Weed can contain mold, bacteria, or even heavy metals like arsenic. It can also be unexpectedly potent, not matching the THC levels on its label. States are trying to keep weed consumers from getting sick, while supporting a growing, tax-paying industry.
Some background: The California Department of Cannabis Control officially formed in 2021, combining what various other state agencies were doing to stay on top of the newly formed legal weed industry in the state. One of its primary jobs is to keep weed safe. It's a task many states with legalized marijuana struggle with, in the absence of federal support or guidance.
On their own: For cannabis, unlike for brownie mix or Tylenol, there's no federal Food and Drug Administration to keep consumers safe. In that vacuum, weed regulators from several states came together to form the Cannabis Regulators Association, says Gillian Schauer, the group's executive director.
Preventing a weed health crisis: The possible health risks aren't confined to smoking. The Department of Cannabis Control also regulates edibles like gummies, brownies and sodas. In those types of products, the THC dose may be higher than indicated by the label. Edibles may also be contaminated by bacteria, which could sicken the person who consumes it.
Read on... for more details on regulation and using science for safety.
At Vibe Cultivators, an indoor cannabis farm in Sacramento, the first thing to hit you is the smell. Earthy, skunky, whatever you want to call it, that is some pungent weed.
There are aisles of plants, growing on two levels under artificial lights. They have names like Gelato 33 and Alien Runtz.
"As you can see, all our plants are tagged," says Brian Prichard, Vibe's entrepreneur in residence.
The state-sanctioned tags are a sign this isn't weed grown by a guy who knows a guy. They contain the name of the state-licensed grower, the license number and an ID number just for the plant, so cannabis regulators can keep track of it.
Things have changed since the days before California legalized marijuana, Prichard says. Back then, he had to be secretive about his work, which meant asking for help was challenging.
Rows of carefully tagged plants grow at Vibe Cultivators in Sacramento. The industry is largely supportive of California's push to regulate it and keep harmful products from hitting the market.
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Preston Gannaway for NPR
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"Before, you know, I'd go to Home Depot and I'd tell them, 'I need this part and this part to make something.' Well, they want to know what I'm making. 'Well, I can't tell you... I just need these parts,'" Prichard says.
Now, he can just ask for information, even from state regulators.
The California Department of Cannabis Control officially formed in 2021, combining what various other state agencies were doing to stay on top of the newly formed legal weed industry in the state. One of its primary jobs is to keep weed safe. It's a task many states with legalized marijuana struggle with, in the absence of federal support or guidance.
And without a deep well of scientific research – it hasn't been easy. Weed can contain mold, bacteria, or even heavy metals like arsenic. It can also be unexpectedly potent, not matching the THC levels on its label. States are trying to keep weed consumers from getting sick, while
supporting a growing, tax-paying industry.
"We like to say around here that we're building the plane as we fly it," says Zarha Ruiz, who leads environmental compliance and manufacturing safety at California's Department of Cannabis Control. "Nothing could be more accurate."
For cannabis, unlike for brownie mix or Tylenol, there's no federal Food and Drug Administration to keep consumers safe. In that vacuum, weed regulators from several states came together to form the Cannabis Regulators Association, says Gillian Schauer, the group's executive director.
"States were struggling to set up literally their own mini FDAs and mini EPAs to try to do the due diligence that was needed," Schauer says.
The states share information, holding meetings and webinars to update each other on what's working and discuss evolving best practices, for instance.
But they don't all test for the same things. According to a 2022 study about the patchwork of regulation around the country, states were testing for more than 600 contaminants in all.
"Interestingly, in each jurisdiction there's only anywhere between 60 to 120 contaminants that are regulated," says Maxwell Leung, an assistant professor at Arizona State University who authored the study. For example, a contaminant might lead to a recall in one state. But another state may not even be testing for it.
Zarha Ruiz, branch chief of environmental compliance and manufacturing safety at the Department of Cannabis Control, outside Vibe Cultivators.
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Preston Gannaway for NPR
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Testing for more contaminants isn't necessarily better, however, he says. Without a vast body of research, scientists and regulators don't know which contaminants have the biggest impact on human health.
Still, California has seen recalls of legal weed — it had 63 last year, the most since the Department of Cannabis Control formed in 2021. That meant sellers had to yank 25,000 individual units of cannabis products from their shelves, because of things like microbial contamination or misbranding.
