Julia Barajas
explores how college students achieve their goals, whether they’re fresh out of high school, pursuing graduate work or looking to join the labor force through alternative pathways.
Published October 18, 2023 5:00 AM
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Topline:
In Southeast L.A., community members have organized against the stench of dead animals and other environmental problems for years. The fight for reforms, many told us, can feel neverending.
The backstory: An LAist review earlier this month found four rendering plants, six slaughterhouses and at least 40 meat processors located in or very near the city of Vernon — which is located five miles southeast of downtown L.A. The smells can travel fast to nearby cities, and residents across the region have long complained about odor issues. Air quality regulators say shifting wind patterns can carry smells several miles in just a few minutes.
What’s a rendering plant? A rendering plant is a company that recycles expired meat from grocery stores and dead animal carcasses into other products. Air regulators have called the smell created by rendering “unique and unmistakable.” Rendering plants play an important role in reducing food waste, but are also known to emit hazardous odors.
Read more: This story is the final installment of our five-part series investigating how rendering plants in, and near, the city of Vernon are impacting residents in Southeast L.A. You can read the series here.
Key findings at a glance
Community members told LAist the fight to end environmental injustice feels neverending.
As a student at Huntington Park High in the early 2000s, Milton Hernandez Nimatuj said they often woke up to the stench of dead animals.
Some days were worse than others. But when the odor was especially intense, they said it permeated everything. Hernandez Nimatuj was left nauseated, with a headache, and in no mood for breakfast.
Often, the stench would show up on campus. During band practice, out on the football field, it was tough to play the clarinet while inhaling that putrid air.
Two decades later, Hernandez Nimatuj now lives a few miles away in Walnut Park and says the smell still vexes them. Occasionally, it seeps into their home, but it’s been less intense in recent months.
Community members in Southeast L.A. have long complained about putrid odors — smells air regulators have tied to a handful of nearby rendering companies, which recycle expired meat from grocery stores and dead animal carcasses from farms into other products. Those regulators have called the smell generated by these plants “unique and unmistakable.”
The nearby city of Vernon is an industrial hub that’s long been home base for many of the companies who do this processing in Southern California. Though the numbers have changed over the years — Farmer John, for example, closed last spring — an LAist review earlier this month found four rendering plants, six slaughterhouses and at least 40 meat processors located in or very near Vernon. And the smells can travel fast to nearby cities. Air quality regulators say shifting wind patterns can carry smells several miles in just a few minutes.
Milton Hernandez Nimatuj photographed at the Huntington Park High School football field where he performed while in the marching band as a student.
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In interviews with LAist, many Southeast L.A. residents — including local elected officials, environmental justice activists, and other community members — acknowledge that rendering companies play an important role in reducing food waste. They also acknowledge that community members who live nearby have to cope with smells that can be severe.
The fight
for reforms, many told us, can feel neverending.
One rendering company fights to fully reopen
In recent years, one rendering company in the area has violated more air quality rules than any other: Baker Commodities, Inc.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), which regulates air pollution in the region, temporarily shut down Baker in the fall of 2022 after an inspector found that it had violated a rule meant to keep odors from seeping into surrounding neighborhoods. That rule, adopted in 2017, was informed by concerns from dozens of stakeholders, including rendering companies, local unions, environmental groups, students, and churches. When Baker was shut down, many community members celebrated it as a win.
In interviews with LAist, community members say since Baker stopped rendering dead animals, the smell problems have dissipated over the last year but have not gone away completely. Hernandez Nimatuj was among a half dozen residents who provided sworn testimony during a public hearing last fall, arguing that Baker was harming the community and should be closed.
In addition to rendering animals, the Vernon facility processes trap grease and wastewater. Trap grease comes from devices that capture fats, oil and grease in restaurant kitchens, to keep them from entering the sewer system.
At its Vernon headquarters, according to court filings, Baker collects and treats 21 million gallons of grease trap water per year that it neutralizes before it enters the sewage system.
