The Brief

The Los Angeles Community College District hosted a series of town halls this month to discuss building student housing on three campuses in the district — L.A. City College in East Hollywood, Pierce in Woodland Hills, and West L.A. in Culver City.

Community college students today won’t likely benefit from the proposed housing. According to Rod Hamilton, a regional director for the district’s construction program Build LACCD, at an expedited timeline the projects could be complete by the end of 2028. The town halls will inform the district’s request for proposals, which representatives expect to issue at the beginning of 2024. They also cautioned that much is still tentative — even the identified sites.

There is no question that the student demand for housing is high. Based in a spring 2022 survey of LACCD students, 14% of the respondents indicated they don’t have housing or their housing is insecure. As a percentage of LACCD’s fall 2023 headcount, that’d be about 17,000 students.

“This is the beginning,” said Sara Hernandez, a member of the board of trustees, speaking at L.A. City College. “I know housing, housing insecurity, homelessness is not the beginning here in Los Angeles. This has been going on for a long time, but this is the beginning of the district's efforts around housing because we now have the money.”

That money comes from last year’s voter-approved $5.3-billion bond, known as Measure L.A., which allocated $500 million to house the district’s students and workers. Up to three projects will be chosen, each to provide between 300 to 400 beds.

Housing as an expectation of community colleges

Hernandez said these events are important to hear community needs and build a coalition of support for these housing efforts.

LACCD joins a growing number of California community colleges developing housing on their campuses. Colleges in the Central Valley have a longer history of on-campus housing, but LACCD and other districts are catching up.

One of the latest in the region has been Orange Coast College, offering slightly more than 800 beds in 2020. LACCD presenters point out that what makes this district distinct from its Southern California counterpart is that the units will be affordable at $500 per month per bed.

A student walks at Pierce College.

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In its May 2023 housing resolution, LACCD affirmed its commitment to address student, faculty, and staff housing needs.

Despite this formal announcement, the realm of developing housing is still an area of growth for the district.

“It's challenging because, you know, we are in the industry of educating students. We are not a housing provider. You know, this is our first foray into the world of housing development,“ Hernandez said.

“It is really, really clear that, you know, this is a societal issue that has, you know, really made living in Los Angeles really, really difficult for young people, and we need to do more," she added. "And that's why we are really excited and motivated to link arms with the mayor, to link arms with the county, and be a part of the solution to this ongoing, regional wide housing crisis and homelessness crisis.”

Offering solutions

Participants at the town halls were not short of ideas for improving housing security.

At L.A. City College, the room was so packed that a few attendees gathered outside the open door. The energy in the room was tense, with a number of participants frustrated by the wait and wary of potential waste.

One suggested partnering with the University of California and California State University systems to provide housing stability to students transferring to the four-year degree programs. At the West L.A. town hall, Rueben Smith, the vice chancellor and chief facilities executive, said that LACCD is looking to partner with universities with existing housing inventory and work with the city of L.A. and the county to increase housing inventory.

One student worker at the LACC town hall, who said that she is $20,000 in debt from rental costs, suggested raising student worker wages so that they can afford rent and stay committed to their academics.

LACC student Reginald Johnson II told LAist he was a theater major and has been unhoused since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Before the pandemic he had been staying at the Union Rescue Mission, but being in close proximity with so many other people, without partitions, he was worried about getting sick. He said it was a “very hard choice” to return to street living, where he had previously been robbed.

Reginald Johnson II who is studying to become a stage manager prepares for a theatre program rehearsal at Los Angeles City College.

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Among various ideas, he offered that those in the creative industry may be willing to donate toward housing students if their needs were more publicized, particularly at a campus like LACC, where students are pursuing careers in music, cinema, and theater. Another idea he offered is acquiring neighboring vacant motels and providing jobs for students who are studying property management in their degree program.

“We need to come up with solutions now so the students don't have housing insecurities to deal with and worry about right now,” Johnson II said. As a gay man and a person of color, Johnson II told LAist, he wants to be a voice for students or those afraid to speak up.

He appreciated LACCD’s plan to build new housing, but considered it a piecemeal approach to the larger problem. “So let's just try to figure out what other solutions and avenues that we can look at to provide solutions,” he said.

Students call for immediate housing and support  

One participant, who has worked in residential real estate, said that these projects can take a decade, and recommended alternatives to building housing, such as purchasing from neighboring landowners. Hernandez noted later the risk of displacing residents.

The bureaucratic logistics caused frustration.

