The Brief

In the fall of 2018, California’s voters were determined to make a dent in the state’s rapidly escalating homelessness crisis. By a wide margin, they supported a ballot measure sold as No Place Like Home, which promised to use taxpayer money earmarked for mental health treatment to pay for a $2 billion housing bond.

Voters who read the Yes campaign’s description of the measure that November saw a bold promise: 20,000 new units of permanent supportive housing.

More than five years later, the state has completed just 1,797 No Place Like Home units.

As Californians prepare to vote next month on Proposition 1, which includes another multi-billion dollar plan to build affordable housing with intensive services attached, the story of No Place Like Home may serve as something of a cautionary tale. It’s a case study of big promises, good intentions and urgent need caught in a tangle of NIMBYism and red tape.

Projects that would be funded by Prop. 1 — which, among other things, would issue $6.4 billion in bonds to pay for 4,350 units of supportive housing and 6,800 mental health treatment beds — could face some of the same hurdles that have delayed the construction of No Place Like Home units, developers and local officials say. Voters happy to agree with the concept of housing homeless people have killed proposals to build such housing in their own neighborhoods. Complicated financing rules and restrictions have delayed other projects, sometimes for years.

Meanwhile, since No Place Like Home passed, the state’s unhoused population has shot up by 40%, and is now estimated to include more than 181,000 Californians.

“Look what’s happening. We’re losing,” said Dr. Jonathan Sherin, former behavioral health director of Los Angeles County, who points not just to No Place Like Home, but to a couple of big Los Angeles ballot measures — Measure H in 2017 and Proposition HHH in 2016 — and now to Prop. 1.

“I’m not disparaging the people or their intentions,” he said. “The systems are antiquated. They’re archaic. They’re impossible to move quickly.”

Molly Weedn, a spokesperson for the Yes On Prop. 1 campaign, said in an email that the new measure would inject money into “proven, successful housing programs” and that there were provisions in the measure to speed up development.

No Place Like Home units are specifically for people with serious mental illnesses who are homeless; as part of the law, counties are required to provide the residents of these units with mental health and substance use treatment for a minimum of 20 years.

The pledge to use bond money to build 20,000 supportive housing units can be traced to a 2018 Legislative Analyst’s Office report, which estimated “half of the units would likely be completed within five years.” An analyst told CalMatters that estimate included other sources of affordable housing money, not just the $2 billion proposed by No Place Like Home. Key supporters of the measure who circulated the number widely in 2018 — and cited it in their arguments in the state’s official voter guide — did not return requests for comment.

Protesters Natalie Conrad and Debi Davis try to engage with pedestrians during a “Vote No on Prop. 1” protest on the west steps of the Capitol on Feb. 1, 2024.

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Fred Greaves

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The California Department of Housing and Community Development, which administers the bond revenue, refused to make someone available for an on-the-record interview. Christina DiFrancesco, a program specialist for the department, said via email that the department developed an estimated number of units only after the ballot measure passed. That estimate is in line with the department’s current forecast that No Place Like Home money will wind up funding a total of 7,702 such units.

The developments that house these units are paid for with No Place Like Home funding and other types of federal, state and local funding. They generally contain a mix of No Place Like Home units and other sorts of affordable housing. So far, in addition to the permanent supportive housing units, No Place Like Home has indirectly supported the construction of an additional 2,332 affordable housing units, though these do not necessarily have services attached.

DiFrancesco said the department provides incentives to developers to start construction as soon as possible, and sets deadlines for lining up financing and for leasing units. All of the No Place Like Home funds have been disbursed to counties since 2022, department representatives said, and construction is picking up pace.

People who have been housed as a result of No Place Like Home have had their lives transformed.

But the urgency with which dollars have been turned into housing simply doesn’t match the reality of the pain and suffering of people living on the streets with severe mental illnesses, said Kevin de León, who carried the original No Place Like Home legislation when he served as the state’s Senate president pro tem.

“I feel that we’ve moved at a snail’s pace,” said de León, now a Los Angeles city council member. “We have to raise the bar because people are dying on the streets as we speak.”

A fateful trip to Skid Row

De León and Darrell Steinberg, who focused on mental health policy during his years in the Legislature and is now mayor of Sacramento, dreamed up No Place Like Home after a visit to Skid Row in 2015.

Their heads spinning after meeting with advocates, service providers and city officials, the two legislative powerhouses sat down in a café. They started sketching out a vision on a napkin: Could unspent state mental health revenue be used to construct and rehabilitate housing for people with severe mental illnesses?

Skid Row. (James Bernal for KPCC)

Steinberg had co-authored the Mental Health Services Act, a 1% tax on income over $1 million that voters passed in 2004 to improve the state’s struggling mental health system. He had been trying, unsuccessfully, for a decade to use some of that money for a housing bond, he said. In essence, the state would ask investors to loan the money upfront, then would use the Mental Health Services Act money to pay it off over time.

The proposal he and de León dreamed up in the café would prove controversial once they introduced it in early 2016 – some counties and mental health advocates opposed the idea of paying off a housing bond with funds designated for mental health services.

The Legislature that year was just awakening to the growing crisis on the streets, said Craig Cornett, the budget and finance director for the state Senate at the time, who helped craft the proposal to bring many early opponents on board. With strong bipartisan support, the Legislature passed No Place Like Home and then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed it in 2016.

“We will no longer turn a blind eye to the needless suffering that is so clearly displayed on our streets,” Steinberg said at the time.

