The Brief

Los Angeles County is making progress on bringing dozens of new mental health beds and supportive housing units to the expansive Metropolitan State Hospital campus in Norwalk.

Run by the state, the psychiatric hospital opened in 1916 and at its peak housed thousands of patients. These days there are only about 800 patients there. With its 162 acres, tree-lined pathways, and boarded up buildings, the place looks like an abandoned city.

An aerial view of Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk.

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Bryan Chan / L.A. County

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At a meeting last month, county supervisors voted to sign off on a lease with the state for a portion of the campus. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill last year that cleared the way for the lease.

Now the county plans to begin renovating two of the decaying buildings to make way for 32 treatment beds, thanks to $65 million in Proposition 1 funding from the state.

“We are facing a crisis," said Kyla Coates, senior justice and mental health deputy for Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office. "We cannot have unused empty buildings that are government-owned sitting around. We need to renovate them, reuse them and turn them into places where we can really provide care to those who need it.”

The Metropolitan State Hospital campus.

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Courtesy Supervisor Hahn's office

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Hahn’s office said the Prop 1 funding would allow for the renovation of two buildings on the campus, each housing 16 subacute beds in a locked setting, for a total of 32.

Why 16 beds each? That’s because of a federal law that dates back to the 1960s which had the intent of getting states to move away from the large asylums of the time, some of which had become notorious for inhumane treatment. Known as the Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) exclusion, it bars any facility focused on treating adults with mental illness from receiving Medicaid dollars if it has more than 16 beds.

How severe is the need?

The so-called subacute beds the county plans to build out are the “most urgent resource need” for the county to address the ongoing behavioral health crisis, according to a February 2024 report from a consulting agency hired by the county.

Estimates vary, but many experts say L.A. County needs hundreds more beds at this treatment level to meet the needs of residents living with serious mental illness.

In all, the plan is to renovate six buildings on the Metropolitan State Hospital Campus, with 50 one-bedroom apartments for permanent supportive housing and 70 interim one-bedroom apartments for people who have mental health needs.

The concept, several years in the making, would allow for what Coates calls a “state of the art mental health community,” where people could move from more intensive treatment to housing all within the same campus.

“This courtyard space is beautiful. We have visions to have outside space where people can gather, watch outside movies, exercise, garden,” Coates told LAist.

Inside one of the buildings at Metro State Hospital.

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Courtesy Supervisor Hahn's office

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Coates said some of the buildings have large windows that she hopes will let a lot of light into large indoor communal spaces. She added that steps will also be taken to preserve the architectural features of the buildings, which have historical landmark status.

Concerns from mental health advocates

“I’m happy that the unused land is being put to use,” Vanessa Ramos of Disability Rights California told LAist.

But Ramos, who has a schizoaffective diagnosis, said she is concerned about transparency any time people are committed institutionally. And Ramos worries that people could languish in a hospitalized setting, so she would like to see the county prioritize the supportive housing on the campus.

“What I would like to see out of the unused land at Metro is for there to really be pairing of treatment beds one-to-one with step down supports, so that there isn’t an influx of these [locked] beds without a place for people to exit to,” Ramos said.

“The stigma is that people living with mental health disabilities don’t recover. And we know that we do recover. We know that people can manage life outside of hospitalization," Ramos added.

In an email, Eve Garrow, Senior Policy Analyst & Advocate with the ACLU of Southern California, said there are also concerns from disability rights advocates that settings like Metropolitan State Hospital could cordon people off from the surrounding community.

“Segregation separates people from their communities, creates an institutional environment that can quickly slip into a culture of discipline and control, and underscores the perceived ‘otherness’ of people with disabilities," Garrow said.

Responding to these concerns, Coates pointed out that the campus is walking distance from bus stops and restaurants and that its location in Norwalk would allow people to access the larger community when they want to.

The county plans to begin construction at the campus next year.

Los Angeles’ regional homelessness agency is working to find ways to keep thousands of people in their homes, while complying with new federal funding restrictions on permanent housing.

