The Brief

Tai Harris breathes and lives music. The Van Nuys resident worked in the business side of that industry for many years, but said she became "jaded" several years back. So she made a big career change seemingly out of left field — by diving headlong into working with Los Angeles' unhoused population at a local nonprofit.

"I saw the position either on Craigslist or Indeed, and I was like, 'Wow, that sounds interesting,' you know, helping homeless individuals obtain resources," Harris said.

In four short years, Harris climbed the ranks, becoming an associate director focused on housing the unhoused.

But this year, she decided to go back to school to supplement the hands-on experience she's gained working in the sector. Harris is one of 20 students in a pilot certificate program — the first of its kind in the state — launched this year by Santa Monica College to train a workforce that is integral to solving this vexing challenge.

"There's education around social work, there's education around music, but to have something specific to homeless service work, it was like, 'Whoa, I definitely want to know more about this and be involved,'" Harris said.

Help wanted: Homeless service work

There are some 1,300 jobs in the homeless services sector in L.A. County that have remained unfilled, according to SMC and others working in the sector. These jobs cut across a variety of roles, particularly entry-level positions on the frontlines.

The passage of Measure H in 2017 helped fund the creation of these jobs — something that Measure A, which voters approved this November, will continue to do.

"What's often overlooked is all the heroes that work behind-the-scenes and on the frontlines and work as case managers or work in outreach," said Steven Sedky, associate dean for career education at SMC. "But there's not enough of them to do the work."

The Homeless Service Work program was created to fix that need — a model the college hopes will be replicated throughout California.

"We have close ties to our local communities, we have close ties to industry leaders," Sedky said. "Community colleges are well positioned to do this work."

A program years in the making

The concept to create a pipeline was brought to the school in 2019 by a trustee, Nancy Greenstein, who was holding a series of conversations among residents in the Westside and those working in the sector on finding solutions to the crisis. An issue quickly came to the fore: staffing.

"One is burnout," said Patricia Ramos, dean of academic affairs at SMC. "The work is really hard."

Another reason is the mismatch in skill sets.

"They seem to be getting a lot of students out of social work school and other places, and the education felt like it needed to be more hands on and more kind of helping students to become more resilient in all of the, you know, trauma that they were going to be facing in the job," Ramos said.

The pandemic hit, but eventually these discussions regained steam, tapping into a bigger network with a more fleshed out vision that led to a partnership between the college and Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), which provides funding to offset costs like faculty salaries, student laptops, counseling and other student services under the certificate program.

"We were, as a college, prepared to help scale and develop this workforce development system. And LAHSA came to us because they do training themselves and they are not able to develop and scale an academic program," Ramos said.

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Michael Owen Baker

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Courtesy LAHSA

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A curriculum designed for students to hit the ground running

In turn, industry leaders led the design of the four-course certificate curriculum that includes an internship to get on-the-ground experience — all combined to give students the training they need to engage and work with individuals while navigating a complex bureaucracy of services and government entities.

"We really relied on the experts in the field who have decades of experience on what the skills, knowledge, and abilities needed to put into the curriculum," Sedky said. "Then one step further in the curriculum development process is thinking about how those fit into classes, what those classes are, and what that sequence is."

The program has also brought in sector veterans to teach classes, including Leepi Shimkhada with L.A. County Department of Health Services, who is leading a course in health equity.

"A lot of times in homeless case management we find people who have various degrees, which is great, right? It brings people from multiple disciplines together, but rarely do we have that person who has had formal training in what it means to be a case manager in homeless services, because it's really a complex space to be in," Shimkhada said.

Often, she added, challenges facing unhoused people are often multifold, including health, mental health and substance abuse disorder.

"There are funds for outreach teams, for interim housing programs, to provide ongoing supportive services when somebody moves into permanent housing, to do benefits advocacy, but we just need this workforce that's ready and willing and able to come in and do the work very quickly," Shimkhada said.

Tai Harris, a student in the new Santa Monica College certificate program on homeless service work.

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Courtesy Tai Harris

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Cultivating the next generation of leaders

The program has drawn students from all walks of life, said Sedky at SMC. They include high school graduates and mid-career people who are considering a career change after having volunteered in the space.

