The Brief

Maria Franco has lived in the Park Royale Mobile Home Community for 25 years, in the Van Nuys neighborhood in north Los Angeles. The community has just under 150 rectangular homes, lined up neatly on a large field of mostly asphalt, with fruit trees popping up here and there.

Two years ago, Franco faced a string of bad luck. The 65-year-old lost her long-time job packing orders at a distribution company when it abruptly moved to another county, a commute too far for her to make.

Then her hot water heater clonked out, so she hauled warm water from her stovetop to her bathroom, scooping it over her head for a shower.

“I was depressed,” Franco said in Spanish. “I was in shock.”

The Southern California summer bore down harshly where she lived in the San Fernando Valley, its temperatures regularly 10 to 15 degrees higher than those on the coast.

To cool off, Franco relied on a fan and a partially functional window air conditioning unit. When her adult kids and grandchildren came by, they found the heat inside oppressive.

A knock on her door changed all that. A young contractor named Ben Shamoon stood on her step, wanting to know if he could install a new water heater, and an HVAC system that both cooled and heated her home. The cost to Franco? Absolutely nothing.

Heat pump customer, Maria Franco, outside her home in Van Nuys on June 11, 2026.

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“It was an inexplicable experience, a blessing from heaven,” Franco said.

Shamoon won over customers by canvassing trailer parks. By working with families who lived in close proximity, he could buy in bulk and work more efficiently to complete projects faster. The approach maximized incentives from a state program — aimed at supercharging heat pump adoption — to improve homes at no cost to owners.

He found a climate solution with a lot of wins — for customers, tradespeople and the planet. The approach cracked the nut of one way to bring heat pumps, which run on electricity rather than gas, to low-income Californians.

Best of all, Shamoon brought safety and comfort to families.

Cold calls to San Diego

In July of 2024, Shamoon was working to get his home upgrading business Bryge, then called LivSmart Home Services, off the ground. Tons of state and federal money was flowing to homeowners and contractors at the time through an initiative called TECH Clean California, to help deploy appliances like heat pumps that cut pollution. Low-income customers received the highest incentive.

Shamoon is based in Los Angeles, but the government incentives in the current funding cycle were exhausted in most parts of the state. He saw that there was some money left — about a million dollars to install heat pump water heaters for low-income customers in San Diego.

Shamoon often passed by a mobile home community at the end of his street. One day, an idea came: why not pitch mobile homeowners on the upgrades?

He could install the units at no cost to the customer and the roughly $8,885 incentive per job would be enough to pay for the equipment, labor, permits and profit.

Shamoon and a colleague found a list of San Diego mobile home parks and started cold-calling managers’ offices. Most said no, he could not go door to door, hoping to keep predatory schemes away from residents. Shamoon’s offer of free upgrades was hard to believe.

But a few said yes.

Door-knocking his way through each community, Shamoon picked up clients.

He found that — along with a higher concentration of potential customers — the mobile home parks were home to many families who made under 80% of the median income in the area, which meant they qualified for state assistance, and higher incentives.

“We started to see a trend,” Shamoon said. Not only did most customers qualify for incentives, but like Franco, they needed the help.

He met senior citizens who’d been living without working hot water heaters for months. And people with no air conditioning on days when outside temperatures exceeded 100 degrees.

“It was just one door after the next, after the next,” Shamoon said. He started to see his work as not just about comfort, but about dignity.

As installations began, Shamoon stumbled on wins. Sending contractors to one community cut down on commute times and meant he could get three to four jobs done in a day, as opposed to just one or two. He could bulk order supplies and get lower prices.

After he and his colleagues first canvassed mobile home parks, word traveled fast through the tightknit communities.

People who had initially turned his company away visited their neighbors’ homes and were assured that they had indeed paid nothing for their fancy new appliances. They called Shamoon back and wanted in.

For most customers who had older, inefficient air conditioners and live in hot, dry areas, their monthly bills went down noticeably.

While walking through a neighborhood in Van Nuys, Ben Shamoon (right), founder of Bryge and LivSmart Home Services, showed Evan Kamei, a director at Energy Solutions, one of the ways he creates social media and word of mouth awareness for Bryge.