The governing board for the L.A. Homeless Services Authority voted Monday to start the process of reallocating about $130 million in federal funding currently being spent on permanent housing to other projects meant to serve unhoused Angelenos.

Because of new funding restrictions from the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development, known as HUD, about 5,000 households in the county will lose their rental subsidies, according to several LAHSA officials who spoke at a commission meeting Monday.

Those changes, along with state and county funding shortfalls for homeless services, threaten to drastically worsen the region’s homelessness crisis, they said.

"The fact of the matter is there’s going to be a tremendous and terrible impact on people, on agencies, on landlords,” said Nathaniel VerGow, LAHSA’s chief program officer.

Officials said they’re scrambling to maximize federal funding under the new guidelines while also advocating against the new HUD policy.

“It is a cliff and it feels catastrophic, but I think it forces us as a region to figure out how to save ourselves,” LAHSA Commission Chair Amber Sheikh said.

The funding challenge

Most federal homelessness dollars flow into the L.A. region through the Continuum of Care program, managed by HUD.

The Los Angeles region is eligible for more than $260 million in federal funding under that program in the coming fiscal year, including $217 million for existing projects.

But no more than 30% of those funds can go toward permanent housing projects, according to a “notice of funding opportunity” HUD issued last month.

That’s a challenge for L.A. County, because 90% of regional HUD funds currently cover people’s rent, according to LASHA officials.

Instead, L.A. and other cities and counties must spend the bulk of their federal funds on other interventions, including transitional housing and street outreach.

HUD officials have said the policy is meant to encourage self-sufficiency.

At Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Justin Szlasa urged his colleagues to consider larger funding trends.

“ There's actually a 23% increase in available funding from HUD, the federal government,” he said. “It just doesn't work with the way that we normally have done things here.”

“We need to find, in this crisis, a way to be constructive about this,” Szlasa added.

HUD policy changes

HUD released its new notice of funding opportunity last month and rescinded a previous two-year funding agreement.

Opponents have concerns with the federal housing department’s move away from “housing first” approaches. They also said HUD rolled out the changes without providing enough time to prepare service providers and clients for disruptions.

Last week, 21 states, including California, sued HUD, claiming the new federal policies “essentially guarantee that tens of thousands of formerly homeless individuals and families will be evicted back into homelessness.”

This week, a group of cities and homelessness organizations also sued over the changes. Plaintiffs include the city and county of San Francisco. The Continuum of Care for San Francisco was awarded $56 million in federal funding for Fiscal Year 2024.

Approximately 91% of that funding supports permanent housing projects, according to the complaint.

What’s next?

The LAHSA Commission voted Monday to approve its request for applications for existing and new projects.

Providers must submit applications to LAHSA over the next two weeks, and LAHSA has until Jan. 14 to craft and submit a new application to HUD.

The agency is now talking with 130 contractors about the transition.

LAHSA is also working with some permanent supportive housing providers to convert their programs to transitional housing instead, officials said.

People who were in permanent housing projects aren’t eligible for transitional housing under HUD’s guidelines because they're not considered unhoused, VerGow said.

The commission also reviewed a policy for ranking project applications and prioritizing them for federal funding. Officials said that policy has to be approved at a LAHSA Commission subcommittee on Dec. 10.

Funds are expected to be awarded in May 2026.

LOS ANGELES — As the season of Advent begins, many Christians turn toward quiet reflection and preparation for Christmas. But in several Southern California congregations with large immigrant communities, that sacred anticipation is shadowed by a looming sense of fear.

For worshippers like Mike, an Iranian asylum-seeker who attends a West Los Angeles church, the weeks leading up to Christmas feel less like a spiritual refuge and more like a time of apprehension. He asked that only the anglicized version of his Farsi name be used because he fears speaking publicly could affect his immigration case. He fled Iran after converting to Christianity.

"I kept this secret, my faith as a secret, for like 12 years," he said.

Mike arrived in Los Angeles 18 months ago and says he has tried to build a life rooted in community and respect for his new home. But a series of immigration enforcement actions in the region — including the June arrests of two men outside a nearby church with a large Iranian membership — has shaken him.