The California Cannabis Industry Association which represents growers, manufacturers and dispensaries, generally supports the state's effort to regulate. The association says it's "heartened" by the state's recent work on recalls, which came after an investigation called out the state for missing illegal pesticides in legal weed.
"That's not to say there isn't room for improvement in any emerging industry, and cannabis is no exception," says Caren Woodsen, the president of the association's board of directors.
Preventing a weed health crisis
For Ruiz in California, the regulators' priority is keeping people safe. People in the industry remember the EVALI crisis, a 2019 outbreak of lung injuries and hospitalizations across all 50 states linked to vape products containing vitamin E acetate, an additive in some e-cigarettes with THC. At least 68 people died, including four in California.
The possible health risks aren't confined to smoking. The Department of Cannabis Control also regulates edibles like gummies, brownies and sodas. In those types of products, the THC dose may be higher than indicated by the label. Edibles may also be contaminated by bacteria, which could sicken the person who consumes it.
Wyld's grapefruit-flavored gummies are poured into molds, cured, coated in sugar and then packaged for distribution at a factory in Sacramento, Calif.
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Sydney Lupkin
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, emergency room visits related to cannabis increased between 2019 and 2022 for people under 25. Earlier research showed edibles were responsible for a disproportionate share of cannabis-related ER visits.
Down the street from the Sacramento pot farm, there's a factory that makes a product called Wyld gummies.
On a recent grapefruit gummy-making day, a machine poured the solution into rectangular molds. Everyone was wearing hair nets, masks and blue gloves. It looked and smelled like any other factory that makes food, but stored in a metal locker inside a back room, there's a special ingredient: THC oil.
"Our gummies are four grams, but only 10 milligrams of that is cannabis or cannabinoid product," says Gabe Parton Lee, the company's attorney. "And so the majority is just candy."
Still, it's inspected by the California Department of Cannabis Control instead of the FDA or state inspectors under contract with the FDA.
In the distribution room, hundreds of boxes of marionberry flavored gummies are cordoned off to the side under a sign that says "Quarantine Area" in red lettering. The gummies are awaiting batch testing results at one of 27 licensed labs around the state before they can be loaded on trucks and on their way to retail destinations. Inspectors will be checking for contaminants and THC levels.
Using science for safety
In California, the Department of Cannabis Control tracks almost every step in the cannabis pipeline. Weed manufacturers even have to report how many pounds of plant trimmings they throw away.
Research scientist Hung Liu runs tests at the Department of Cannabis Control laboratory in Richmond, Calif., in January. Labs are looking for contaminants such as illegal pesticides and heavy metals.
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Preston Gannaway for NPR
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The department's lab in Richmond, near San Francisco, leads the state-licensed labs. It uses sensitive machines to test for hundreds of contaminants, setting standards and helping law enforcement with investigations involving the illicit marijuana market.
And as the California cannabis industry has evolved, the lab has had to keep up, finding ways to test everything from gummies to hard candies to beverages to popcorn.
"There's all kinds of things that people are infusing with cannabinoids that we have to be able to extract them out of to then declare if it is accurately labeled" or that the labeled dosage is accurate," says Antonio Frazier, branch chief for the department's Laboratory Services Division. "It's a very interesting industry and I love it because you see so much ingenuity. I mean, you're seeing really creative products out there."
Over the last five years, the legal cannabis market has gotten a lot cleaner, especially compared to what he's seen in the illicit market.
"We see the levels of illegal pesticides that are 10, 100 times the actual limit coming from the illicit market," he says. The DCC has also occasionally found fentanyl in non-regulated cannabis products.
A research scientist measures water activity in a flower sample at a Department of Cannabis Control lab.
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Preston Gannaway for NPR
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In other words, it's still safer to buy regulated weed than illicit weed – even though regulated weed is more expensive.
None of Vibe Cultivators' products have ever been recalled. Brian Pritchard says the regulation is doing its job, which helps him do his job.
"I don't have to sneak in at midnight to get my work done anymore," he says. "It's a major improvement. The only people that are going to complain about it [are] the people who are doing stuff wrong."
A group of frogs piles on top of one another in a tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, where they are being raised before being released into the local mountains, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026.