Zombies and petroleum bubbles
Growing up
, Hernandez Nimatuj says the odor issues weren’t the only problem. They also remember ooze bubbling up on the playground at Park Avenue Elementary in the city of Cudahy.
“I remember popping [the bubbles],” they said. “I remember jumping on them.”
When Hernandez Nimatuj was in second grade, they said, the sixth graders spread a creepy rumor: The school was built on a playground, and zombies were trying to come out.
Hernandez Nimatuj didn’t learn the truth until high school.
Milton Hernandez Nimatuj photographed at the Huntington Park High School.
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Baker Commodities, Inc. in Vernon, CA.
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Communities for Better Environment, a nonprofit that’s advocated for clean air, soil, and water since the 1970s, has hosted “Toxic Tours” for decades. In Southern California, these tours take participants on journeys around Southeast L.A. and Wilmington in the South Bay. The tours highlight the impact of industrial polluters on residents’ health and quality of life. They also explain how community members fought back against environmental injustices in the area.
Hernandez Nimatuj hopped on a tour for the first time in the summer of 2000. Through this experience, they learned that the stench of decaying animals came from rendering companies in and near the city of Vernon. And those bubbles at Park Avenue Elementary? That was petroleum waste — the school had been built on an old city dump.
The tour inspired Hernandez Nimatuj to become an environmental justice activist. Before graduating from Huntington Park High, they were among community members who led efforts to keep a power plant from being built in 2001 in the neighboring city of South Gate.
Soil contamination risks in Vernon, included the large contamination zone left by the Exide lead battery plant.
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Courtesy City of Vernon
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Geotracker, Envirostor, Department of Toxic Substances Control, City of Vernon
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Hernandez Nimatuj now works at the nonprofit as a program director and has helped lead “Toxic Tours.” In Southeast L.A., this often includes pit stops at their old elementary schools, as well as the site of a scrap metal recycler in Maywood that exploded in 2016. The guides also take participants to the now-shuttered Exide battery recycling plant in Vernon, which spewed lead and arsenic into thousands of homes. Baker, the rendering company that was shut down last year, is located across the street.
Dilia Ortega, youth program coordinator at Communities for a Better Environment, photographed near the now closed Exide plant.
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A sign outside the former Exide facility.
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How high schoolers in Southeast L.A. stepped up to help
Dilia Ortega and Rossmery Zayas, both longtime residents of Southeast L.A., have led dozens of “Toxic Tours.” Many of the tours make a stop at Baker, where tour guides teach participants about the source of the dead animal smells.the zine at the high school. The zines were also distributed on the “Toxic Tours.”
Ortega and Zayas also work in local high schools leading environmental justice clubs. Each year, Ortega told LAist, students identify the rendering odors as a significant issue in their communities, especially at Huntington Park High School.
A few years ago, one of their students, Citlalli Gutierrez, led a group at Huntington Park High School that created a zine about rendering companies. In it, the students encourage community members to call AQMD when they detect foul odors. They also included a map showing where the rendering plants are located. The students handed out copies of
Spreading awareness, door to door
East Yard
Communities for Environmental Justice, a nonprofit founded by residents of Commerce and East L.A. in 2001, has also worked to spread awareness about the source of rendering odors.
In 2009, East Yard members distributed door hangers throughout the area, much like the type you might see during an election campaign.
The offices of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice.
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The materials included a magnet featuring the number for AQMD’s complaint hotline, so residents would know where to call if they smelled a problem.
How To Report Odors
Have you noticed bad smells in your neighborhood?
If you live within the South Coast Air Quality District’s boundaries (they cover most of L.A. County — you can look up details here), here’s where to file an odor report:
mark! Lopez, East Yard’s community organizer and special projects coordinator, lives in unincorporated East L.A. He said the rendering odors have repeatedly driven him and his daughters inside the house, robbing them of their right to enjoy the outdoors.
“Rendering plants are something that everyone is aware of, but may not be able to name,” Lopez said. "Community members might say, ‘It smells like dead dog’ or, ‘It smells like throw up,’" he added, but, “everyone knows the smell.”