"Even church is not safe because it's a public place," he said. "They can get there and catch you."

The Department of Homeland Security says enforcement actions at churches require secondary approval and are expected to be rare. Still, the concern is real inside Mike's congregation, where church leaders asked that the name of the church not be published.

A significant number of Iranian parishioners worship there, and the pastor often invites them to pray in Farsi during services. Lately, fewer take her up on the offer.

"It's part of the heartbreak of these days," the pastor said. "They feel like they have to be apprehensive about it — not even wanting to speak in their own language here."

She said the fear is especially painful during Advent, a season she describes as a time to prepare to "give thanks for this God we have who wants to be with us."

Room at the inn, despite fears

East of Los Angeles, at Baldwin Park United Methodist Church, Pastor Toña Rios unzips a red tent pitched in the middle of the sanctuary. For years, the church took in newly arrived immigrants, providing a place to sleep while they looked for work and housing.

The tent remains as a reminder of that welcome — and of the fears many congregants now carry. Rios estimates that about 80% of her church members are immigrants and says many don't have legal status.

"A lot of them say, 'Don't open the door. Just close the door,'" she said.

Rios urges a different posture, especially during Advent. She uses the tent to help her congregation imagine being the ones who offer shelter, not shut others out.

"It is very hard," she said. "But Jesus is going to be born in our heart. That's why we need to be prepared."

For longtime church member Royi Lopez, the sense of vulnerability goes beyond immigration status. Lopez is a U.S. citizen but says she often feels targeted because she is Latina. Many of her relatives are undocumented, and she worries constantly about them.

"What if on my way to church, they catch us?" she said. "On a daily basis, we're scared of going to the school, to work, to church, to even the grocery store."

Lopez says that during Advent, these fears remind her of the Christmas story itself — of Mary and Joseph searching for somewhere to stay, turned away again and again until somebody finally took them in.

"Even though so many doors were closed, somebody opened a door," she said.

That theme of welcome runs through the hymn chosen for every Sunday of Advent at Baldwin Park United Methodist Church, "All Earth is Hopeful." Its lyrics speak of a world longing for liberation, where people labor to "see how God's truth and justice set everybody free."
Copyright 2025 NPR

The Supreme Court today is hearing a billion-dollar case about whether internet providers can be liable for their users' committing copyright violations using their services.

The legal battle pits the music entertainment industry against Cox Communications, which provides internet to over 6 million residences and business.

A coalition of music labels, which represent artists such as Sabrina Carpenter, Givēon and Doechii, sued Cox alleging that company should be responsible for the copyright violations of internet users that Cox had been warned were serial copyright abusers.

The coalition argues Cox was sent numerous notices of specific IP addresses repeatedly violating music copyrights and that Cox's failure to terminate those IP addresses from internet access means that Cox should face the music.

In its briefs, the coalition argued many of Cox's anti-infringement measurements seem superficial and the company willingly overlooked violations.

The coalition points out that Cox had a 13-strike policy for potentially terminating infringing customers, under which Cox acted against a customer based on how many complaints it received about a particular user. The Cox manager who oversaw the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the law at issue in this case, told his team to "F the dmca!!!"

"Cox made a deliberate and egregious decision to elevate its own profits over compliance with the law," the coalition asserts.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and a jury agreed with the coalition, with the jury awarding the coalition more than a billion dollars in damages.

Cox argues it should not be liable for its customers' actions as it never encouraged the copyright infringements, its terms of service prohibit illegal activities, and it does not make additional money when customers use its internet to infringe on copyrights.

In its briefs, Cox specified that less than 1% of its users infringe on music copyrights and that its internal compliance measures "got 95% of that less than 1% to stop." It asserts that if the Supreme Court does not side with them, then "that means terminating entire households, coffee shops, hospitals, universities and even regional internet service providers (ISPs) — the internet lifeline for tens of thousands of homes and businesses — merely because some unidentified person was previously alleged to have used the connection to infringe."

A decision in the case is expected this summer.

Copyright 2025 NPR