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Thomas R. Cordova
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Long Beach Post
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Topline:
A program at Aquarium of the Pacific has nearly closed out its fifth year with a major milestone: more than 1,000 frogs raised and released into the wild.
The backstory: By the time the mountain yellow-legged frogs was listed under the federal Endangered Species Act in 2002, fewer than 100 adults remained in Southern California. A count in 2020 put the number at about 188 in the wild, though biologists say that figure has almost certainly shifted since.
Why that matters: That’s more than five times as many mountain yellow-legged frogs — named for the lemon-hued streak along their hind legs — believed to be in the wild when last recorded in 2019, reduced to small pockets of wild streams in the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains.
Inside three water tanks in a tucked-away room at the Aquarium of the Pacific, biologists are tasked with bringing back a population of frogs that once thrived across the state’s mountainous streams but has since reached the brink of extinction.
It’s a program that’s nearly closed out its fifth year with a major milestone: more than 1,000 frogs raised and released into the wild.
That’s more than five times as many mountain yellow-legged frogs — named for the lemon-hued streak along their hind legs — believed to be in the wild when last recorded in 2019, reduced to small pockets of wild streams in the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains. By the time the frog was listed under the federal Endangered Species Act in 2002, fewer than 100 adults remained in Southern California. A count in 2020 put the number at about 188 in the wild, though biologists say that figure has almost certainly shifted since.
The species’ collapse is tied to a compounding list of threats: wildfire, mudslides, pesticides, fungal disease, habitat loss and the appetites of non-native trout, bullfrogs and crayfish. It’s a decline so severe that biologists consider the species among the rarest vertebrates on Earth.
Staff at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach are working to change that math, one tadpole at a time.
In the latest release, about 653 of the endangered frogs were returned to their native mountain habitat by staff from the Aquarium of the Pacific, the Los Angeles Zoo and the U.S. Geological Survey. Of those, 394 had been head-started at the aquarium — its largest release of the species yet, bringing its total to 1,032.
The frogs were bred at the Los Angeles Zoo’s breeding program, then transferred to Long Beach as tadpoles, where aquarium staff reared them through metamorphosis into froglets and frogs. The process typically takes one to two years, though the species can remain in its tadpole stage for up to five years, making a given frog’s age something of a mystery even to the people who raised it.
A tadpole chills by the rocks in a tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific, where it is being raised before being released into the local mountains, Tuesday, Sept., 15, 2026
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Thomas R. Cordova.
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Long Beach Post
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Inside the aquarium, the water is engineered to mimic the mountains it’s standing in — kept near 60 degrees in summer, the temperature currently found in the streams the frogs call home, and cooled to around 52 degrees in winter, with reduced UV exposure to simulate the season’s shorter, dimmer days.
The aquarium’s involvement began in 2021, in the aftermath of the 2020 Bobcat Fire, which tore through the central San Gabriel Mountains and destroyed an estimated 95% of the frog’s remaining usable habitat.
“They had salvaged some tadpoles from the fire-impacted areas, and they ended up bringing a handful of them here,” said Erin Lundy, with the aquarium’s conservation team. “And then we also had some captive-bred ones from the L.A. Zoo that year, and that was our first group.”
Since then, the team has expanded to include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which help monitor populations and oversee releases.
Erin Lundy from the Aquarium of the Pacific looks into a tank at frogs as she gets them ready to be released into the local mountains Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026
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Thomas R. Cordova
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Long Beach Post
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As the aquarium’s tadpole numbers have grown, some are now sent to the Santa Ana Zoo each October to continue growing until they’re ready for reintroduction. Frogs are carefully separated by genetics and population of origin, so each can be released back into its native range and preserve healthy genetic lines.
“I think that we have some responsibility to give the animals the best chance that they could possibly have,” Lundy said, “but this is certainly a species that without a good amount of human intervention would not exist to this day.”
Much of the aquarium’s work is now focused on an even more elusive threat than fire: chytrid fungus, a microscopic pathogen that attacks the keratin in amphibian skin, blocking the salt absorption frogs rely on and eventually causing cardiac arrest. It has driven amphibian populations to collapse worldwide, and mountain yellow-legged frogs appear especially vulnerable to it.
