames and the fire.... That's the trauma,” Carroll said.
The insurance adjuster tallied the physical damage. He marked charred shingles on her roof with white chalk. Her outdoor furniture is burned. The wall between her and her neighbor's house blew over in the wind.
Inside, the house smells like smoke. The adjuster swiped the walls with tissues — a thin coat of ash covered them. The adjuster recommended a smoke and ash cleaning.
Her homeowners insurance covers only the structure itself — the adjuster told Carroll she’ll need to have another adjuster with her personal property insurance to assess her furniture, rugs and the like.
By mid-February, Carroll just got the check for exterior repairs, but still awaits the insurance payment for smoke and ash remediation inside. She’s negotiating with her adjuster for additional coverage.
Even once the repairs are done, though, she doesn’t know if she’ll permanently return to the home her parents bought in 1963.
“We're grieving,” Carroll said. “Altadena will never ever be like it was. Ever.”
A couple of blocks over, on Glenrose Avenue, Ana Martinez and her family are still working to clean up their home, which also survived the fire. Their neighbor’s house didn’t.
“We’re surviving,” Martinez said. “Trying to get back to normal. Our new normal now.”
Martinez pointed out damage to the three homes on the property: Roof shingles and wood siding are charred. The carport is gone. The window blinds are melted, the glass broken from the heat of the flames. Her trash bins are a single melted piece of green, blue and black plastic.
“It's my new art piece now,” Martinez said.
Martinez said insurance will replace only damaged shingles, not the whole roof, though she thinks that is needed. They’ll also replace the windows. Martinez and her husband, sons, nephews and other family members have done their best to clean up inside and outside their homes.
But they’re still waiting on professional smoke and ash remediation. And as debris cleanup continues around her, she worries the house will only take in more toxic ash and dirt.
In the days after the fire, researchers measured high levels of lead, heavy metals, asbestos, microplastics and other toxic pollutants in the air. Those particles can settle into soil and dust, potentially becoming re-suspended as cleanup and rebuilding efforts continue. That toxic pollution can lead to health issues, from respiratory problems to increased risks of heart disease and cancer.
All of that is making Martinez worried about her family’s health.
The Martinezes have lived in their home this whole time. She said she and her husband developed bad coughs and recently went to the doctor for lung X-rays.
“We have kids here,” Martinez said. “We want to make sure they're safe; we don't want to just do a job halfway.”
Their young granddaughter and grandson, who has heart and lung issues, recently returned to the house because insurance stopped advancing money for their stays in hotels and short-term rentals after the first couple of weeks, instead asking them to submit claims for reimbursement.
California law requires insurance to pay four months of advance payments for living expenses for people who lost their homes in a fire, but there aren’t the same benefits for those whose homes survived. Coverage for temporary housing in this case varies by policy.
In the Martinezes case, they now have to foot the bill upfront and submit claims for reimbursement.
“They said ... 'It's best if you don't stay; we recognize it's bad for your health, so go away ... and then send us the receipts,'” Martinez said. “But what if they come out and say, ‘Oh, that's not covered.’ Then what? We don't have the money to go anywhere. ... We're out of the little bit of money we have in our savings.”
Topline:
Auditors are flagging major problems with the handling of tax dollars by the L.A. Homeless Services Authority.
The details: The failures surround poor bookkeeping and accounting of taxpayer money at the agency — which spent over $800 million in public funds last fiscal year. The issues emerged despite previous audits flagging serious oversight problems in prior years. The latest audit was conducted by an outside firm hired by the agency to meet federal requirements.
What they found: “Amounts initially included in the financial statements were not accurate, and adjustments were required,” auditors found in their review of LAHSA’s last fiscal year that ended in June 2025. The audit found that it stemmed from a "significant deficiency” in LAHSA’s “internal controls,” which are supposed to safeguard against financial inaccuracies and fraud.
The context: LAHSA officials have blown the March 31 federal deadline to turn in the audit after management missed multiple extensions in January and February to turn over financial documents to auditors for the fiscal year that ended last June. Missing the March 31 deadline can put future federal funding at risk. LAHSA officials said they hope to submit the final audit report this coming Friday, about 3 ½ weeks after the deadline.
The response: L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who is the only elected official on LAHSA’s governing commission, did not respond to a request for comment through a spokesperson. At a public meeting Monday, LAHSA CEO Gita O’Neill told LAHSA’s audit committee that her team was working to implement a lot of the auditors’ suggestions.