Most residents don’t know rendering companies exist, Lopez added. And if they do, they often don’t know they can call air regulators when the stench gets out of hand.
“So community education was really key,” he said in reference to East Yard’s door-to-door campaign.
mark! Lopez is a community organizer and special projects coordinator at East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice.
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Remediation work underway in Southeast L.A.
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Erika Bojorquez is a longtime resident of the city of Commerce and lives just a few miles from the rendering plants in Vernon. When she found out about AQMD’s complaint hotline through East Yard, she saved the number on her phone. Then, she shared it with her neighbors.
When the stench comes, said Bojorquez, “I go, knocking on neighbors’ [doors]. ‘Alright, guys, I smell it! Let’s all report it.’”
Last fall, she voiced her frustration in an email to AQMD, calling for Baker’s shut down until the company comes into compliance with odor rules.
“I have lived here since I was 12 and this has ALWAYS been an issue,” she wrote. “Now that I am 34 years old, I know the name for this: Environmental Racism. This would never be allowed if our community's demographic was affluent and white.”
Worries about “another Exide”
Vernon is located about five miles southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. During the day, some 55, 000 people run the city’s 1,800 businesses. Fleets of semi trucks come and go. But at night, the population plummets. Census records show just 222 residents live in the city.
“The founding purpose of this municipality was to attract factories,” said Philip Ethington, professor of history, political science and spatial sciences at USC. The other goal was to consolidate industrial work, and keep it away from nearby cities to help preserve property values in the region, he said.
Vernon is a city that's almost exclusively industrial located near Downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights.
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As a result
, when it comes to environmental issues, “there's a disproportionate impact on blue collar people who work in these areas or need to live near them,” Ethington added.
Cities like Vernon that are almost entirely industrial, he said, are focused on generating the maximum amount of revenue, sometimes at the expense of those residents.
Community members don’t dispute that rendering work at Baker is a positive alternative to having animal remains pile up in trash cans and landfills. But in interviews with LAist, many of them expressed distrust in so-called “green” businesses that recycle industrial byproducts.
Baker has declined multiple interview requests from LAist. In a statement, spokesperson Jimmy Andreoli II, whose family owns the company, 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.” On its website, the company says it plays “an essential role in protecting the environment.”
Signs outside the former Exide facility.
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When discussing the role of recycling centers in the area and Baker’s lawsuit against air regulators, community members interviewed by LAist often pointed to Exide Technologies, the now-shuttered battery recycling plant once housed in Vernon. For decades, it exposed employees and surrounding communities to brain-damaging lead and other toxic pollutants.
Production at Exide stopped in 2014. Then, in 2020, the company declared bankruptcy and a federal court allowed it to evade its obligations to clean up lead and other toxic contamination — leaving California taxpayers to foot the bill for its mess. Thousands of Southeast L.A. residents are still waiting for the lead and other toxic chemicals to be removed from the soil around their homes.
In 2019, researchers at USC worked closely with East Yard and Resurrection Church in Boyle Heights to gather baby teeth of children who lived within a two-mile radius of Exide. To do this, they reached out to the children’s parents, inviting them to participate in their “Truth Fairy” project.
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The researchers’ goal was to gauge prenatal and early childhood exposure to toxic metals. Ultimately, they found high amounts of lead in the teeth of children from Boyle Heights, Commerce, East L.A., Maywood, and Huntington Park — twice as high as for children studied in a similar urban community in Boston. According to the researchers, lead exposure in childhood can cause brain damage, stunted growth, and problems with learning.
While the environmental issues created by rendering plants are different, community members' experience with Exide has made many distrustful. Karina Macias, a council member from Huntington Park, told LAist she worries that if Baker is allowed to fully reopen without fully complying with the air quality rule, it could become “another Exide situation.”
A caution sign outside the former Exide facility.
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In an interview with LAist in Commerce, longtime resident Jason Gardea Stinnett reflected on what it was like to grow up surrounded by freeways and train tracks, among rendering odors and a company that belched lead.