"We have a Ukrainian refugee. We have a bus driver who drives through Skid Row and wants to do more," Sedky added. "We have a few people that are already working in the sector and they want to move up in the sector."

Harris from Van Nuys would fall into that category. She said the program has opened access to a wealth of knowledge from those who've worked in the industry for decades.

"For me, it was to be able to learn more about policies and, you know, to have my pulse even more so on things that are going on and things that are coming in the future," Harris said.

But it's also about being in a cohort of like-minded people — committed to the cause — who the program hopes will become next generation of leaders in the sector. Because the work is hard, burnout is real. The pay scale for entry level jobs, said Harris, is typically between $20 to $25 per hour.

"It takes a certain type of individual to work in this field. No two days are the same. No two seconds, honestly, are the same," Harris said. "You have to be someone that really has a passion for this work. It's a great thing that this program has come about to be able to help get those next groups of people into this field."

You might have braved the process to get a seat at SoFi Stadium for one of the eight FIFA World Cup 2026 matches in L.A., or maybe you’re gearing up to head to a community watch party.

Either way, you can maximize the celebration, avoid traffic and save your wallet by taking transit.

LAist prepared the following guide to help folks get to and from the stadium, L.A. city watch parties and tips on using bikes and scooters to get around the region.

Getting to the stadium

L.A. Metro is the countywide transportation agency and is the official public transit provider for the World Cup matches in the city. It’s partnering with more than 10 regional transportation and charter providers to get people to and from the stadium.

Where is the stadium: All eight of the matches will be at SoFi Stadium, or L.A. Stadium, as it will be called during the World Cup. The address is 1001 S. Stadium Dr., Inglewood, CA 90301.

How do you get there on Metro: Metro is offering direct shuttle service to the stadium from several locations in L.A. and Orange counties:

• Hawthorne/Lennox Station
• Crenshaw Station
• LAX/Metro Transit Center
• Near LAX hotels
• El Camino College
• Harbor Gateway Transit Center
• Culver City Transit Center
• Torrance Transit Center
• Union Station
• Downtown Long Beach
• Downtown Santa Monica
• North Hollywood Station
• Pierce College Station
• ARTIC Anaheim Station 
• Newport Transportation Center

You can catch a stadium-bound shuttle at locations throughout L.A. and Orange Counties.

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L.A. Metro

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When: Shuttles to the stadium begin service at least three hours before kick-off depending on which location you’re leaving from, and they’ll run up to 90 minutes after the matches end.

How often: The shuttles will generally run every 10 minutes. For the Pierce College Station and Newport Transportation Center, the shuttles will run every 30 minutes.

How to pay: You can tap the fare machines directly with your credit or debit card. Or you can go old-school and use a physical or digital TAP card. There are several ways to get a TAP card, including using your smartphone or picking one up at a Metro station. Here is a page with more details and instructions.

How much: The same as usual: $1.75 one-way.

Ok, but how do I get to the shuttle locations?: There are a few different options.

The shuttle pick-up and drop-off locations are well-serviced by existing transit. You can use the Transit or L.A. Metro mobile apps to help with trip planning.

And yes, you can drive, too. For most of the shuttle locations, you can reserve parking via SpotHero on Metro’s official World Cup page. You can also use ride-share or taxi services.

The only pick-up and drop-off location that doesn’t have any kind of vehicle access, including rideshare, is the LAX Metro Transit Center. But that station is accessible by five different Metro bus lines and two rail lines.

Bonus: If you’re looking for a souvenir to commemorate your time on transit during the World Cup in L.A., make sure to pick up a special TAP card. You can see the designs and where to find each one here.

How to get to the watch parties

There are going to be more than 100 free watch parties in the city of L.A. at different park locations. It’s part of an initiative called Kick it in the Park. You can find out more about the watch parties here.

Some of the locations are accessible on Metro rail.