Auditors are flagging major problems with the handling of tax dollars by the L.A. Homeless Services Authority.
The failures surround poor bookkeeping and accounting of taxpayer money at the agency — which spent over $800 million in public funds last fiscal year. The issues emerged despite previous audits flagging serious oversight problems in prior years. The latest audit was conducted by an outside firm hired by the agency to meet federal requirements.
The agency’s financial statements initially included “significant” inaccurate amounts that needed to be adjusted late in the audit process, auditors found in their review of LAHSA’s last fiscal year that ended in June 2025.
The findings are from the federally-required “single audit,” a draft of which was presented to LAHSA’s audit committee on Monday. It found the inaccuracies stemmed from a "significant deficiency” in LAHSA’s “internal controls,” which are supposed to safeguard against financial inaccuracies and fraud.
The accounting failures contributed to delays in completing the audit — which was due to the federal government on March 31 — according to the draft report. Missing that deadline can put future federal funding at risk. LAHSA officials said at the committee meeting that they hope to submit the final audit report this coming Friday, more than three weeks after the deadline.
At a public meeting Monday, LAHSA CEO Gita O’Neill told LAHSA’s audit committee that her team was working to implement many of the auditors’ recommendations, which she called “great suggestions.”
The draft audit report now goes to the LAHSA Commission for approval on Friday. The audit committee was asked to approve it Monday but didn’t have majority support to move forward.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who oversees the agency and is the only elected official on LAHSA’s governing commission, did not respond to a request for comment through a spokesperson.
In response to previous audits that found major problems with LAHSA’s oversight of tax dollars, county supervisors decided last spring to withdraw all of the county’s $300 million-plus in annual funding of services through LAHSA and instead have the county directly manage it starting on July 1.
Problems identified in the latest audit reiterate why the county pulled its funding, Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a statement Monday.
“LAHSA’s inaction and inability to meet its audit deadline is inexcusable,” Barger said.
In a statement, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the “significant financial problems” found in the audit give “further confirmation” why the county decided to shift its funds out of LAHSA.
“Accountability isn’t optional; it is required to end this emergency. Anything less is unacceptable,” Horvath said.
The city is considering moving in a similar direction as the county. A key City Council panel — its homelessness committee — recently recommended the full council start shifting city homelessness funding out of LAHSA over the course of the next fiscal year. Bass has urged caution, saying moving too quickly to shift funding could disrupt services for unhoused people.
LAHSA has long functioned as the L.A.’s homeless services department, with over $300 million in city money expected to flow through LAHSA this fiscal year.
As of last summer, LAHSA had $380.5 million in assets and $381 million in liabilities, and received a total of $810 million in operating revenues during the last fiscal year, according to the latest audit.
During Monday’s discussion, lead auditor Justin Measley said LAHSA did not disclose millions of dollars in payments to a service provider whose executive was married to LAHSA’s CEO at the time, Va Lecia Adams Kellum. The audit is required to list “related party” transactions, Measley said, which involve an organization with immediate family ties to LAHSA’s leadership. He said auditors only learned about it later through reviewing news media coverage.
“The article is what triggered us knowing about this specifically,” said Measley, who works for the auditing firm CliftonLarsonAllen.
LAist uncovered documents showing Adams Kellum’s signature was on a $2.1 million contract and two other contract amendments with Upward Bound House, the Santa Monica-based nonprofit where her husband Edward Kellum works in senior leadership. The contract named Adams Kellum as the LAHSA official authorized to administer it.
![A Black woman sits at a dais with a flag in the background. A name placard in front of her reads: Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kell[um].](https://scpr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d4bf96c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6298x4198+0+0/resize/1344x896!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscpr-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F76%2F00%2Febed9a7a4fbd9e5ba12997e51d59%2Fgettyimages-1258669633.jpg)
A LAHSA-commissioned investigation cleared Adams Kellum of wrongdoing in part because “her signature was unintentionally applied by her staff, not by herself,” according to a summary released by LAHSA. LAHSA spokesperson Paul Rubenstein previously told LAist that Adams Kellum herself “mistakenly signed” the agreements. LAHSA officials also previously distributed an email from Adams Kellum’s official account to a colleague about one of the contracts with her husband’s employer, which stated “Please delete the document that I signed accidentally.”
Last year, state investigators at the Fair Political Practices Commission launched a conflict of interest investigation into the matter, which is ongoing.