He noted that when new companies try to open up in the area, they often emphasize the jobs they’ll create. He thinks it’s equally important to weigh the potential impact on health and quality of life.
“People build this infrastructure, they build these companies, they profit from it. But the people that are paying the biggest part of the bill are the people that live around those places,” he said. “We’re the ones breathing the air, it’s our children playing in the lead-contaminated dirt.”
About these communities
Residents of Southeast L.A., as well as Boyle Heights and East L.A, have dealt with rendering plant odors for decades — all this on top of a slew of other environmental issues. Community members told LAist they feel the region has been treated like a dumping ground and that companies use deceptive marketing to persuade the public that their practices are environmentally friendly, even when they occur at the expense of their health and quality of life. Over the years, community members have organized to spread awareness about the odors. These efforts include going door to door to tell their neighbors where to file complaints, sharing testimonies at AQMD hearings and community meetings, and creating a zine.
Trump says U.S. will leave Iran within a few weeks
By NPR Staff | NPR
Published March 31, 2026 9:11 PM
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Leo Correa
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AP
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Topline:
President Donald Trump said today that the United States will be leaving Iran very soon, giving a two to three week timetable.
Why now: Trump's remarks came in response to a question about gas prices — which earlier today hit a national average of $4 a gallon. Asked what he would do about it, Trump said: "All I have to do is leave Iran, and we'll be doing that very soon, and they'll become tumbling down."
His timeline?: "I would say that within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three," Trump said.
Updated March 31, 2026 at 20:14 PM ET
President Trump said on Tuesday that the United States will be leaving Iran very soon, giving a two to three week timetable.
Trump's remarks came in response to a question about gas prices — which earlier Tuesday hit a national average of $4 a gallon. Asked what he would do about it, Trump said: "All I have to do is leave Iran, and we'll be doing that very soon, and they'll become tumbling down."
"I would say that within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three," he added.
Trump also appeared to reverse previous promises about reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
"We'll be leaving very soon. And if France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they'll go up through the strait, the Hormuz Strait, they'll go right up there, and they'll be able to fend for themselves. I think it'll be very safe, actually, but we have nothing to do with that. What happens with the strait? We're not going to have anything to do with it," he said.
Just on Monday, though, Trump offered this threat on social media over the strait reopening: "If for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately 'Open for Business,' we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet 'touched.'"
The White House later said Trump would speak to the nation about the war at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Here are more updates from the war in the Middle East:
Iraqi authorities reported a foreign journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad Tuesday. It turned out to be an American freelance reporter, Shelly Kittleson, according to Al-Monitor, a Middle Eastern news site for which she has written articles.
Iraqi security forces said they intercepted a vehicle that crashed and arrested one of the suspected kidnappers, but are stilling searching for the kidnapped journalist and other suspects.
U.S. officials say they're working to get her released.
"The State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them and we will continue to coordinate with the FBI to ensure their release as quickly as possible," Dylan Johnson, the assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, said on social media.
He said Americans, including media workers, have been advised not to travel to Iraq and should leave the country. The statement did not condemn the kidnapping or express concern.
Johnson said Iraqi authorities apprehended a suspect associated with Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, believed to be involved in the kidnapping.
This comes as the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran enters its second month, and the fallout ricochets across the region.
Press freedom organizations expressed deep concern. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on "Iraqi authorities to do everything in their power to locate Shelley Kittleson, ensure her immediate and safe release, and hold those responsible to account."
Based in Rome, Kittleson has reported on Iraq, as well as Syria and Afghanistan, for years, according to Al-Monitor.
Reporters Without Borders said she is "very familiar with Iraq, where she stays for extended periods."
"RSF stands alongside her loved ones and colleagues during this painful wait," the organization said.
Al-Monitor said in a statement it is "deeply alarmed" by her kidnapping. "We stand by her vital reporting from the region and call for her swift return to continue her important work," it said.
U.S. defense secretary visits troops
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an undisclosed trip to the Middle East to visit troops over the weekend. He did not divulge the location for the troops' safety.