“Students are being robbed of their capacity to learn because they're too worried about just keeping a roof over their head,” said Jordan David, who is studying political science and is president of the organization Student Power. The organization also called for immediate housing solutions, post-graduation housing support, and student oversight in the planning process.

Reginald Johnson II sleeps on the Metro B line on his was into school at Los Angeles City College.

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One student, who has been homeless while at LACC, asked if the student housing could be accompanied with supportive services. “Because a lot of the students you're going to bring in are probably experiencing homelessness, housing insecurity, trauma from their communities. Because we also have to acknowledge that a lot of homelessness is birthed in racism and prejudiced practices. And so there are specific communities that you're really going to have to support because of that,” the student said to echoes of agreement from others.

Smith, the chief facilities executive, said housing policies are still being developed and LACCD will seek further input as part of its shared governance process.

One law faculty member, Camille Goulet, whose e-mail comments were read by another, also asked for funding to be budgeted for support services, like health and wellness and security, and raised concerns about the risk of people enrolling as students for housing without sincere academic intentions.

Speaking later to LAist, trustee Hernandez said, “You can hear the frustration in the voices of students that, you know, their needs are not being served. As an educator, like, I know very well that we can't serve students, we can't help them attain their educational goals if they don't have their basic needs. And so we are doing everything that we can at the district to provide for that.”

Many students need housing, but who will get it? 

Participants at Pierce were concerned about who would be eligible for the future housing.

The presenters said that the selection criteria were still to be determined, but were planning for an initial phase:

• Single students (with plans later to account for families and workers)
• Full-time students
• Those with a minimum 2.0 GPA

Pierce participants expressed concern about the confines of this criteria — what about students with families that need housing, can this topic be revisited? Do you really need to be a full-time student? What if $500 a month is still too expensive? And what is the consequence if a student’s GPA falls below 2.0 because of a job’s demanding hours or a mental health crisis — will they just get kicked out?

When asked by LAist how to prioritize the students, one of the participants, sociology professor James McKeever, said: “We need to look at our foster youth, we need to look at our homeless students, our housing insecure students, those who come from low income backgrounds first, because we're not going to have enough housing for everybody at this cost.”

The stress of housing insecurity

Jessica McCready, a cinema and television student who has previously been unhoused, attended the LACC town hall to learn about what was going on. While she appreciated the efforts to build housing — at this town hall, an eight-year timeframe was mentioned — she said she wants to see another convening to address more immediate needs.

“We had this meeting and we're talking about what's going to happen in eight years, but now, OK, let's have another and talk about maybe what's going to happen in six months to a year," she said. "I feel like that's a really, really useful, use of time. I think that's where we need to start.”

Rachel Alberto-Gomez is a deaf studies student at the Pierce town hall, whose health professor encouraged students to attend. In that class, the students discussed the relationship between mental health and housing.

Alberto-Gomez said they talked about “the stress of housing, how it causes us to be overwhelmed, not be able to perform, and to get the necessary education that we want.”

Alberto-Gomez hopes that future housing will offer sufficient security for students. She told LAist security is important to her from her experience as a woman walking alone to her car at night or waiting for the bus in the morning, which can feel scary and unsafe.

She knows quite a few students sleeping in their cars and appreciates that Pierce College has opened up its parking lot to unhoused students. She says housing is important for these students, but also for everybody, including herself.

“Luckily, right now, I'm OK, but in the future ... I don't know what the future holds,” Alberto-Gomez said. Currently, she depends on her partner for housing and her family lives far away. “And especially with, right now, as prices are increasing, housing is also increasing. So this program would really help us.”

As the region’s lead homelessness agency, the main job of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority this year was to dole out nearly $700 million to contractors who operate shelters and other services for unhoused people.

But it turns out that more than halfway through the budget year, many of LAHSA’s 116 service providers are still waiting for LAHSA to pay them for those services. In all, the agency told LAist that it owes at least $69 million in outstanding invoices to providers. About 40% of those invoices are more than two months old.

Those delayed payments are causing cash flow problems for organizations large and small. Several providers told LAist that they've have had to dip into reserves or take on debt.

“These delays are one of the biggest issues for our organization because if we cannot pay our staff, we don't operate,” said Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, CEO of the nonprofit LA Family Housing. "That breaks the entire system and renders people homeless.”

Where things stand

At a LAHSA Finance Committee meeting Friday, Janine Lim, the agency's deputy chief financial office, broke down the issues based on agency.

• Under contracts funded by city, the agency doesn’t have some of the money it owes providers, Lim said.
• For county-funded contracts, LAHSA has the funds, but has failed to pass some of them to providers, she said.