Monday’s audit committee meeting also included discussion of the auditors’ findings that LAHSA is locked into paying $75 million for long-term leases over the coming years that cannot be canceled. Those leases are largely through its master leasing program that started over the last couple of years, which leases 14 apartment buildings, totaling 772 units, to provide housing for unhoused people. LAHSA management says the master leasing program is currently significantly underwater financially.
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A presentation last week by LAHSA management said the master leases are causing an annual budget hit of $10 million to LAHSA, which is prompting the agency to pull from other grants to pay for the leases.
LAHSA’s lease accounting was at the center of a "significant” correction to the agency’s financial statements late in the audit process, the audit states in its findings.
The auditors also found that LAHSA failed to comply with requirements for payroll costs that it charged to the federal government. The agency’s management failed to ensure timesheets for its employees were approved for three of the 40 timesheets the auditors reviewed, despite the law requiring federally-funded salaries to be based on accurate records of work, auditors found.
Topline
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Monday unveiled a $14.9 billion budget that is significantly rosier than last year’s spending plan, when she suggested massive layoffs and service cuts to accommodate a billion-dollar deficit.
The details: This year, because of a projected increase in revenues, the mayor is proposing no layoffs and a modest expansion of street services. The budget also calls for hiring police officers to keep up with retirements and resignations, maintaining Fire Department spending and holding steady funding for homelessness programs.
Reserve fund: In Bass’ proposal, the reserve fund is 5.7% of the general fund, or $490 million. The budget does not dip into the reserves, in contrast to last year’s plan.
Criticism: Bass is seeking re-election this year, and several of her challengers criticized the budget. “The budget the Mayor released today tells us the plan is to largely keep doing what we're doing — but what we're doing is not working,” Councilmember Nithya Raman said in a statement.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Monday unveiled a $14.9 billion budget that is significantly rosier than last year’s spending plan, when she suggested massive layoffs and service cuts to accommodate a billion-dollar deficit.
This year, because of a projected increase in revenues, the mayor is proposing no layoffs and a modest expansion of street services. Bass' budget also calls for hiring police officers to keep up with retirements and resignations, maintaining Fire Department spending and holding steady funding for homelessness programs.
“This budget is about protecting the progress we have made and making clear that Los Angeles is moving forward and will not go backward,” Bass said at a news conference.
In the proposal, the reserve fund is 5.7% of the general fund, or $490 million. The budget does not dip into the reserves, in contrast to last year’s plan.
Bass is seeking re-election this year. The primary is June 2.
Some of her challengers in the upcoming election, including Councilmember Nithya Raman, criticized Bass’ proposal as doing little more than maintaining the status quo.
“The budget the Mayor released today tells us the plan is to largely keep doing what we're doing — but what we're doing is not working,” Raman said in a statement.
Next, the proposal will go to the City Council for consideration. Budget hearings will be conducted in the coming weeks.
Among the reasons city officials say revenue will go up is the expected influx of thousands of visitors to World Cup soccer matches this summer. More travelers mean more people staying in hotels and paying hotel taxes, as well as more sales tax revenue.
The budget projects a $412 million increase in general tax revenue, including $71 in business taxes, $34 million in sales taxes and $67 million in utility taxes.
The budget would add 170 new positions in the department that handles street repairs and increase funding for street and sidewalk fixes, curb-ramp installation, street sweeping, bulky item pickup and dedicated illegal dumping enforcement throughout the city.
The budget also proposes hiring 510 police officers, representing a target of 8,555 for the Police Department and enough to keep up with attrition, according to budget officials. Bass has set a goal of 9,500 officers.
“It’s about preventing the shrinkage of LAPD,” Bass said.
That proposal is likely to see opposition from some council members who want to see the department shrink and funding for unarmed response teams increase.
The budget sustains citywide coverage for civilian unarmed crisis response, maintaining deployment of 500 crossing guards and expanding a program that aims to help children get to and from school safely and protect them from gang violence.
Under the budget, funding for Inside Safe, the mayor’s signature program to address homelessness, would remain about the same — $104 million.
The mayor touts an 18% drop in street homelessness as evidence of its success.
The budget maintains funding for the city Fire Department. In November, voters are expected to decide whether to increase the sales tax by half a percent to pay for more firefighters and equipment.
Bass’ challengers immediately criticized her budget as lacking vision.
“This budget maintains a status quo of reduced services and higher fees, the direct result of fiscally irresponsible decisions made by this Mayor in prior years,” Raman said in her statement.
In January, the council member voted against Bass’ plan to hire 170 more police officers.