• MacArthur Park. You can take the B or D line to the Westlake/MacArthur Park Station.
• Seoul International Park. The D line stops at the Wilshire/Normandie Station, which is about a half mile away from the park. 
• Sycamore Grove. The A line stops at the Southwest Museum Station, which is less than half a mile from Sycamore Grove. 
• Stoner Recreation Center. The E Line stops at the Expo/Bundy Station, which is about half a mile away from Stoner Recreation Center.
• Cheviot Hills Recreation Center. The E Line Palms Station is just less than a mile away. 

Check out the city’s interactive website to learn which Metro, L.A. Dash or other regional transit can take you to the Kick it in the Park events.

Other cities in the county are also hosting watch parties, including Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Culver City.

Micro-mobility solutions

Taking a bike share or scooter could be helpful to get to and from transit stations or to go a short distance that isn’t well-served by transit. There are a few different options here:

• Metro Bike Share. Metro operates a fleet of regular and electric bikes that you can find at docking stations throughout L.A. Use the L.A. Metro app to find docking stations near you that have available bikes or to find stations where you can return the bike when you’re done using it. There are different prices depending on how long you anticipate needing a bike, and you can pay with your TAP card. 
  

• Lime. The private scooter and bike-share company recently expanded into the Valley and now offers a total of 15,000 vehicles in the city of L.A. Its vehicles are also accessible in West Hollywood and Long Beach. You can use the Lime or Uber apps to book the vehicles.

  The company is launching a “fan pass” this summer that includes 90 minutes of riding over the course of five days for about $13. You can purchase the fan pass more than once. It’ll be available between June 5th through July 12th. If you don't have access to the internet on your phone but still want to use a Lime vehicle, you can text "Unlock" to 415-463-3473. You will receive a text back with instructions on how to proceed from there.

Group lunches, home-delivered meals and caregiver support programs are among the services that L.A.-area older adult organizations are warning could be cut under a proposed funding shift.

Nearly two dozen organizations, which make up the Los Angeles Coalition for Aging, say L.A. is facing "substantial" funding losses while resources are redistributed to smaller, more rural regions.

More than 2 million older adults — generally people aged 60 and older — live in L.A. County, a vast majority of whom are aged 65 and older, according to the state Department of Aging. According to the coalition, the population exceeds any other county in California, with L.A. older adults increasingly experiencing homelessness and struggling to meet their basic needs.

The proposed funding shift could lead to more than 400,000 fewer meals each year to the county’s older adults who rely on the programs — not including numbers from the city of L.A. That’s equivalent to roughly 1,500 fewer meals every day.

Catherine Schneider, with Jewish Family Service L.A., which is part of the coalition, told LAist the funding shift moves money away from the oldest, most vulnerable adults in major urban areas.

“Many of [our seniors] have to choose between, do I pay my rent? Do I pay my medical bills? Or do I pay for food? That's the current reality, that's our starting place,” Schneider said. “So when we make cuts to the meals that they are receiving, then you're going to see a further spike in homelessness.”

The lunch for the day was delivered on trays along with cups of water to each older adult.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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In the city of L.A., the number of people aged 65 and older experiencing homelessness jumped more than 17% in a year, and more than 36% in two years, according to annual point-in-time counts.

How would it work?

The proposal would update the intrastate funding formula, which supports local services and targets areas with the greatest needs, according to officials.

It’s been about 30 years since the formula was updated, all while the state’s older adult population has dramatically changed.

“So it was high time that we did this review and we ensure that the dollars are reaching the communities that need them most,” Nicole Shimosaka, chief deputy director with the state Department of Aging, said during a webinar Wednesday.

The proposed funding formula would collectively cut about $5.5 million from L.A. city and county. That’s a 23% drop — 11% for the county and 12% for the city.

Several counties with more rural populations, on the other hand, would see an increase:

• Nevada County would be an 89% increase, or about $775,000 more
• Amador County would see a 72% jump, or about $360,000 more
• Plumas County would get 37% more, or about $160,000
• Mariposa County would see a 34% increase, or $126,000 more

What do state officials say about the proposal?

Newsom’s office referred LAist’s request for comment to the state Department of Finance, which said there were “extensive” conversations with stakeholders ahead of the proposal.