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The process was not without challenges: electrical panels in some homes did not have capacity to power the upgrades. Different mobile home parks had restrictive rules about where appliances could be placed on the outside of homes.

But Shamoon was not deterred. He repeated the process, adding installations of heat pumps to warm and cool homes.

In the beginning, he worked with homeowners of all income levels, as there were incentives for people with high incomes too, but he eventually zeroed in on low-income homeowners.

Wealthier clients proved high-maintenance, despite getting free appliances, he said. Low-income families were incredibly grateful, and experienced a dramatic improvement in their quality of life.

Hundreds of miles north in Oakland

Consultant Evan Kamei started to take notice.

He had never met Shamoon, nor heard of his company before he started seeing its name pop up on spreadsheets. Kamei works in Oakland for Energy Solutions, an environmental consulting company that implements the state’s incentive program.

He keeps track of where heat pumps are being installed and how that impacts customer bills.

Kamei realized more and more mobile homeowners were participating in the program thanks to Shamoon.

His company has installed the majority of the roughly 1,500 TECH-funded heat pump HVAC and water heaters in mobile homes statewide. California’s incentive program has funded about 80,000 heat pump installations on all types of homes.

In Franco’s mobile home park, Shamoon has completed 38 projects.

“That’s the beauty of having a market-based solution of enabling contractors to figure out something that could work,” Kamei said, reflecting on contractor creativity, “It’s not something you typically see with an incentive program like this.”

A lot of wins, and some limits

What Shamoon is doing, swapping gas-powered heating and cooling for electric versions of appliances, lowers carbon pollution by pulling from the state’s mostly green grid. But it also could improve indoor air quality.

Esperanza Sanchez is breathing easier after she upgraded her HVAC system to a heat pump with Shamoon’s help. Sanchez lives in the Blue Star Mobile Home Park in the San Fernando Valley’s Sylmar neighborhood.

Sanchez had previously avoided using her gas heater because it triggered her asthma. “It stung my nose and I couldn’t stand it,” Sanchez said in Spanish. After making the switch, she said her respiratory issues were gone.

Maria Franco’s heat pump takes just 15 minutes to cool down her two-bedroom home on a scorching day.

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“It’s a public health thing. It’s an equity thing,” said Ethan Elkind, a UC Berkeley lawyer and policy researcher who’s studied how low-income Californians can adopt more planet-friendly appliances.

“It’s almost a human rights thing in these really hot climate zones — giving people access to reliable air conditioning,” Elkind said. “It checks a lot of boxes for what we need to do.”

But there are limits to this solution. There’s no way for the state to provide incentives for every low-income Californian to make the switch. California has doled out more than $219 million so far, but bringing electric appliances to all low-income residents would cost in the hundreds of billions of dollars, Elkind said, money the state does not have.

A settlement from a 2016 gas leak in the San Fernando Valley will funnel roughly $30 million in incentives to nearby residents through TECH starting late this summer. It’s unclear when these funds will again be available for Californians who live outside that region, and are not eligible for the settlement money.

One way to stretch the state’s limited funds is to use public dollars to attract private investors, Elkind said. Under this model, the state pays the interest upfront — giving low-income homeowners access to no-interest loans — and covers the loss if a borrower defaults. This safety net eliminates risk for private lenders, allowing them to finance the initial equipment upgrades. Homeowners would then pay back the loan principal over time, using the savings many see from now lower utility bills.

But that could only go so far. National policies incentivizing heat pump adoption like those in the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, done away with under the Trump Administration’s tax bill, would need to be reinstated to achieve large-scale adoption.

Reaching renters is another story. Gas appliances are cheaper upfront. So landlords have little financial incentive to make the switch — while there are bill savings, those go to renters.

Elkind said achieving this shift would take policies like those slated to roll out in the Bay Area in 2027, requiring all new water heater installations be electric.

The most glaring limit is California’s high cost of electricity. For many, monthly bills for a gas appliance are lower than electric alternatives. But for Californians like Franco, who replaced old, inefficient window air conditioners, their bills often go down. That’s because new technologies use less energy to do the same – and often a better – job.

Cool air, hot showers

Three months after that knock on her door, Franco watched two men install her new water heater. It had been half a year since she had the ability to step into her shower, turn a knob and have hot water come out.