Adam Miller, a tech entrepreneur and another Bass challenger, said keeping the budget flat “implies that the status quo is working.”
“That is tone-deaf to the city of Los Angeles as Angelenos overwhelmingly feel we need change," he said.
The budget needs to be approved by the City Council and signed by the mayor by July 1, the start of the fiscal year.
Topline:
The L.A. Homeless Services Authority announced Monday that the agency will narrow its focus and lay off 284 employees at the end of June.
Why now: The changes at the public agency, known as LAHSA, come after the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted last April to withdraw more than $300 million in annual funding for the agency.
The context: LAHSA interim CEO Gita O’Neill called the staffing changes a “necessary evolution," according to a news release announcing the move. “By narrowing our focus to macro-level governance, data management, and securing federal funding, we are stepping into our true role as a strategic architect of the region’s homelessness response system.” In December, a group of LAHSA employees wrote an open letter to the Board of Supervisors demanding they “ensure no County-funded worker is displaced.”
Hundreds of layoffs: The agency will send layoff notices to the 284 employees on April 30, according to the news release. Another 130 positions that are currently vacant will also be eliminated in the transition. Some of the layoffs may be avoided, a LAHSA spokesperson said in the news release, “depending on the final details of the City of Los Angeles budget.”
"I want to profoundly thank our staff for their unwavering dedication and hard work serving people experiencing homelessness across Los Angeles County," O’Neill said. "Our staff has been the driving force behind the historic reductions in street homelessness we've seen over the past two years.”
Topline:
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving her post amid an internal investigation brought on by complaints about misconduct.
More details: White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung announced the departure on X, writing "she has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives." Cheung said Chavez-DeRemer was taking a position in the private sector.
Why it matters: Chavez-DeRemer is the third cabinet member to leave during President Trump's second term.
Read on... for more on the resignation.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving her post amid an internal investigation brought on by complaints about misconduct.
White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung announced the departure on X, writing "she has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives." Cheung said Chavez-DeRemer was taking a position in the private sector.
A senior official at the Labor Department not authorized to speak publicly about the departure said the secretary had resigned.
Chavez-DeRemer is the third cabinet member to leave during President Donald Trump's second term.
In early March, Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shortly after lawmakers on Capitol Hill berated her over her agency's handling of immigration enforcement — as well as its $220 million ad campaign featuring the secretary on horseback.
A month later, Attorney General Pam Bondi left amid simmering frustration over her leadership of the Justice Department and her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
While Chavez-DeRemer has played a far less visible role than Bondi or Noem in Trump's second term, her tenure has also been marked by controversy.
In January, the New York Post first reported that the Labor Department's inspector general was looking into complaints that Chavez-DeRemer was having an affair with a subordinate, drinking alcohol on the job and using taxpayer-funded travel to visit with friends and family members.
NPR has not independently verified the contents of the investigation.
While in office, Chavez-DeRemer spent much of her time away from Washington. A year ago, she launched her "America at Work" listening tour, an initiative that took her to all 50 states.
Chavez-DeRemer's chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, who had been on leave since January, resigned in early March. A third senior member of her staff, Melissa Robey, said in a statement issued March 26 that she had been fired a couple days earlier, after giving a four-hour interview to the Office of the Inspector General.
Meanwhile, the New York Times was first to report that Chavez-DeRemer's husband, Shawn DeRemer, an anesthesiologist in Portland, Ore., had been barred from Labor Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., after at least two staffers reported he had touched them inappropriately. Washington, D.C. police and federal prosecutors closed the investigations without bringing charges.
Trump's selection of Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Labor Department was seen by many as a concession to Teamsters President Sean O'Brien. O'Brien had been friendly with Trump through the presidential campaign, taking a prime-time speaking slot at the 2024 Republican National Convention and later declining to endorse Trump's opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
O'Brien had pushed for Chavez-DeRemer's selection, noting that she was one of only a few Republicans in Congress to have supported the PRO Act. That bill aimed to make it easier for workers to organize unions, including by overturning state Right to Work laws, which weaken unions.
At the time, Trump wrote, "Lori's strong support from both the Business and Labor communities will ensure that the Labor Department can unite Americans of all backgrounds."
Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, who has already been running much of the day-to-day operations of the Labor Department, has been named acting secretary, according to Cheung's post on X.
Sonderling previously served at the Labor Department during the first Trump administration and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the Biden administration, having been nominated by Trump during his first term to fill a Republican seat.
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