"I spoke to Air Force and Navy pilots on the flight line who every day both deliver bombs deep into Iran, but also shoot down drones defending their base. Many had just returned from the skies of Iran and Tehran," he told reporters in a briefing Tuesday.
He said he "witnessed an urgency to finish the job" and tried to draw a comparison with America's earlier drawn-out wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He said the U.S. is improving bunkers and layered air defenses as a priority to protect troops and aircraft.
This comes after more than a dozen U.S. service members were injured, several severely, and U.S. aircraft were damaged in Iranian strikes on a base in Saudi Arabia last Friday. The Pentagon says 13 U.S. service members have been killed and 300 wounded in what it calls Operation Epic Fury.
He repeated the administration's assertion that the U.S. is negotiating with Iran, despite Iranian officials' denial that talks are happening.
He said the U.S. prefers negotiations, but would not rule out using ground troops.
"In the meantime, we'll negotiate with bombs," Hegseth said. "Our job is to ensure that we compel Iran to realize that this new regime, this regime in charge is in a better place if they make that deal."
President Trump told the New York Posthe is in talks with Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
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Security Council meets after U.N. peacekeeper deaths
Countries denounced the killings of three U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon this week as they met for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
"These are sadly not the only dangerous incidents faced by UNIFIL's courageous peacekeepers," Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the head of U.N. peacekeeping, said, using the acronym for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. "There has been a worrying increase in denials of freedom of movement and aggressive behavior."
Lacroix said initial findings suggested two Indonesian peacekeepers were killed Monday in a roadside explosion in southern Lebanon. A day earlier another peacekeeper from Indonesia was killed when a projectile hit a U.N. base, Lacroix said.
Their deaths came as Israeli forces have invaded Lebanon, intensifying a second front in the war in the Middle East. Israel says it is targeting the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The U.N. has not pinned blame and is investigating the incidents.
Ahead of the Security Council meeting, Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, expressed condolences for the Indonesian peacekeepers' deaths.
Displaced people warm up around a fire outside their tent along Beirut's seafront area on March 30, 2026.
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Danon blamed Hezbollah for laying explosive devices that killed two peacekeepers on Monday.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz paid tribute to the Indonesian peacekeepers and urged Security Council members not to jump to conclusions but to allow the U.N. to investigate.
Indonesia's foreign minister called for a swift, thorough and transparent investigation.
Iran executions, Starlink arrests
Meanwhile, Iran says it has arrested 46 people who were selling Starlink internet connections — one of the few ways that people in Iran have been able to connect to the global internet while authorities block communication. Starlink allows users to connect directly to the internet via satellite, bypassing government firewalls.
Global internet monitor NetBlocks said the country's "internet blackout has entered day 32."
"Extended digital isolation is bringing new challenges for Iranians, from expired domains and accounts to unpatched servers on a degrading national intranet," it said on X.
Iran said it executed two people who had taken part in opposition activities as well as two citizens it accused of spying for the U.S. and Israel.
Rubio accuses Spain's prime minister of "bragging"
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday responded to news that Spain had closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the Iran war by lashing out at the NATO partner. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Rubio answered a question about whether the EU and NATO countries had "betrayed the U.S." by focusing on Spain, a NATO member who has publicly adopted a position opposing the war in Iran.
Gas prices are displayed at a Mobil gas station on March 30, 2026 in Pasadena, California. The average price of one gallon of regular self-service gasoline rose to $5.99 today in Los Angeles County, climbing from $4.69 one month ago, amid the ongoing war with Iran.
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"We have countries like Spain, a NATO member that we are pledged to defend, denying us the use of their airspace and bragging about it, denying us the use of our – of their bases," Rubio said.
Earlier on Monday, Spain Defense Minister Margarita Robles said the country had closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the Iran war. It is unclear when the closure started — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had hinted at the measure during a parliamentary debate on March 25.