“Some amphibian species over time have developed a resistance to chytrid, and so part of the intention of growing so many animals is hoping to find what gene that is that introduces some chytrid resistance,” Lundy said. Researchers are testing whether frogs can be inoculated before release, or whether introducing different microbes to their skin might help them fend off the fungus on their own.
Tadpoles swim in a tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific as they are raised before being released into the local mountains, Tuesday, Sept., 15, 2026
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Thomas R. Cordova
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Long Beach Post
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Lundy has now been on three of the aquarium’s release trips, watching frogs she has cared for — some for years — carried up into the mountains and set loose into the streams they were bred to repopulate. It is, she says, a strange kind of joy.
“It’s a little bittersweet because, oh no, I’ve been taking care of you for so long, but that is the point, so it feels a little bit like Christmas Day,” Lundy said.
Not every frog leaves the same way. Some, she said, shoot off into the current without so much as a pause. Others linger at the water’s edge beside her for a few minutes before finally disappearing beneath the surface.
“Almost feels like they’re saying goodbye,” she said.
Manny Valladares
is always looking for the next tasty bite to feature on "AirTalk" Food Friday on LAist 89.3.
Published September 18, 2026 3:37 PM
The Keno's Anaheim Hills location opened in 1980, but wouldn't become an established fixture locally until 1983.
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Courtesy Greg Rogers
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Top line:
Keno's Restaurant in Anaheim Hills blends classic steakhouse vibes with a cafe twist — and it's a place you can find a 15-pound burrito on the menu. That's right, 15 pounds.
The vibes: You can experience the cafe, with a bustling diner feel, or you can step into their steakhouse, which has a fireplace inspired by the Peppermill in Las Vegas.
Live event programming: Along with the Rat Pack-era interior, they also have plenty of live music to check out in the evenings. Your dinner and a show could include artists like a Frank Sinatra cover artist or a more general acoustic set.
15-pound burrito: Keno's serves up lots of traditional menu items like a Monte Cristo or chicken sandwich, but you can also find a 15-pound burrito and a 32-ounce Tomahawk steak.
Keno’s in Anaheim Hills — lively steakhouse meets cafe
Keno’s Restaurant in Anaheim Hills is a family-run business with a vintage feel — and a 15-pound burrito on the menu.
General Manager Shauna Reyes joined Austin Cross on AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show, to talk about what customers can expect at the decades-old steakhouse that has a cafe twist.
About the owners
Vintage photos of Keno's, back when it first opened, and was a 24-hour restaurant.
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Courtesy Greg Rogers
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Keno's originally opened in 1972, gaining enough popularity to expand into a small chain of restaurants. Gus Cooper helped build and operate the Anaheim Hills location since its opening in 1980. The Anaheim Hills location eventually changed hands to Gus' nephew, Steve Cooper, in 1993. Steve Cooper and his family have been running Keno's ever since.
What it's like being a Keno's customer
Photo of Keno's lounge and steakhouse section.
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Courtesy Greg Rogers
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According to Reyes, the ambiance and customer connections are what set Keno's apart.
You can experience the cafe, with a bustling diner feel, or step into their steakhouse, which has a fireplace Reyes says was inspired by the Peppermill in Las Vegas.
Address: 5750 E La Palma Ave, Anaheim Hills, CA 92807
Hours: Sunday – Thursday, open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Cost: The Lumberjack breakfast costs $23; the Monte Cristo costs $17.79; the California Chicken Sandwich costs $17.49; the 32-ounce Tomahawk steak costs $80.
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Uber must pay $40 million to the parents of a woman who was struck and killed after an Uber driver left her on an Orange County freeway in 2023, an arbitrator has ruled.
About the case: On Aug. 12, 2023, Uber driver Vu Tran picked up Emily Normandin-Parker and her friend, Luna Moore, from a bar. When Moore started throwing up in the car, Tran stopped at a gore point — the small, triangular area at the off-ramp — on State Route 73. As Tran and Moore argued, Normandin-Parker, 23, was struck and killed after wandering into traffic because she was inebriated, according to the ruling. Normandin-Parker’s parents and Moore sued Tran and Uber in Orange County Superior Court in September 2023, and the parties agreed to arbitration. Richard Stone, a retired judge who served as the arbitrator, wrote that it was hard to determine exactly what happened because the testimony of both Moore and Tran were not entirely credible. Stone awarded Normandin-Parker’s parents, Carol Normandin and Ken Parker, $20 million each, and Moore $300,000.
