The Brief

Los Angeles Unified teachers, support staff and principals are one day away from a strike that would shut down schools starting Tuesday, April 14.

The unions, who represent about 68,000 employees collectively, say the walkout is a last resort after more than a year of negotiations over pay, benefits and school conditions. The strike would mark the first time three of the district’s most powerful unions— United Teachers Los Angeles, Service Employees International Union Local 99 and the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles — collaborate on a strike.

On Sunday, LAUSD announced it had reached deals with UTLA and AALA. But a collective strike remains possible without a deal with SEIU Local 99.

LAUSD is the country’s second largest school district and provides meals, child care and education for about 400,000 students daily.

The district said in a statement posted Monday at 5 p.m. that it continues to meet with SEIU Local 99 “and remains committed to reaching an agreement that supports our students, employees, and school communities.”

This is a guide to some of the most pressing questions related to the strike. Have others? Email me: mdale@laist.com.

Will my child’s school be open?

No.

LAUSD has said that all district schools and early education centers will close if teachers, support staff and principals walk out.

The striking unions represent the majority of the district’s 83,000 employees.

SEIU Local 99 has said a strike would be open ended.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that the strike would also shut down the district’s spring sports program because bus drivers won’t be available to provide transportation.

What resources are available for families?

The district has posted plans to distribute food, digital learning resources and options for tech support on a dedicated website.

There is also a list of community organizations offering child care. They include

• The YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles 
• El Nido Family Centers

Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro LA will be open for full-day programming — 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. — in response to school closures, said Kimberly Washington, vice president of philanthropy and marketing.

Sites opening for full-day support include:

• Watts/Willowbrook
• Challengers Club (South L.A.)
• Venice Club

Boyle Heights Beat has also assembled a list of resources for families on the eastside of L.A.

How do parents feel?

Parents and caregivers representing more than a half-dozen community organizing and advocacy groups held a press conference Thursday morning to express their support for the strike and urge the district to reach a deal with the unions.

“When they advocate for better pay, staffing and resources, they are advocating for our children's future,” said Esmeralda Rangel, whose younger siblings attend LAUSD schools. “When educators and staff are supported, our schools are stronger and our classrooms are better.”

The Facebook group Parents Supporting Teachers started in the run-up to the 2019 UTLA strike and now has more than 30,000 members.

Carmel Levitan is a group moderator, and the parent of LAUSD students in Eagle Rock. She said there have been a lot of questions about whether there will be remote learning, food or child care available during the strike.

“I do think there's a lot of anxiety,” Levitan said. “So we all just take a few days off work? Can we afford that? Do our jobs allow that? And so I do think the uncertainty is stressful and really harming a lot of families.”

Other parents said their children would join their teachers on the picket line.

Elizabeth Hernandez plans to open her home, which is near a South L.A. middle school, to striking teachers and provide snacks and bathroom access.

“It's important for us as parents to support our teachers because at the end of the day, they are the ones that spend most of the days with our kids,” Hernandez said.

How can I share my family's experiences and concerns?

We have a survey you can fill out here:

What would it take to reach a deal? 

United Teachers Los Angeles, SEIU Local 99 and Associated Administrators of Los Angeles have been negotiating with the district over pay, benefits and additional support for students for more than a year.

Here’s a summary of the current status of negotiations with each union:

United Teachers Los Angeles

35,000 members include: teachers, psychologists and counselors

Contract expired: June 30, 2025

Deal reached: Sunday, April 12, 2026

UTLA’s bargaining team met with the district more than a dozen times since negotiations began last February. The union declared an impasse in December, a legal step that triggered a “fact finding” intervention from a neutral mediator appointed by the state’s labor relations board.

The union’s proposals included: 

• A 17% raise over two years. 
• A minimum starting teacher salary of nearly $78,000 — a 13% increase. 
• Changes to the salary schedule so that newer teachers who complete professional development can earn increases more quickly.
• Reducing class sizes and adding more mental health support for students. 
• Learn more. 

The final deal includes: 

• An increase in salary scales by 11.65%. UTLA says the average member will see an average increase of nearly 14%
• A new-teacher salary of $77,000 per year
• Four weeks of district-paid parental leave
• Expanded student mental health supports
• A first-ever 20:1 ratio for special education specialist teachers

How much does the deal cost?

A district spokesperson said Sunday that the UTLA deal will cost $650 million per year.

Whether or not the district could afford the union’s proposal was a matter of debate even for the fact-finding chair, Donald Raczka.

“Due to the complexity of LAUSD’s budget, thoroughly examining these claims would be time-consuming and labor-intensive—tasks that go beyond the Chair’s current capacity given the available information,” Raczka wrote.