It also noted that the proposal wouldn’t be fully implemented for a few more years, "allowing time … to adjust and prepare.”

Susan DeMarois, director of the California Department of Aging, said officials have been asked at the state and federal level to take a “fresh look” at the formula to make sure it reflects the needs of older adults.

“We know these conversations are important to local communities, which is why stakeholder engagement has remained central throughout this process,” DeMarois said in an email. “At the end of the day, our goal is to support a stronger aging network that can continue helping older Californians stay healthy, connected, and supported in their communities.”

Names to the numbers

Dozens of older adults filed into a senior center in L.A.’s Fairfax Village neighborhood on a weekday morning for a free hot meal, access to exercise equipment and to catch up with friends.

Mariana Jimenez, who lives in West Hollywood and comes to the center everyday to eat, snacked on slices of cantaloupe while staff passed out lunch trays.

“I want to come in for many years more,” she told LAist. “This is very healthy for me to come every day.”

Mariana Jimenez has been coming to the center every day for years. She said she enjoys the hot lunches and dancing activities on Fridays.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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Frank McRae, 82, takes two buses to get to the senior center almost every weekday for meals. McRae doesn’t have a stove or complete kitchen at home, which he said makes the “excellent quality” and “consistent” lunches more important.

Without the group meal program, McRae said the “galloping cost of food … would really be a hardship.” He knows by heart how much the cost of meat, cheese, soups and other staples have risen recently at almost every grocery store in the area.

“This center is keeping people alive, it's keeping people thriving,” he said. "It's giving people hope, it's giving them outlets.”

Frank McRae, 82, used to take three to four buses to get to the center several times a week. He enjoys the meals, gym access and doing research in the computer room.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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How could it affect L.A.?

The Los Angeles Coalition for Aging, which includes organizations like the Los Angeles LGBT Center and Meals on Wheels West, collectively serves thousands of older adults and caregivers in the county’s diverse communities.

The Little Tokyo Service Center, another member of the coalition, assists more than 5,000 people so older adults can live independently as long as possible.

Peter Gee, co-executive director, said there isn’t enough funding for older adult services to begin with, and the proposed shift would be cutting millions from an already limited pool.

“At the end of the day, it would be more older adults and their caregivers that would be going hungry,” he said. “A lot more people that would be facing isolation, a lot more people that would be experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity.”

Among the unhoused, older adults are estimated to be the fastest-growing population in California.

The Fairfax Village center has its own fully stocked kitchen, which has been led by the same chef for the last 34 years. Workers are preparing a mango salad for the next day's meal service.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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Jewish Family Service L.A.'s kitchen has served meals for decades, including when power went out after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and through the COVID pandemic.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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Jewish Family Service L.A. serves about a quarter million meals annually to more than 3,000 people, according to Schneider.

If the proposed funding shift moves forward, the meals, transportation, in-home care, senior centers and activities that Schneider said is “very much a lifeline for folks” would face significant cuts.

“There'd be some very painful decisions that we might have to make, and it would impact the lives of our neighbors,” she said.

What are advocates and older adults asking for?

Gee said the proposal was a surprise to the coalition. It’s urging the California Department of Aging to pause implementation until there’s been “meaningful engagement” with providers, advocates and affected communities.

In a nutshell, Gee and Schneider said they’re asking state leaders to slow down and consider the consequences.

He encouraged older adults to contact state leaders, including Newsom’s office, to speak up about the “simply unacceptable” proposed funding shift.

What does rebuilding after the 2025 L.A. fires mean to you? That's the question LAist asked you in February.

Fire survivors may feel the world has moved on, but we know that you are in the process of pouring foundations, moving to a new temporary home, settling into a new community and perhaps waiting for a chance to return to the areas that burned in Altadena, Pasadena, the Palisades and Malibu.

So we wanted to hear your stories — and also see photos that capture this moment of your lives. With the fires a year and a half behind us, here are a couple of your stories.

A new start in Altadena

For Missi Figueroa, rebuilding has meant being drawn back to Altadena.

“I felt this weird connection after the fire to this place, like it felt like a grave of my old life, and I just wanted to be here,” Figueroa said. “We looked and thought about moving elsewhere. We just wanted to come back here.”