Uber's response: The arbitrator rejected Uber’s arguments that California’s Proposition 22 — a voter-approved law written by Uber and other gig companies that cemented drivers’ status as independent contractors, not employees — shields it from liability for a driver’s actions. Stone wrote that when California voters passed Prop. 22 in 2020, they could not have intended to do away with Uber’s liability for its drivers’ actions. He noted that the language in the ballot proposition urging voters to approve it referred to classifying drivers as independent contractors, meaning they would not get standard benefits and protections like employees would. Uber spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada told CalMatters that the company disagrees with the decision.
Uber must pay $40 million to the parents of a woman who was struck and killed after an Uber driver left her on an Orange County freeway in 2023, an arbitrator has ruled.
The arbitrator rejected Uber’s arguments that California’s Proposition 22 — a voter-approved law written by Uber and other gig companies that cemented drivers’ status as independent contractors, not employees — shields it from liability for a driver’s actions.
“Prop. 22 does not immunize Uber from vicarious liability” for the wrongdoing of its drivers, Richard Stone, a retired judge who served as the arbitrator, wrote in his July arbitration award. Vicarious liability is indirect liability for the actions of another, such as in instances where the parties have a legal relationship.
In his earlier ruling in March, Stone wrote that when California voters passed Prop. 22 in 2020, they could not have intended to do away with Uber’s liability for its drivers’ actions. He noted that the language in the ballot proposition urging voters to approve it referred to classifying drivers as independent contractors, meaning they would not get standard benefits and protections like employees would.
“There is no reference in key voter materials to the liability of app-based transportation companies,” Stone wrote. “Not a word.”
On Aug. 12, 2023, Uber driver Vu Tran picked up Emily Normandin-Parker and her friend, Luna Moore, from a bar. When Moore started throwing up in the car, Tran stopped at a gore point — the small, triangular area at the off-ramp — on State Route 73. As Tran and Moore argued, Normandin-Parker, 23, was struck and killed after wandering into traffic because she was inebriated, according to the ruling. Stone wrote that it was hard to determine exactly what happened because the testimony of both Moore and Tran were not entirely credible.
Normandin-Parker’s parents and Moore sued Tran and Uber in Orange County Superior Court in September 2023, and the parties agreed to arbitration. Stone awarded Normandin-Parker’s parents, Carol Normandin and Ken Parker, $20 million each, and Moore $300,000.
Uber reported revenue of more than $14 billion and net income of more than $2 billion in its second quarter that ended in June.
Uber spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada told CalMatters that the company disagrees with the decision.
“We believe the arbitrator was wrong in holding Uber legally responsible for the tragic events of that night,” she said, citing Prop. 22. Uber, along with companies such as DoorDash, Lyft and Instacart, spent more than $200 million on the ballot initiative.
She also said the company’s “thoughts continue to be with the Normandin-Parker family.”
Parker pushed back on what he called a spin campaign by Uber, noting that the company tried to keep them from talking about the arbitrator’s award.
“Their thoughts have never been with us,” he told CalMatters on Thursday, the day he and Normandin appeared on Good Morning America to discuss the case and the death of their daughter, a UCLA graduate.
Parker said Uber has never apologized or acknowledged responsibility, and that throughout the arbitration process the company was “at best aloof and at worst distastefully crass.”
In a November filing, the company argued the incident “was the result of Moore and Normandin-Parker’s extreme intoxication, which was existent because of Moore’s and Normandin-Parker’s intentional conduct — not Tran’s driving.”
The award will help fund the Emily Normandin-Parker Foundation, which her parents created last year. Part of the foundation’s mission will be to hold corporations accountable, particularly in the ride-hailing industry, Parker said. He said that might come through advocacy in legislation, regulations or the “court of public opinion.”
The arbitrator also rejected Uber’s argument that it is not a common carrier that transports people or goods, but a transportation network company because it’s licensed as such by the Public Utilities Code. Stone wrote that Uber could be subject to both public utility rules and a non-transferable legal duty for safety as a common carrier at the same time, citing other cases in which the company was deemed to be a common carrier. Further, he said another California law, Proposition 51, does not apply in this case. Prop. 51 limits liability for non-economic damages to a defendant’s proportionate share of fault. Stone said Uber is 100% responsible for the driver’s actions.