The union contended that such an analysis was the fact finder’s key responsibility.

“The failure of the Fact Finder to even attempt to figure out the finances is a disservice to the

educators and students of LAUSD and to the fact-finding process itself,” wrote Brian McNamara, a UTLA director and fact finding panelist in a lengthy dissent.

In a statement, the district said it “appreciates the report’s balanced, fiscally responsible framework.”

SEIU Local 99

30,000 members include: bus drivers, cafeteria workers, classroom and campus aides

Contract expired: June 30, 2024

Most recent meeting with LAUSD: Monday, April 13, 2025

The union’s proposals include: 

• A 30% wage increase over three years. 
• More hours for workers who don’t have enough to qualify for benefits.

LAUSD’s most recent public offer includes: 

•  A 13% wage increase over three years.
• A task force to advise the district on Artificial Intelligence use that includes SEIU Local 99 members.
• Read more.

SEIU Local 99 also declared an impasse in December, but is at a different stage in the bargaining process than UTLA.

The state has appointed a mediator to try and help the two sides meet an agreement.

The basis for SEIU’s strike vote is what the union says are more than a dozen unfair practice charges where members have been disciplined or lost hours as a result of participating in union activities.

SEIU Local 99 reports its members make an average of $35,000 a year.

Maria Avalos is a supervision aide at Fernangeles Elementary School in Sun Valley. Avalos said she’s only assigned four hours of work a day and also cleans houses and sells tamales to support her daughter.

“We need more hours,” Avalos said. “I live in an apartment that has one bedroom for 10 of us.”

Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA)

3,000 members include: principals, directors and other administrators

Contract expired: June 30, 2025

Deal reached: Sunday, April 12, 2026

The union’s proposals included: 

• A 12.5% wage increase.
• The ability to use flex time more easily.

The final deal includes:

• A 12.15% wage increase
• A defined 8-hour workday and a “reasonable” 40-hour workweek 
• Flex time with notice and no pre-approval
• Read more.

AALA announced its members would join the April 14 walkout — a first for the union, which affiliated with the Teamsters in 2024.

 “We stand strong, we stand tall, we stand with dignity, and we demand the respect that we deserve as professionals that carry this district each and every day,” said Maria Nichols, president of AALA, during a virtual meeting with union members Monday.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

An affordable housing charity that controls hundreds of apartments in Long Beach is facing a torrent of accusations that it cheated the government out of tens of millions of dollars, defrauded homeless assistance programs and swindled low-income tenants out of money.

The nonprofit Helpful Housing and its for-profit subsidiary Ocean Structure are run by Rodney Rosenstein, who is in federal custody after being indicted in connection with a series of alleged fraud schemes in Arizona. 

In Long Beach, a flood of similar accusations at 15 residential complexes has gone virtually unnoticed until now. They are spread across dozens of lawsuits reviewed by the Long Beach Post, as well as through obtained property records, financial documents, a whistleblower account from a former employee and interviews with tenants. Separately, they are little more than small-time court cases, rental disputes and loan defaults. Taken together, they allege Rosenstein is at the center of a cascading scam that took advantage of multimillion-dollar homeless services programs and federal affordable housing incentives with little oversight.

One attorney in particular managed to build the most comprehensive view of the alleged scheme while she pursued a maintenance worker’s wage-theft case. Kimberly Lind says Rosenstein’s organization falsified paperwork under the city’s nose for years, all to hide a system of overcharging agencies that placed formerly unhoused people in the apartments.

The full extent of the potential fraud in Long Beach — which also included low-income tenants alleging they were charged exorbitant fees without cause — remains unknown. 

Lawyers for Rosenstein declined to comment or did not respond to detailed questions from the Post. The city of Long Beach has said the Arizona indictment “raises new concerns” about its dealings with Rosenstein’s organizations, and it’s already suing him over missing payments on federal loans that it administers.

Still, Helpful Housing is continuing to serve as a landlord and collect money meant to help people avoid homelessness: The Long Beach Housing Authority alone is using federal housing vouchers to pay rent for 14 tenants at Helpful Housing and Ocean Structure properties, amounting to $157,811 so far this year.

Since 2010, Helpful Housing says it’s housed 10,000 people in “beautifully designed” Long Beach apartments. Its website touts its housing-first approach, its experience developing and remodeling apartments and its goals of expanding across L.A. County. 

Rosenstein’s business boomed in Long Beach after he received $6.5 million in zero-interest federal loans via the city between 2010 and 2016 to renovate apartment buildings. The loans came with the condition that he rent to low-income tenants at discounted rates and prove it every year with pay stubs and other documents showing their incomes fell below federal limits. 