Lim acknowledged her department failed to request certain county funds and told commissioners her team is overwhelmed by staff turnover and nonstop crisis management.

Lindsey Horvath's rebuke

The meeting prompted a harsh rebuke from L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath Friday night, who issued a statement demanding a public hearing about LAHSA’s late payments, a forensic audit and immediate payment of all outstanding invoices to county-funded contractors.

“If LAHSA were a publicly traded company, regulators would shut them down.” Horvath said, in a statement “LAHSA balance sheets don’t balance, and they fail to provide real-time financial information to their very own commissioners.”

LAHSA officials have said they're working to fix delays and make internal changes so that they don’t happen again.

And they offered more details on how they got here:

• They said some payments were delayed because the agency is struggling to process an influx of recently submitted invoices.
• Other payments are delayed because the agency is still waiting for millions in payments, mostly from the city of L.A.

“While a combination of contracting delays, outdated internal policies, and a leadership vacuum caused by the historic funding shifts happening within the rehousing system all contributed to this bottleneck, we are already taking corrective action,” Ahmad Chapman, a LAHSA spokesperson, said in a statement.

LAHSA’s funding sources

LAHSA has an approved budget of about $828 million this fiscal year. Most of that money — $697 million — comes from a variety of government sources and passes along to contracted service providers.

This budget year it breaks down like this, according to LAHSA records:

• 46% from L.A. County
• 35% from the city of Los Angeles
• Nearly 11% from the federal government
• More than 8% from the state of California
• A small fraction from private philanthropy,

LAHSA representatives said the delayed payments stem partly from delays in finalizing contracts with homeless service providers this fiscal year, which started July 1.

By that time, the agency had only finalized about one third of its contracts with providers. Providers can’t file invoices until those contracts are final.

Now, eight months into the budget year, LAHSA said more than 99% of contracts are in place. But many weren’t finalized until December. Now that contracts are executed, there’s an “avalanche” of recent invoices from providers, covering the past six months, according to LAHSA officials.

Challenges for providers 

South L.A homeless services provider HOPICS said LAHSA owed it nearly $20 million as of last month, because of late contract executions and delayed payments across two budget years.

“Providers cannot continue operating on uncertainty and IOUs,” the Kelvin Driscoll, the nonprofit's director, told LAist. “To keep services operating, we, like other organizations, have had to exhaust reserves and take on debt.”

Some homeless services providers said late payments have been a problem, but not an insurmountable one.

“The issue of floating unpaid invoices is part of business, especially if we're working with bureaucracy and government.” said Rowan Vansleve, president of Hope The Mission. “Anybody who's taken a contract with the government is not expecting to be paid incredibly quickly.”

Still, as the size of L.A.’s homeless services sector has grown, some service providers say they are being asked to take on larger financial burdens. LA Family Housing is waiting on both reimbursement payments and advances for recent months, its CEO said.

“Our contract is with LAHSA,” said Klasky-Gamer. “We are delivering on our end of the contract by delivering the service. They're not able to deliver on their end of the contract because they don't have access to the money to pay us.”

At the Friday meeting, LAHSA Commissioner Amy Perkins said she had received “countless” calls from leaders of large providers who are considering closing down.

“They don’t want to say that publicly because they don’t want to scare their staff and they will do everything they can not to close,” Perkins said. “They have maxed out their lines of credit. There's no more rocks to turn over. Vendors are walking off jobs.”

Commissioners demands answers

Last year, L.A. County supervisors voted to strip LAHSA of about $300 million in county funding from LAHSA, beginning this July. Until then, county homelessness funding still goes through LAHSA.

Perkins, appointed to the LAHSA Commission by Horvath, told LAHSA officials on Friday that the payment crisis shows why the county's move was necessary.

"This is exactly why we have said for a long time that the structure of LAHSA doesn't work,” Perkins said. “How are you supposed to administer funding for people who won't pay you?”

Justin Szlasa, another LAHSA Commission member said he has frequently heard service providers complain that LAHSA pays them late.

Szlasa said he asked for an itemized summary of all of LAHSA’s unpaid bills. The report should have been easy to generate immediately, Szlasa said.

Months later, LAHSA still has not produced the document, he said. This month, he filed a public records request for that information, including which contractors LAHSA owes money to and how behind on payments it is.

“We as commissioners don’t have visibility into how we’re doing if we don’t know how much money we owe and how late we are with payments to these service providers on the front lines of our homelessness response,” Szlasa said.