The weekend the U.S. and Israel launched the attack on Iran, flight records showed at least 15 in-flight refueling planes leaving two jointly operated military bases in the south of Spain after not being allowed to provide support for the military action in Iran. Robles later confirmed the decision by the Spanish Government. That triggered a spat between President Trump and Spain's leadership the week after the war started. Trump said from the Oval Office that he would cut off all trade with Spain if the Spanish government did not allow U.S. forces to use the jointly operated bases. In response, Sánchez doubled down on his stance on the war in the Middle East.
Sánchez has relied on his opposition to the war, making it his main platform at the domestic level. Sánchez's Socialist Party has struggled to keep a government coalition from breaking apart, as he faces pressure to keep his party's hopes alive ahead of a parliamentary election due in 2027.
Trump slams allies
President Trump criticized France and the United Kingdom, among others, on his social media platform.
"All of those countries that can't get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump had asked allies for help after Iran largely blockaded the vital waterway, sending up oil and gas prices. But they have been hesitant to join in the war, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer repeating again this week that Britain would not get involved.
"You'll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!" Trump's post concluded.
He also said France "wouldn't let planes headed to Israel, loaded up with military supplies, fly over French territory." and called the country "VERY UNHELPFUL."
Dalai Lama calls for peace
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Tuesday posted an appeal for an end to war in the Middle East.
"History has shown us time and again that violence only begets more violence and is never a lasting foundation for peace," he said on his official account on X.
"An enduring resolution to conflict, including the ones we see in the Middle East or between Russia and Ukraine, must be rooted in dialogue, diplomacy and mutual respect — approached with the understanding that, at the deepest level, we are all brothers and sisters," he said.
He said he was adding his plea to one made at the Vatican by Pope Leo during his Palm Sunday Mass, adding: "His call for the laying down of arms and the renunciation of violence resonated profoundly with me, as it speaks to the very essence of what all major religions teach."
Carrie Kahn in Tel Aviv, Israel, Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Jennifer Pak in Shanghai, Emily Feng in Van, Turkey, Miguel Macias in Seville, Spain, Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg, Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan, Quil Lawrence in New York, Giles Snyder, Michele Kelemen and Alex Leff in Washington contributed to this report. Copyright 2026 NPR
Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published March 31, 2026 5:55 PM
This April 2025 image shows an agency logo on a wall inside a LAHSA Commission meeting.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Topline:
The Los Angeles region’s homelessness agency missed a Tuesday deadline to submit a federally required annual audit of the agency’s financial records, which could jeopardize its federal funding.
The agency's interim CEO blamed the blown deadline on leadership turnover and competing demands on the finance team.
Why it matters: LAHSA manages hundreds of millions in federal dollars for homelessness services across L.A. County. Missing the audit deadline could put that funding at risk.
LAHSA officials say the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — or HUD — seems understanding. LAist reached out to HUD for comment but hasn't received any.
How we got here: An outside auditor said LAHSA was supposed to turn over its financial statements around December but didn't submit them until March. The auditor's draft report also flags a "significant deficiency" in how LAHSA detects accounting errors — a finding LAHSA may contest.
What's next: On Tuesday, LAHSA officials said the single audit would be filed within the next few weeks.
LAHSA also said it has tapped accounting firm KPMG to overhaul its financial systems. The agency's interim CEO acknowledged that the current system "is not working at all."
The Los Angeles region’s homelessness agency will miss a Tuesday deadline for submitting its federally required annual audit of the agency’s financial records, which could jeopardize its federal funding.
LAHSA executives blamed the delay on a “perfect storm” of leadership changes and competing priorities within LAHSA’s finance department, including an L.A. County review of LAHSA’s delayed payments to contractors.
“Our staff made a good-faith effort to meet the deadline,” interim CEO Gita O’Neill said at a LAHSA Commission meeting Tuesday. “However, over the past year, we've experienced several transitions. As a result, we could not get all the required materials to the auditors as quickly as needed.”
Each year, LAHSA, like all non-federal agencies and organizations that get substantial federal dollars, is required to hire an outside auditor to determine whether it’s properly tracking and reporting the taxpayer funds it manages.
LAHSA’s single audit report for last fiscal year was due March 31, nine months after fiscal year 2024-2025 ended. Earlier this month, LAHSA officials said they were on track to meet the March 31 deadline.