“That first time using the shower was beautiful,” Franco said.

A month later, she welcomed a new mini-split heating and cooling unit, blowing crisp air in her living room.

The single unit is powerful enough to transform her two-bedroom home from oppressive to refreshing in just 15 minutes.

Before the changes, her gas bill, which covered her furnace, water heater and stove, was $40 to $50 per month. It is now just $10. Her electricity bill went from $150 to around $80. The savings are meaningful given her monthly social security benefits of $1000.

Without Shamoon and his coworkers, Franco would have never learned about the state incentives, and never made the change.

“When I needed help the most, it came,” Franco said. “If it weren’t for them, we’d be suffering from the heat.”

The Los Angeles region’s troubled homeless services agency announced this month that it will no longer manage the region’s federal homelessness dollars, amid scrutiny from the Trump administration.

Now, a federal court must help determine who will manage roughly $240 million in annual federal funding after the L.A. Homeless Services Authority gives up that long-held job in the coming months.

At a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said most of his attention is on who will administer the round of federal money that will be awarded in December and distributed next year.

The only potential near-term successor discussed in court was L.A. County, which created a new homelessness department and applied for the role. County officials have promised much stronger accountability and transparency.

But the city of L.A., where most of the region’s unhoused people live, is also interested in taking over some of LAHSA’s duties. The city could eventually try to break off and form its own regional body to receive federal funds, Carter said.

“But that’s for the future,” Carter said. “For now, we have to focus on providing for people experiencing homelessness — and also fraud and corruption.”

‘The watchdog wasn’t watching’

LAHSA has been used as a punching bag, Carter said, but he blamed recent cases of alleged theft of taxpayer funds on a broader “failure of government” by both HUD and LAHSA.

“The watchdog wasn’t watching, and the money got distributed without accountability,” Carter said.

In the meantime, Carter said, LAHSA isn’t going anywhere. He said any transition must unfold gradually to avoid displacing people from housing and services.

“We’re going to have to live with LAHSA for at least some period of time,” Carter said. “The question might be how much?”

How soon could the county take over? 

Carter said he agreed with LAHSA’s decision to entrust another administrator to manage the money.

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) told Carter the next round of annual funding would be distributed over 2027.

Carter acknowledged HUD may be uneasy sending that money to LAHSA, the very agency it is investigating for fraud. Carter said he was struggling with the issue himself.

Carter signaled that he wants to see federal funding transferred to the county by January if it is chosen as LAHSA’s successor.

‘The devil is in the details’

At the hearing, federal prosecutor Bill Essayli said the Trump administration would rather reach an agreement than litigate. He said “the devil is in the details” when it comes to any transition away from LAHSA.

“We want assurances of anti-fraud measures,” Essayli said. “That way the money is never stolen again.”

Carter said he hoped a transition plan would keep the parties from spending millions of dollars on attorneys’ fees that could otherwise go toward housing and services.

How we got here

In June, the Trump administration suspended LAHSA from applying for federal funding, alleging years of financial mismanagement. LAHSA then sued, and Carter blocked the suspension in August. Carter’s decision has so far held up on appeal.

LAHSA’s governing commission voted this month to give up its federal roles next year, including managing federal homelessness dollars and conducting the region’s annual homeless count. Local officials have been taking applications from organizations that want to take over those duties in 2027.

Meanwhile, investigations into fraud have been widening. Prosecutors have so far charged six people connected to L.A. homeless service providers. LAHSA has said none of its staff are implicated.

When asked if LAHSA’s current or past leadership has been culpable, Essayli recently said, "It is not against federal law to be incompetent, unfortunately.”

Major shifts happening

For decades, county, city and federal dollars have been managed mainly by LAHSA. But those funding streams are now being redirected in the wake of repeated findings of mismanagement.

L.A. County pulled roughly $300 million of its annual homelessness funding in July and gave it to its new in-house Department of Homeless Services and Housing.

That leaves the city as LAHSA’s last major funder. The City Council has explored leaving, but hasn't reached a decision yet. City staff has estimated that building a city homeless services department would take up to two years.