LAHSA officials said the agency will work with outside consultants to update the agency’s finance operations to ensure providers are paid accurately and on time.

The Southern California Muslim community during the early to mid-20th century became more diverse, but the visibility of Muslims in SoCal didn’t significantly increase until the creation of new Islamic institutions and hubs like the Islamic Society of Orange County.

Community pillars like the Islamic Society of Orange County (ISOC), located in Garden Grove, allow Muslims in Southern Calfironia to connect with their faith and explore their religious identities in a rapidly changing society.

With the holy month of Ramadan underway, the Islamic Society of Orange County is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Muzammil Siddiqi, director and Islamic scholar for ISOC, who has served the community since 1981, recently joined LAist’s daily news program AirTalk with Larry Mantle, along with Deana Helmy, chair of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, to talk about the community center’s impact on the region over the past five decades.

How ISOC got its start

Muslims began arriving in Southern California as early as the 20th century, with roots primarily from South Asian Punjabi descent and the Middle East.

“It was a small number,” said Sidiqqi. “They started gathering at religious services and learning about the Quran within their families.”

As numbers continued to increase, particularly after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Muslims in Southern California formed the basis of the ISOC, and in 1976, it became the first mosque in Orange County.

The Islamic Society of Orange county serves thousands of Muslims with prayer, educational, and counseling services, including a youth group.

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“At the time, when the community bought this place, they thought it was too big for them,” said Sidiqqi, adding, “Soon a large number of people started coming, and we had to buy neighboring properties.”

Today, the SoCal muslim community is diverse, as people from the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Southeast Asia, Latin America and descendants from Europe attend ISOC and share it as a community space.

“The Mother Mosque”

The Islamic Society of Orange County has grown to become the largest Muslim community center in Southern California, serving more than 10,000 followers throughout the area.

“That’s why we call it the mother mosque,” Sidiqqi said.

The mosque is more than just a place for worship for Muslims in SoCal; it's a community center.

“I actually attended the elementary school at ISOC called Orange Crescent School,” Helmy said.

Orange Crescent School is located within the Islamic Society of Orange County Masjid premises in Garden Grove. It currently offers full-time schooling from preschool to 8th grade, and intends to expand its reach and become the first Islamic High School in Orange County.

Children's backpacks hang outside of a classroom at the Orange Crescent School located on the grounds of the Garden Grove mosque.

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“All subjects that are taught in other schools are taught here. Aside from that, they learn the Arabic language and Islamic studies,” Sidiqqi said. “We emphasize very much the moral character of our students, according to Islamic traditions.”

AirTalk listeners also weighed in and shared the role ISOC plays in their lives.

Adis in the city of Orange told Larry, “My dad was the first president of the youth group organized in the masjid, and my mom was very involved in organizing as well,” adding, “that was the first place where they met, and it was history from there.”

“I just go to hang out with my daughter sometimes over the weekend,” said LAist reporter Yusra Farzan, adding, “They have cool Friday night programs for kids.”

Equality, leadership, and interfaith outreach

In addition to making inroads with the Muslim society-at-large, ISOC has also played a crucial role in acknowledging the need for women's representation in its organization.

“Leadership at the masjid has always elevated and highlighted women,” said Helmy, adding that ISOC has “really ensured that women have the space and place to belong, to be able to speak up and to be encouraged to take on leadership roles.”

ISOC offers a variety of services and programs that aim to educate people about Islam and debunk misconceptions and myths about the faith. Sidiqqi recalled being in the nation’s capital the day of the 9/11 attacks, telling Mantle that he was actually invited by President George W. Bush to participate in the interfaith service that was held at the Washington National Cathedral.

“This has been our work at the ISOC. Bringing understanding, reconciliation, peace, and harmony,” he said. “These have been the teachings of Islam, and so we invite people to come learn about the faith.”

You can listen to the full AirTalk SoCal History segment here.

President Donald Trump called the Supreme Court's decision against his sweeping use of tariffs "deeply disappointing" and slammed the members of the court who ruled against him.

Trump called the justices who opposed his tariffs "fools" and "lapdogs," charging that they were acting because of liberal partisanship, though three of those ruling against him were appointed by Republican presidents and two were Trump appointees.

"I think it is deeply disappointing, and I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what's right for our country," he said.

The court — in a 6 to 3 decision —found that a law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.

The ruling was the president's most significant defeat at the Supreme Court since he returned to office, and threatens to upend one of Trump's favorite and most powerful tools of his economic and foreign policy agenda.

The decision injects even more uncertainty into the future of tariffs, but Trump made clear that he has no plans on giving up on his agenda.