Justin Measley, lead auditor for the firm CliftonLarsonAllen, had warned that LAHSA was months behind schedule turning over records.
At a meeting Tuesday, Measley explained that because of LAHSA’s earlier delays, the firm would need at least an additional week to complete a quality-control review process.
“We’re moving at the fastest pace we possibly can,” Measley said.
On Tuesday, LAHSA officials said the single audit will be filed “at the earliest possible opportunity,” within the next few weeks.
Federal funds at risk
LAHSA manages hundreds of millions of federal dollars each year, through grants from the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.
O’Neill said the agency has been communicating with HUD officials regularly about the missed audit deadline and is “hoping for understanding.”
Janine Lim, LAHSA’s deputy chief financial officer, said she’s also been talking with HUD.
“They seem amenable to our situation and to our stated timelines,” Lim said. “So, we are hopeful that this will be a good outcome, despite having missed the deadline.”
HUD did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment Tuesday.
What went wrong
Measley said LAHSA’s financial statements should have been turned over around last December, but LAHSA only submitted them this month, after blowing through multiple extended deadlines.
Measley said he contacted LAHSA’s governing commission about the overdue documents March 3.
He said he also previewed his firm’s findings, noting one “significant deficiency” in its draft report, related to LAHSA’s timeliness in detecting accounting errors.
LAHSA could contest those findings, officials said. That would add additional back-and-forth between the homelessness agency and accounting firm before the audit report is ready to file.
Justin Szlasa, a LAHSA commissioner who chairs the audit subcommittee, told LAHSA’s CEO he’s concerned that there was no time provided for LAHSA’s governing body to review the audit report.
“Next year, we will absolutely do that,” O’Neill responded. “I think this year, we were under the gun, and so we felt it was the most important thing was to get it uploaded on time.”
O’Neill said the agency hired accounting firm KPMG to help modernize LAHSA’s financial systems, with a focus on its contractor payments.
“We have an outside, trusted voice to help us create a system that works going forward because the system we have is not working at all, in finance,” O’Neill said.
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President Donald Trump has escalated his efforts to influence American elections, signing an executive order that the White House says seeks to create a list of confirmed U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in each state and use the U.S. Postal Service to "verify" mail ballots are for voters.
Why it matters: Trump has long railed — baselessly — about widespread illegal voting by noncitizens and mail voting fraud. The executive order comes as Trump's Justice Department is seeking sensitive voter data from states, and is engaged in more than two dozen lawsuits for that data. The administration claims it needs the data to enforce states' voter list maintenance. The order also comes as Trump pressures Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election overhaul that would impose new voter identification and documentation requirements. That bill is stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition and the legislative filibuster.
What's next: Trump said he believes the order is "foolproof." But election experts have already said the order — which was first reported by The Daily Caller — would face immediate legal challenges.
Updated March 31, 2026 at 20:44 PM ET
President Trump on Tuesday escalated his efforts to reshape American elections, signing an executive order that seeks to create lists of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in each state, and instructing the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to verified voters.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he believes the order is legally "foolproof." But election experts said the order was unconstitutional, and voting rights advocates and Democratic state officials quickly pledged to sue to block the order from going into effect.
A previous executive order on elections, signed about a year ago, has been blocked by federal judges who said the president lacked the constitutional authority to set voting policy.
The Constitution says the "Times, Places and Manner" of federal elections are determined by individual states, with Congress able to enact changes.
"This Executive Order is a disgusting overreach from the federal government and shows how little the Trump Administration understands about election administration," Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state of Arizona, said in a statement Tuesday. "We will not let this order stand without a fight and will meet the federal government in court," he added.
Arizona is among more than two dozen states Trump's Department of Justice has sued over access to sensitive voter data.
The Trump administration claims it needs the data to enforce states' voter list maintenance. Federal judges in three states have dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuits in those states.
In another case, a DOJ official admitted in court last week that the department plans to share that voter data with the Department of Homeland Security, to run it through the so-called SAVE system to search for noncitizens.