Lawyers for Normandin-Parker’s parents said evidence presented during the arbitration showed Uber had received previous complaints about Tran's driving.
Uber said in a filing that Tran had a valid driver’s license and passed its background check, and that the company had no duty to train Tran beyond that because he was an independent contractor. The company spokesperson said this week that Tran, who can no longer drive for Uber, had completed thousands of trips without any unsafe drop-offs, freeway stops or rider injury.
CalMatters contacted the law firm that represented Tran but did not immediately receive a response.
Stone wrote that he hopes Uber “will learn from this tragic incident … and change the pertinent policies and procedures accordingly. Should it fail to do so, it no doubt engages in that approach at its own substantial risk.”
Makenna Cramer
helps cover the housing and homelessness challenges confronting some of our most vulnerable residents.
Published September 18, 2026 1:23 PM
Makeshift tents line 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles.
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Megan Garvey
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LAist
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Topline:
Several L.A.-area organizations who serve survivors of domestic violence and people experiencing homelessness say a legal dispute over federal homelessness funding is holding critical dollars hostage.
What’s happening: Groups, now forced to cover up to millions of dollars in annual grant agreements, are running out of reserves, cutting staffing and relying on private donations to keep people housed and services running.
Why it matters: “If these contracts don't get executed, if HUD doesn't start to reimburse agencies quickly … we're going to see more suffering on the street,” said Myong Kim, chief program officer at the Downtown Women’s Center. “It's going to be more tangible and more visible.”
Why the delay? The organizations have had contracts stalled for months in a legal back-and-forth between the Trump administration and the region’s top homeless services agency, which has some programs starving for money.
Read on… for details about the ongoing legal battle and how local providers are faring.
Several Los Angeles-area organizations that serve survivors of domestic violence and people experiencing homelessness say a legal dispute over federal homelessness funding is holding critical dollars hostage.
Groups, now forced to cover up to millions of dollars in annual grant agreements, are running out of reserves, cutting staffing and relying on private donations to keep people housed and services running.
The organizations have had contracts stalled for months in a legal back-and-forth between the Trump administration and the region’s top homeless services agency, which has some programs starving for money.
“If these contracts don't get executed, if HUD doesn't start to reimburse agencies quickly … we're going to see more suffering on the street,” said Myong Kim, chief program officer at the Downtown Women’s Center. “It's going to be more tangible and more visible.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development told LAist it's not currently required to execute grant agreements after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency stay while it decides on HUD’s appeal in the coming weeks.
“HUD stands by its commitment and legal right not to continue supporting LAHSA, which even Judge [David O.] Carter and Mayor Karen Bass have acknowledged is an abject failure and riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The region's top homeless services agency, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, told LAist that it’s not backing down and is actively pursuing legal remedies to force the federal government to honor its commitments.
“Frontline providers have kept lifesaving programs running for months without compensation,” spokesperson Chris Yee said in an email. “Releasing these federal funds is essential to maintaining their operations and protecting services for people who rely on these critical programs.”
Overall, HUD delays are expected to affect more than 50 local service providers, with the bulk of their renewal grants expiring in the next three months, according to LAHSA. Dozens of grants could be affected by the end of this year, totaling nearly $65 million.
A fight over who controls funding
The situation facing these providers is part of a broader delay with HUD's execution of FY2025 Continuum of Care grants, which has affected groups in other parts of the country, such as Ohio.
More than 1,300 of the FY2025 Continuum of Care renewal grant agreements — about one in five — had not been fully executed as of Monday, according to court documents reviewed by LAist. That includes more than 400 agreements that had not been issued by HUD.
But the L.A. grants are not just facing bureaucratic delays — they’ve become entangled in a fight over who controls the region’s federal homelessness funding.
That’s when U.S. District Judge David O. Carter issued an order that, among other things, named a dozen service providers for which HUD has failed to execute grant agreements after getting award letters earlier this year. He wrote that the delays leave them without the funds they need to continue operating.