As renovations were completed, revenue started rolling in. Records obtained by Lind and the Post show much of it was paid by government programs and homeless services agencies, which placed people in the apartments and paid millions in rent, repairs and security deposits. 

Before the loans, the nonprofit was reporting around $129,000 in revenue a year. By their 2024 filing, the nonprofit and business raked in more than $5 million in annual revenue and had accrued more than $51 million in total assets. 

It was around this time that Lind began looking into Helpful Housing. 

According to the attorney, the case brought to her in late 2023 by former maintenance worker Javier Zaldivar seemed at first a straightforward wage-theft suit against the nonprofit: Zaldivar claimed he worked at least 64 hours a week without rest breaks or sick pay for $15 an hour until he was fired in May 2023. He said he was owed $288,491 in back pay and civil penalties.

“And then as I got deeper and deeper into the case, I realized what they were doing,” Lind said. 

Proceeding to court in March 2024, Lind dug heavily into Rosenstein’s nonprofit and businesses, interviewed whistleblowers, and obtained a combination of emails, pay stubs and loan agreements. She even deposed Rosenstein himself before the lawsuit settled under undisclosed terms. Rosenstein continued to deny wrongdoing, and Lind alleges the full depth of the fraud has yet to come to light.

“It was just one thing after another,” Lind said. “It’s a rabbit hole that you go down, and I had to find out more.”

The front entrance to one of Rodney Rosenstein’s apartment buildings at 1133 Pine Ave. in Long Beach on Oct., 5, 2026.

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Thomas R. Cordova

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Long Beach Post

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She said she found countless examples of forgeries, including W-2s, 1099s and pay stubs that were submitted to the city to prove they rented to low-income tenants, a requirement of the zero-interest loan agreement. Some people, she said, didn’t even exist. 

“They were pretty sloppy in some of them,” Lind said. “Some of it was kind of ridiculous. I look at pay stubs all the time. I know what’s supposed to be on them and what looks fishy.”

In the course of her investigation, Lind attempted to connect with a number of former employees. Many were afraid to come forward, she said, but eventually she met a former administrator who joined Helpful Housing in August 2022 and was tasked with balancing ledgers, handling evictions and reviewing vacancies.

In a sworn statement Lind shared with the Post, the worker — who asked to be identified publicly only as UMI for fear of retaliation — said they first noticed potentially fraudulent activity within the first four months on the job, watching co-workers routinely submit fabricated documents to the city.  

In some cases, the employee alleges, the organization maximized its profits by double-charging different agencies for the same tenant. In other cases, workers like Zaldivar were allegedly asked to build partitions in rooms to make space for multiple tenants: A building at 720 Chestnut Ave., for example, was permitted for 14 units but housed 18 by building partitions in some rooms “the size of a closet to maximize profits illegally,” UMI’s statement said.

After a number of confrontations with co-workers and Rosenstein, UMI quit, according to the sworn statement. 

“‘Everyday is a new element of chaos,’” they recalled telling Rosenstein. “‘You are all going to get caught committing fraud and the properties will end in receivership. You keep putting people in your buildings, and in the community — they are going to call their councilperson and it’s going to all blow up.’”

The practices alleged by UMI and Lind follow a strikingly similar pattern — relying on falsified tax and payroll records — to one federal prosecutors say Rosenstein allegedly orchestrated in Tucson, Ariz., also under his principal nonprofit, Helpful Housing. 

In an indictment filed in August, prosecutors say Rosenstein and Helpful Housing stole $2.9 million in COVID-relief money and $35 million in bank loans by lying about payroll expenses, creating W-2s for people who didn’t exist or never worked for him, and falsifying how full his Arizona buildings were, including one instance where his conspirators allegedly “staged” a condemned building to appear full of residents during various bank inspections.  He faces up to 30 years in prison on the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

When reached by phone, a federal prosecutor on the Arizona case declined to say whether they were looking into Rosenstein’s Long Beach business. 

An apartment building at 327 W. Pacific Coast Highway is one run by Rodney Rosenstein’s companies in Long Beach on Oct. 5, 2026.

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Thomas R. Cordova

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Long Beach Post

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The indictment “raises new concerns” about Rosenstein’s dealings in Long Beach, said Deputy City Attorney Nick Masero. He said he could not comment on the accusations raised by Lind, “but in all such cases the city will accept available information, use the tools available to obtain additional information, coordinate with partner agencies that have different jurisdictions and take all appropriate actions to assert its rights and obtain just outcomes.”