Her husband, Frank Figueroa, felt that rebuilding is also a part of healing.

“I can’t wait to see everyone else here move back and how tight the community will be,” he said. “I think it will be much stronger.”

The Figueroa family were at the tail end of rebuilding their home in February, including an ADU, where their daughter was standing before it was finished.

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Missi Figueroa

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The children of Missi and Frank Figueroa enjoying raspados outside their newly built home. The local elotero still walks their neighborhood in Altadena.

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Missi Figueroa

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In February, the Figueroas were nearing completion of their new home. They shared a photo of one of their children smiling through the window of the then-unfinished ADU.

They passed the final inspection May 8 and got approval to move back to Altadena, which they have called home for over 10 years. Theirs was the 12th fully rebuilt home in Altadena, and they have since returned to the neighborhood.

The home was to their specifications, including adding lots of tiles and reusing bricks from their former home in the planter in the front.

Missi and Frank Figueroa embrace in front of their new home.

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David Rodriguez

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LAist

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Jose Hernandez, their contractor with Structural Prime Builder, was determined to get the Figueroa family moved in in six to seven months.

“I was blessed that they basically trust us to build their home,” said Hernandez, who runs the family-owned business.

The Figueroas said one thing people should know about rebuilding is the importance of having a contractor you can lean on. They found that in Hernandez.

“I think it’s really important to find someone you can work with, a contractor who you can trust and talk to,” Missi Figueroa said.

Frank and Missi Figueroa sit on a blue bench with their contractors, Danna and Jose Hernandez from Structural Prime Builder, outside their newly constructed home in Altadena.

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David Rodriguez

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LAist

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Share your story

LAist is still hearing stories and receiving photos from fire survivors on what rebuilding means to them. We want to hear from homeowners, current or former renters, business owners and more.

So far, we’ve heard from survivors living in temporary homes, living in RVs on their lots, creating art and starting to rebuild a new home while wondering what comes next.

Share your story in the survey below and we may include your pictures and stories in an upcoming feature. We won’t publish anything you share without your permission.

Framing a new home in the Palisades

Darrin Hurwitz stands in front of his family’s new home under construction in the Pacific Palisades.

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David Rodriguez

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LAist

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Darrin Hurwitz and his family moved to Pacific Palisades from Washington, D.C., in 2022. A big reason they chose their neighborhood was to have a city experience and be close to nature.

Their home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire.

The framing of their new home is almost complete. They are the first house on their street to start rebuilding.

For Hurwitz, rebuilding has felt like “a second job." There was the stress of many decisions — as well as feeling like part of something larger.

“Everyone is dealing with these issues in a different way,” he said. “But ultimately, we are excited to be part of the rebuilding process and thrilled to come back to the Palisades in about a year.”

Darrin Hurwitz and his family lost their home in the Palisades Fire. Their home is the first to be rebuilt from the ground up, and broke ground in early February.

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Darrin Hurwitz

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The Hurwitz home’s framing is almost completed by mid-May.

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Darrin Hurwitz

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Since he’s been in the neighborhood to see the start of construction, Hurwitz said he has found it invigorating to hike the trails. He shared a photo with LAist of the view from a hilltop, where he can watch his neighborhood being reborn.

The Hurwitz home is under construction in the Pacific Palisades.

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Darrin Hurwitz

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Hurwitz and his family are living in Santa Monica while their new home is built. He is optimistic about the progress he and his family have made.

“It takes time for people to figure out what to do, to figure out their financial situation, to decide whether to return to an area that has been ravaged by a natural disaster,” Hurwitz said. “I am optimistic where things are headed. The Palisades will be back in maybe three years or five years or seven years, but it will come back.”

The soft hiss of fat dripping onto white-hot binchotan. The alchemical smell of both sweet tare sauce and charred meat. If you closed your eyes, you could easily imagine yourself parked at the counter of any number of South Bay yakitori joints.

But this is Three Pigs, a Long Beach-based pop-up and catering operation, that roves around the region, one week perhaps at a street fair, another in the parking lot of a donut shop.