Calling it his "favorite word in the dictionary," Trump has repeatedly credited his use of tariffs with helping him stop wars and pressure world leaders to bend to U.S. interests.

He boasted about the economic benefits. A recent Congressional Budget Office report found that tariffs were expected to help reduce the deficits by about $3 trillion over a decade. But that same report found that U.S. consumers - not foreign companies - were paying the vast majority of that money.

But while talking with reporters Friday, Trump sought to put a positive spin on the court decision. He said that it would provide certainty for the U.S. economy and that he plans to seek alternatives, which he laid out specifically.

"Their decision's incorrect. But it doesn't matter, because we have very powerful alternatives that have been approved by this decision," he said.

Trump cited a dissent written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh who listed laws that the administration could pursue, including "the Trade Act of 1974 sections 122, 201, 301, and the Tariff Act of 1930 section 338."

He acknowledged that those processes may be more cumbersome, but had stronger legal standing. He also cited Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, that allows the president to impose tariffs to address trade deficits. But those tariffs are limited to 15%, and only for 150 days, after which Congress would have to approve them.

"While I am sure that they did not mean to do so, the Supreme Court's decision today made the President's ability to both regulate trade and impose tariffs more powerful and more crystal clear, rather than less. I don't think they meant that. I'm sure they didn't," Trump said.

And he said he would sign an executive order today to continue certain tariffs under alternative authorities, including adding a "10% global tariff."

That rule would also eventually need approval from Congress, after 150 days, which could be difficult with an election approaching.

Republicans are facing pressure from constituents about high costs and the business community that is afraid to invest with all the economic uncertainty.

A recent NPR/Marist poll finds that a majority of Americans — 56% — feel tariffs or fees on imported products from other countries hurts the U.S. economy.

The former Senate majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell praised the Supreme Court's decision.

"Congress' role in trade policy, as I have warned repeatedly, is not an inconvenience to avoid," the Kentucky Republican said. "If the executive would like to enact trade policies that impact American producers and consumers, its path forward is crystal clear: convince their representatives under Article 1" of the Constitution."

But Trump, who has expressed frustration with gridlock in Congress, expressed confidence that he would continue to be able to employ tariffs unilaterally.

"Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic," Trump said. They are so happy and they're dancing in the streets. But they won't be dancing for long. That I can assure you."
Copyright 2026 NPR

A judge has ruled that the city of Los Angeles cannot move forward with a program that would allow local officials to remove and dismantle more recreational vehicles the city deems a nuisance.

The city planned to roll out a new state law that gives L.A. County authority to dispose of abandoned or inoperable RVs worth up to $4,000. The previous threshold was $500.

Some city officials who support the new law say L.A. must have the tools to get unsafe and unsanitary RVs off the streets for good.

But opponents argued the law does not apply to the city of L.A. — only the county — and that the city’s “illegal” actions would harm vulnerable Angelenos who live in RVs, according to court documents.

In a new ruling issued Thursday, Superior Court Judge Curtis A. Kin agreed with the opponents. The judge said the new law “provides no such authority to the City of Los Angeles.”

The backstory

The ruling stems from a legal challenge by a coalition of housed and unhoused residents in West L.A. around the city’s implementation of Assembly Bill 630, which became law Jan. 1.

The L.A. City Council voted in December to approve a motion instructing various city departments to “immediately implement” the law.

The CD11 Coalition for Human Rights then asked a judge to intervene, claiming L.A. is “recklessly charging ahead” with a program it’s not authorized to execute, according to court documents.

What the officials say

Councilmember Traci Park, who introduced the council motion in October, told LAist previously that nuisance RVs create health and safety issues that put entire neighborhoods at risk. Park said residents want solutions, not frivolous lawsuits.

Shayla Myers, an attorney with Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, told LAist after the ruling Thursday that the lawsuits aren’t frivolous when the petitioners keep winning.

“It is incredibly unclear why the city did not simply accept the plain language of AB 630 and instead forced our client to go to court, wasting court resources, city resources at a time when the city doesn't have resources to spare,” Myers said.

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto’s office did not respond to LAist’s requests for comment on the city’s implementation of AB 630.

What’s next

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass proposed AB 630 in partnership with Assemblymember Mark González, who introduced the California assembly bill. González said in a statement to LAist last month that his office is “working with our partners to clarify the law to ensure the City can fully implement AB 630."

González has introduced another bill, AB 647, that would expand the language of the law to include “any public agency” within L.A. County.

Go deeper: West LA coalition challenges city's rollout of new RV law