Separately, the city has so far filed 15 lawsuits against Rosenstein for allegedly failing to make all the payments on the federally backed zero-interest loans he used to renovate his Long Beach properties. If they win, they plan to seize the 15 apartment buildings and auction them off, hoping to recoup a combined $9.6 million in principal and interest. 

As part of the loans, Rosenstein’s companies agreed to annual audits and inspections from the city. It’s unclear what they found or if they were completed. The city declined interview requests and refused to release audit and inspection documents while it’s in litigation with Helpful Housing.

In addition to the Long Beach Housing Authority, much of Rosenstein’s organization was fueled by money it took from Southern California anti-homelessness agencies — about 80%, according to UMI’s statement. During the course of her investigation, Lind obtained records showing millions in payments from nonprofit organizations like Mental Health America of Los Angeles (MHALA) and Interval House. 

MHALA, for example, paid Rosenstein’s entities a combined $3.1 million between 2014 and 2024 for rent, security deposits, repairs and “late housing support,” according to records Lind provided to the Post. (MHALA declined to comment.) Interval House confirmed the records were accurate and acknowledged they paid rent for some tenants through 2019 using government-funded programs like Long Beach Community Action Partnership Home Energy Assistance Program, and First 5, a state program targeting housing for homeless families. 

People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) confirmed it also worked with Rosenstein’s companies for about five years but did not disclose how much it had paid them.

At least some of the money allegedly never went to services supporting low-income residents. 

When tenants moved out, UMI alleged, staff would send agencies bogus work orders for repairs they say were never completed. In one example from November 2021, UMI said, Favela’s Construction & Renovation charged $19,400 for alleged repairs.

Attorney Kimberly Lind and a former Helpful Housing employee alleged this invoice was fraudulent, corresponding to a business address that didn’t exist.

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Long Beach Post

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When MHALA tried to deliver a check, an employee discovered the company’s listed address was actually a senior-living apartment building and confronted Helpful Housing, accusing them of fraud, UMI said.

The scheme also allegedly targeted the residents themselves. 

Julie Curren, who was placed at a Helpful Housing complex on 17th Street in October 2022, told the Post that PATH paid a $5,000 deposit meant for her to keep upon finishing their supportive housing program. “That deposit should have come back to me,” Curren said. 

But when she moved out in October 2024, she was charged $2,200 in damages. When she sued in small claims in December 2024, she said, attorney Bruce Gridley, representing Helpful Housing, first offered a $1,000 settlement. She refused. Then Gridley presented photographs of a messy apartment. 

“None of those pictures were mine,” she said. “The only thing that needed to be done was a quick paint job, and somebody told me somebody moved in like two days after I left, so you can’t tell me that apartment was in disarray.” 

A work order provided to Curren showed the contractor hired to take care of the repairs: Structural Integrity, a Chatsworth-based company owned by Rosenstein. (Gridley, who is also listed as a board member of Helpful Housing, declined to comment for this story.)

Curren said she spent months trying to recover her security deposit, money that she saw as a second chance at life. 

In emails she shared with the Post involving the city housing authority and Helpful Housing, the nonprofit claims it sent the money to the city, though officials claim they never received it. She says she’s weighing a civil suit. But she can’t afford a lawyer. 

“I think I’ve exhausted every effort,” Curren said. “I don’t know what to do.”

Long Beach Post reporter Jacob Sisneros contributed to this report.

Jackie, Big Bear’s late famous bald eagle, was suffering from several severe illnesses that ultimately led to her death in August, wildlife officials announced Wednesday evening.

Jackie had Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, otherwise known as HPAI, that caused a severe ulcer in her stomach, leading to internal bleeding, anemia and sepsis.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the Ojai Raptor Center released the results of Jackies’s necropsy and additional testing. Veterinary pathologists with the wildlife alliance performed the necropsy, and the raptor center led Jackie’s intensive care for weeks.

“The necropsy results have helped connect many of the findings we were seeing throughout the eagle’s hospitalization,” Chris Eksteen, executive director of the Ojai Raptor Center, said in a statement. Eksteen added that caring for her was an “extraordinary privilege” for their entire team.

Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit behind the popular nest livestream overlooking Big Bear Lake, said on social media that they’re taking some time to process the news.

“Please take care and be kind,” the group told its roughly 1.3 million Facebook followers.

What do we know?

HPAI is an infectious disease that’s been circulating in wild bird populations throughout the country, according to wildlife officials. Jackie may have been exposed by coming into contact with affected birds, such as waterfowl, or by eating infected prey.