Carter ordered HUD to execute those signed agreements immediately. But about a month later, the order was paused by the Ninth Circuit.
HUD applauds the Ninth Circuit for granting an emergency stay in the case to hold LAHSA accountable.
This is a win for taxpayers and a step in the right direction to funding real results.
The Trump Administration will continue to make a strong case to protect HUD’s ability to…
“We expected HUD to immediately execute our grant agreements in compliance with Judge Carter's order,” said Jessica Reed, LAHSA’s director of Continuum of Care, during a LAHSA Commission committee meeting Wednesday. “Obviously, the appeal [by HUD] has continued to hold that up.”
LAist reached out to all 12 organizations named in the order, and several said they’re getting stuck in the middle of the legal dispute.
Groups in limbo for months
House of Ruth in Pomona, a roughly 50-year-old domestic violence agency that offers crisis, outreach, housing and legal services, has a roughly $286,000 grant tied up in the litigation, according to Pat Bell, CEO. The grant, which hasn’t been executed since April, pays for the organization’s transitional housing shelter.
Bell said LAHSA has told her an executed contract was unlikely to come anytime soon, forcing House of Ruth to float the funds in the meantime. The organization is now reducing staffing for its transitional shelter, including layoffs and cutting hours, according to Bell.
“We have six months of paychecks going out to the staff that are providing the transitional shelter services without any reimbursement,” Bell said.
“It[‘s] causing us to fall behind. … We've drained our cash reserves. I'm talking right now to banks about securing a line of credit. It's just enormously stressful for us on a frontline level.”
— Pat Bell, CEO of House of Ruth
House of Ruth is not an isolated example.
The Downtown Women’s Center based in Skid Row, which provides housing, employment and mental health services to survivors of violence experiencing homelessness, has been waiting on a $3.5 million annual contract since July, according to Kim, the chief program officer. The renewal contract supports rent payments for survivors of domestic violence, she said.
The Downtown Women’s Center has been covering about $150,000 a month in costs with private donations since then, but Kim noted that’s “not going to last forever.”
“In the midst of all the politics, and in the midst of all the back and forth, we really need to remember that these are individual lives — women, their children, their dependents — that are at risk and that are counting on us to move things forward,” Kim said.
‘Wreaking havoc’
The People Concern, an L.A. County nonprofit that provides housing and services to people experiencing homelessness and survivors of domestic violence, has two outstanding contracts for a little more than $2.2 million combined, according to John Maceri, CEO. He said a few other contracts that are set to end in the coming months could also be affected, bringing the total to about $3.3 million.
The People Concern is relying on donations and reserves, but Maceri said cash flow is a particularly big challenge, and it’s “really wreaking havoc in the system.”
He said they’re approaching an untenable situation.
“Ultimately, the people who are hurt are the people that we're serving. Because at some point, organizations cannot continue to finance debt."
— John Maceri, CEO of The People Concern
“Ultimately, the people who are hurt are the people that we're serving,” Maceri said. “Because at some point, organizations cannot continue to finance debt.”
Eli Veitzer, CEO, said the organization is tapping into its reserves to cover the roughly $300,000 portion of annual costs to keep the shelter open until at least next summer. But that can’t be a long-term solution, he noted.
Veitzer said LAHSA has fallen short in critical ways, but blocking funding to the agency without another path for service providers “essentially shuts down the system.”
“HUD hasn't proposed an alternative method for getting these funds to the providers and the clients who need those services, and that's the part that is the most upsetting,” Veitzer said. “There's a complete disregard for the impact of the people in L.A. County who need these services desperately, and who benefit from these services.”
Why it matters
Scott Cummings, a professor of legal ethics at the UCLA School of Law, told LAist it’s not unusual to seek a stay after an order like Carter’s. But litigation takes time, and the programs are effectively put on hold while it’s worked out in court.
“There are short-term wins for the [Trump] administration in just playing this delay game,” Cummings said. “The delay can actually last a long time, and in the meantime, the programs are suffering, and the people they're serving are suffering.”
L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath commented on the contracts in Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting, saying: “A top concern is the 2025 LAHSA COC contracts that HUD is refusing to execute, although those programs are already operating without funding.”
The Ninth Circuit is expected to hear arguments next Tuesday, according to court documents, and Carter has scheduled a status conference for the week after.