It’s the work of partners Allison and Vasili Tavernakis. In just under two years, they’ve built a community of dedicated diners from Orange County to Los Angeles, drawn to their personal market-inspired take on traditional Japanese cuisine.

Three Pigs owners, Vasili (left) and Allison Tavernakis.

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Courtesy Three Pigs

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Yakitori is what first launched Three Pigs, so. So there are always skewers on the menu, like a juicy beef kushiyaki skewer dabbed with wasabi.

But there’s also always something special and even ephemeral to be had. Maybe it will be hearty kakuni don, a bowl of rice topped with meltingly tender soy-braised pork belly, a jammy soft boiled egg, and daikon and bok choy sprouts. Or perhaps you’ll find a hyper-seasonal dish like nowhere else: yuzu-scented whipped tofu, charred broccolini, sake-cherry agrodolce, and sprouted watercress.

Three Pigs is restaurant-quality cooking unbound from the financial and creative trappings of a brick-and-mortar space.

“The challenge is what keeps me excited,” Vasili said. “I want our pop-ups to feel like if you changed our bamboo plates, you’d feel like you were at a restaurant.”

A restaurant-quality dish at Three Pigs.

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Courtesy Three Pigs

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Organic growth

Allison and Vasili are both hospitality veterans. The pair met while working at a restaurant in Torrance: Allison as a manager and social media director in the front of the house, Vasili as a chef in the back of the house. After their shifts, there were few options for late-night bites. Inevitably, Vasili said, they’d find themselves at Japanese izakayas, where they and their coworkers could build camaraderie over skewers and small plates.

It was during those post-work meals that Vasili became enamored with yakitori. But it wasn’t until the pandemic lockdowns that Vasili ever attempted to cook it himself. It was a slow process, learning the techniques and honing the recipes that called back to those late-night meals that he sorely missed. For Allison, who is Japanese-American, the dishes spoke to her own flavor memories and family traditions.

Eventually, they became confident enough to invite friends over for dinners to try out new dishes.

Still, the idea of a pop-up seemed far off. It wasn’t until a friend who owns a store in downtown Long Beach offered a pop-up opportunity that Three Pigs started serving the public. After that first smashing success, which saw their entire menu sell out, the operation has grown organically ever since, building on community connections and word of mouth to find new avenues to share their food.

Evolution and ambition

If you pay enough visits to Three Pigs’ pop-ups, you can watch the pair continually push boundaries.

“On a recent visit to Japan,” Vasili recounted, “we saw a vendor with a gorgeously long irori-style grill with fish standing on skewers. In Japan, irori is a multifunctional space in the home for both heating and cooking. I hadn’t seen a vendor do that before, so I thought I could try building one.”

So he did. Then he sourced ayu, small fish prized in Japan for their sweet, delicate flavor. The fish were skewered whole and arranged vertically around lengths of charcoal stacked in the center of the grill. The result was not just an approximation of that inspiration from Japan, but an homage to the craft and care of Japanese cooking. Even attempting such a cooking method is something no other pop-up, let alone a brick-and-mortar restaurant, is likely doing in Southern California.

Casual pop-ups are only part of the Three Pigs experience. Allison and Vasili also host a dinner series. And it’s at those dinners where Three Pigs’ creativity is truly at play.

At a Santa Monica nursery a few months ago, Three Pigs paired an ambitious tasting menu dinner with an ikebana class hosted by Tiger Blossom Studio. In between flower arranging lessons, Allison and Vasili served a farmers market-driven menu that saw dishes like a hamachi crudo in a pool of strawberry ponzu, spiny lobster in a caviar and white miso beurre monté, and a hojicha panna cotta with craggy, dehydrated black sesame cake.

“We try and create an experience, not just food on a plate,” Allison said. “We see this as an entire restaurant experience that happens to be outside in the community. We get to interact with customers in a more intimate way, ask questions, and have a conversation.”

But that conversation isn’t just one with customers old and new. It’s a dialogue between memory and place, Southern California and its seasons, and tradition and evolution.

No matter where you find Three Pigs, you can always guarantee there will be something new on the menu.