HPAI was the main cause of her decline, according to the necropsy details. She had signs of chronic disease in a part of her stomach commonly called the gizzard, which contributed to the severe anemia she was suffering from. She had a serious bacterial infection, as well as severe inflammation and blood clots in her heart and major blood vessels.

Toxicology screenings also showed rodenticide in her liver and “persistent environmental contaminants.” But the rodenticide — brodifacoum — was not named as the primary cause of her illness and death.

The multiple, severe and interconnected illnesses “had been developing over time,” wildlife officials said. The organizations said they have “no evidence that Shadow or the eaglets were sick.”

Jackie’s remains have since been cremated by the National Eagle Repository, which is run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Boyle Heights and Arts District residents are joining forces to push for enforcement of an anti-camping zone at the park beneath the 6th Street Bridge, which is expected to open next year.

On Thursday, members of the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council voted 13-1 to sign on as supporters after Arts District residents spearheaded a petition calling for the city to implement such a zone for the sidewalks and perimeter around the future park. 

With this vote, the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council is joining the Arts District Little Tokyo Neighborhood Council and the downtown Los Angeles Residents Association in urging Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, Mayor Karen Bass and city staff to move forward with the designation and to coordinate a security plan for the park. 

The move comes after residents on both sides of the Los Angeles River have raised concerns for months about the possibility of homeless encampments forming at the park. Anti-camping zones — established through Los Angeles Municipal Code 41.18 — bar people from sitting, lying, or sleeping in certain public spaces. 

Graffiti is seen at the Sixth Street PARC (Park, Arts, River & Connectivity).

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Steve Saldivar

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The LA Local

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Councilmembers must get buy-in from their colleagues before enacting new 41.18 zones. Proponents, however, point out that the LA City Council in 2024 already endorsed a zone for the 6th Street Bridge, which they believe should extend to the park beneath it. Former Councilmember Kevin de León initiated those efforts.

Jurado, in a statement, said her office is confirming the boundaries as they relate to the park. 

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, efforts to establish or enforce anti-camping zone have received pushback.

In August, the city council approved Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez’s efforts to repeal 12 anti-camping zones that were established under the previous councilmember in District 13. Soto-Martínez’s office said enforcement under the city ordinance interferes with efforts to move unhoused residents into housing.

Jurado said she is open to having “a serious and transparent conversation about how 41.18 is being used and what results it is producing.” She said anti-camping zones are “just one piece of a much larger conversation about keeping this park safe and responding to homelessness.”

“This park represents a major public investment into equitable park space while bridging two historic neighborhoods. Ensuring its success from day one requires the honest dialogue and difficult decisions needed to address legitimate safety and access concerns while recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution,” Jurado said.

Known formally as the Sixth Street PARC (Park, Arts, River & Connectivity), the park will feature an arts plaza, complete with a performance amphitheater, garden and terrace seating. Other amenities include a café, dog park, fitness equipment and sports courts.

Construction of the park began in 2023, just a year after the grand opening celebration of the bridge, which connects historic Boyle Heights with the Arts District neighborhood and crosses the Los Angeles River. 

Rendering of Leonard Hill Arts Plaza at the Sixth Street PARC.

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Image courtesy of City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering

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Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council board member Shmuel Gonzales, a local historian and community organizer, voted in favor of an anti-camping zone designation because he wants the park “to be something that ultimately benefits the community.” He said residents fought hard to get the park built on the Boyle Heights side. 

Enforcement of an anti-camping zone would mean “that we’re getting the city to take responsibility,” and it would be a way to deter private security and business improvement districts from bringing “negative capitalist forces into our neighborhood.”

Gonzales said there should be proper signage of anti-camping zones. It should be a fair process, he said, “so that people aren’t surprised and the city knows that they’re responsible through their own signage to facilitate the transition of these people into housing.”

Boyle Heights resident Margarita Amador, the neighborhood council’s secretary, said she wants the park to be “protected, safe and usable for the community.” 

Amador was in support of the neighborhood council “joining forces” with the Arts District and downtown because Boyle Heights, she noted, has the biggest recreational section of the park, including the soccer field and water splash area. 

“We don’t want it to be a MacArthur Park,” she said. “If you don’t have a plan in place, it’s going to become a MacArthur Park … It’s not probably the solution, but at least it’s something that can be enforceable.”

Tom Trafelet, who created the petition, told Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council members that he wants equity on both sides of the bridge. 

“I just don’t want it to be just the Arts District getting everything and you guys getting nothing,” said Trafelet, who has lived in the Arts District for more than 20 years. “I hope that we can work together and join forces and create a safe space for families to come and enjoy it because it’s an absolutely beautiful park.”