Trump has long railed — baselessly — about widespread illegal voting by noncitizens and fraud associated with mail ballots.
The new executive order — which was first reported by The Daily Caller — takes aim at both.
It instructs the Department of Homeland Security, working in conjunction with the Social Security Administration, to "compile and transmit to the chief election official of each State a list of individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State."
The order then "requires the USPS to transmit ballots only to individuals enrolled on a State-specific Mail-in and Absentee Participation List, ensuring that only eligible absentee or mail-in voters receive absentee or mail-in ballots," according to a White House fact sheet.
Trump's executive order claims that "additional measures are necessary" to secure voting by mail, a form of voting he has used himself — including last week — but also falsely maligned for years. In the 2024 general election, nearly a third of all voters cast mail ballots.
The Postal Service should also review the design of mail ballot envelopes to protect "the integrity of Federal elections," the order says.
Collectively, the provisions would be a significant change to how mail ballot programs are currently administered in American elections, which are largely carried out by state and local officials.
"Our government's citizenship lists are incomplete and inaccurate. The United States Postal Service is overburdened and inadequate. This combines a car crash with a train wreck," the Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for expanded voting access and sued to block Trump's 2025 election executive order, said in a statement.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UCLA, wrote on his blog that the order is likely unconstitutional. And regardless, he added, "the timing here makes this virtually impossible to implement in time for November's elections. … It seems highly unlikely any of this could be implemented for 2026, even if it were not blocked by courts."
The order comes as Trump pressures Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election overhaul that would impose new voter identification and documentation requirements.
That bill is stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition and the legislative filibuster.
The Supreme Court is also expected to rule this year on whether Mississippi should be allowed to count mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received by election officials after Election Day.
The legal challenge, which could have sweeping implications for mail voting nationwide, was filed by the Republican National Committee and Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
Federal agents stand guard outside of a federal building and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in downtown Los Angeles during a demonstration in June.
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Spencer Platt
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Getty Images
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Topline:
Federal immigration officials arrested more than 14,000 people in the greater Los Angeles area in 2025 — the majority of whom had no criminal record, according to an LAist analysis of new data from the Deportation Data Project.
What’s new: In 2025, federal officials arrested 14,394 people, up from 4,681 the year prior. Forty-six percent of people arrested had criminal convictions, 15% had pending charges and 39% had no criminal charges or convictions.
Why it matters: Federal officials have highlighted the arrests of the “worst of the worst” in the immigration raids that began in June, including "murderers, kidnappers, sexual predators and armed carjackers,” but haven’t published the details of the number of people who had criminal records.
Federal immigration officials arrested more than 14,000 people in the greater Los Angeles area in 2025 — the majority of whom had no criminal record, according to an LAist analysis of new data from the Deportation Data Project.
The data project, an initiative between UCLA and UC Berkeley, publishes federal data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
In 2025, federal officials arrested 14,394 people, up from 4,681 the year prior. Forty-six percent of people arrested had criminal convictions, 15% had pending charges, and 39% had no criminal charges or convictions.
In a December news release, the Department of Homeland Security said it had arrested more than 10,000 people in the L.A. area since immigration raids began in June of last year, including "murderers, kidnappers, sexual predators and armed carjackers,” but did not publish details of the number of people who had criminal records.
The data from the Deportation Data Project shows that arrests in L.A. spiked in June, and about two-thirds of people arrested that month had no criminal convictions.
More than 313,000 people were arrested by ICE nationwide in 2025, according to an LAist analysis.
In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said the agency has not “verified the accuracy, methodology or analysis of the project and its results” and said “this only reveals how data is manipulated to peddle the false narrative that DHS is not targeting the worst of the worst.” The spokesperson said 61% of people ICE arrested across the country either had criminal convictions or pending charges.
The agency has regularly published press releases identifying people they have arrested and who they have called “the worst of the worst,” including from the raids in L.A. in June. But an LAist investigation and reporting from other outlets has found that some of the people on those lists already has been in custody and were serving lengthy sentences.