On the campaign trail, Councilmember Nithya Raman has pledged to exit LAHSA within her first year if elected mayor, while incumbent Mayor Karen Bass has said it would take "a couple of years."

What’s next

Carter did not rule Wednesday on federal funding. He scheduled a hearing for Oct. 27 and described it as “our decision-making day on so many matters.”

Before then, local officials are expected to select a replacement to take over LAHSA’s federal administrative roles.

Los Angeles city officials are asking LA28 to hand over a list of its contracts, saying the Olympics organizing committee could be in violation of its agreement with the city.

LA28’s annual financial report released last week included a broad review of the organization’s deals with contractors hired to help put on the event, but no names or detailed breakdowns of spending.

The Games Agreement between the city and LA28 requires the committee to submit the name, type, amount, term and purpose of each contract it has entered into worth more than $1 million.

No such list was provided in LA28’s report.

“It's inadequate, what we've been provided, and that's not acceptable,” City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky said at a committee meeting on the 2028 Olympics Wednesday afternoon.

Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso said she has requested a full list from LA28 and is waiting to hear back.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, a spokesperson for LA28, said in an emailed statement to LAist that LA28 had received the request.

“We are working through those requests now and remain committed to meeting our obligations," she said.

Tso told the council committee she had seen a more detailed list of LA28’s contracts, but only when it was “flashed on the screen very quickly” at a meeting with her, Olympics organizers, the city administrative officer and the mayor’s office.

“So we don't have a list,” Tso said. “We don't have the names of the folks. We don't have the dollar amounts.”

Tso told the council that Olympics organizers were wary about making contracts public, due to concerns that public disclosure could harm negotiations over competitive event sponsor deals.

City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said that did not satisfy LA28’s obligations to the city.

“They can just be like, ‘Flash it, we're done, and we did our requirement,’” Soto-Martinez said.

The federal financial aid process opened this past week for students applying to college for next year. But for many California students, a source of state financial help remains untapped.

In 2022, the state launched the California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program, also known as CalKIDS, and began creating investment accounts for more than 6 million children in the state to use for higher education.

Babies born on or after July 1, 2022, can get up to $175 in their accounts, while low-income public school students can claim up to $1500.

In Los Angeles County, about 1.1 million public school students are eligible for the accounts, but fewer than 20% of kids have claimed them, said Cassandra DiBenedetto, executive director of California’s ScholarShare Investment Board. The claim rate is even less for babies — about 11%.

“The money itself, it has a long trajectory. So you have these newborns, and there's not a sense of urgency among some parents; they know the account's there, it’s been created. Parents are busy,” DiBenedetto said.

There is no deadline to claim the money, which is already growing in the investment accounts. (You do have to use the money by age 26). But DiBenedetto says kids are more likely to see themselves as college-bound if they have it — and will be able to watch the account grow over time.

“ You talk to second-and third graders who are like, ‘I'm gonna go to UC Santa Barbara,’ ‘I'm gonna go to Cal Berkeley,’” she said.

The state is working with the Los Angeles Unified School District and other school districts to get students signed up.

The city’s top financial adviser is recommending that the Los Angeles City Council deny a police department request to procure 300 additional vehicles for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.

The report, submitted to the council Monday by City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, found that the L.A. Police Department would have enough vehicles to temporarily expand its fleet during the Games without the additional cars.

LAPD officials had previously requested around $31 million, arguing the additional officers deployed for the Games will need additional vehicles for their police work.

But Szabo disagreed in his report, finding instead that the department would soon have a large enough fleet.

“Given the current available vehicles and new vehicle procurements which have already been funded, it is not recommended to authorize the procurement of any additional police vehicles for the 2028 Games deployment,” Szabo wrote.

An LAPD spokesperson declined to comment on the city administrative officer’s report. Previously, the department has emphasized that its request seeks only to temporarily expand its fleet, with plans to retire old vehicles after the Games.

The police department has offered different estimates of how many additional vehicles it will need to patrol the Olympics. Two months after the LAPD asked for an additional 300 vehicles, the department released another report estimating an even higher need: 576 police vehicles.

Either way, Szabo’s report found that more than 1,100 police vehicles not yet in use by the department were funded in the past three budget cycles. He said those should be sufficient for the Olympics.