That November attorney Mary Ann Bernard filed a lawsuit to stop the legislation, arguing that it would be illegal to divert the money to housing from treatment programs.

To avoid litigation, Brown and legislators put No Place Like Home on the ballot.

In November 2018, 63% of voters marked yes.

Challenge One: How to pay for mental health housing

 Today, Steinberg is measured in his critique of the rollout of the policy. He describes it as successful, “the right initiative” and “the right policy.”

But he agrees that speed obviously matters.

“The consistent frustration is the amount of time it takes to go from bold policy vision and new ideas to implementation,” he said. “We all want it to go faster. I certainly do.”

What, exactly, has taken so long?

The pandemic — which hit a little over a year after voters passed No Place Like Home — certainly didn’t help.

But many of the issues afflicting No Place Like Home predate the ballot measure.

“The problem isn’t No Place Like Home. The problem is how we finance and build affordable housing,” said Carolina Reid, faculty research adviser at the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

It’s not as simple as handing out cash: Lining up financing can take years.

No Place Like Home awards make up a fraction, sometimes just 10%, of the total cost to build an affordable housing project, developers say. That means a developer often needs to come up with another half-dozen funding sources from different city, county, state and federal programs

Complicating the issue further: the various funding streams aren’t always in sync, with different deadlines, different requirements, even different definitions of homelessness.

“It takes way too long, and it’s heartbreaking when you’re seeing people who are living in such horrible conditions,” said Andrea Osgood, chief of real estate development for Eden Housing.

Eden won $6 million from No Place Like Home in June 2022 to build a 72-unit affordable housing development in Castro Valley, south of Oakland. That was just 9% of the project’s total cost of $66 million. The developer had to compile the rest from six other sources. Construction started in June 2023; it is expected to be complete in early 2025.

Another challenge, Osgood notes: The cost of construction has gone up, sometimes jumping as much as 20% in a year. Insurance rates are climbing as well. As these costs increase, No Place Like Home funds get stretched thinner and can build fewer homes.

Even if Prop. 1 passes, a yawning $38 billion state budget deficit may create new problems, as proposed cuts to other affordable housing funding sources, such as the Multifamily Housing Program, could leave new financial holes. That might translate into even longer construction delays, Osgood said: “All of us are worried in the industry right now.”

Challenge Two: Where to build new housing

But finances aren’t the only problem. Developers and county officials say they frequently run into resistance when they try to find a place to build permanent supportive housing units.

In part, developers blame California’s Environmental Quality Act, an environmental law that allows concerned citizens to sue to delay —or even stop— proposed housing developments.

Two of the 10 No Place Like Home projects proposed by Eden Housing were hit with such lawsuits, Osgood said. One, in downtown Livermore, won nearly $6.5 million from No Place Like Home back in June 2022. Litigation is ongoing; the project still hasn’t broken ground.

Plain old NIMBYism — the acronym for “Not In My Backyard”— has sunk other projects.

“It was just local community concerns about the kinds of clients that we serve,” said Michelle Cabrera, executive director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association.

Challenge Three: How to learn from it

Rosemary Balsley, 49, spent 14 years without a home of her own – first living in her car, then, after the engine died, couch surfing wherever someone would take her in.

In 2021, Balsley scored a roomy one-bedroom apartment on the third floor of a No Place Like Home project in East Palo Alto, and everything changed. A self-described neat freak, Balsley loves having her own space that she keeps smelling of Pine-Sol. She soaks in the tub to ease the pain of an old shoulder injury. And she welcomes guests – her older sister and a friend came over and threw her a small birthday party last month.

But it’s not just the roof and four walls that have made a difference for Balsley, who has several mental health diagnoses, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. She now has support staff to help her navigate apartment living. A counselor, who Balsley calls her “go-to girl,” calls regularly to check in and sometimes makes her food.

The combination of a home and supportive services has helped Balsley become someone she worried she’d never be: an independent woman. She’s managing her mental health well with medication, she’s paying her bills on time – including her $296 a month in rent – using her disability benefits, and she’s considering going back to school or looking for a job.

“I’m a part of the world now,” she said. “I don’t feel like an outcast.”

Supporters of Prop. 1 march at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Jan. 31, 2024.

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José Luis Villegas

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The question, of course, is not whether such housing is valuable, but how California can build it faster.

The state is trying. Legislators have passed bills to speed up approval and remove land use and parking restrictions for certain apartment buildings that include low-income units.

Californians should start to see No Place Like Home projects move more quickly as those laws take effect, said Michael Lane, state policy director at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association.

“You need to have the land, you need to have the financing, but then you also have to have the political will to approve the projects,” he said. “We’ve made a lot of progress over the last few years, and we’ll begin to see the results of that.”

Sen. Susan Eggman, a Democrat from Stockton who authored part of Prop. 1, said the state has learned valuable lessons from No Place Like Home. She said Prop. 1 includes exemptions to California’s Environmental Quality Act to facilitate the development of supportive housing. It also requires more transparency: Counties will have to submit annual reports to the state outlining how money is spent.

“With No Place Like Home there wasn’t a lot of accountability from the communities,” Eggman said. “Now there will be measurements and outcomes to really be able to see what the community needs, what they have and what their plan is to make sure those resources are there.”

Should Prop. 1 pass, the Department of Health Care Services will split responsibility for distributing bond money with the state housing department. A representative of the health care services department said in an unsigned email that the initiative would authorize them to require corrective action plans or levy fines against counties that do not meet capacity and other annual performance goals.

Farrah McDaid Ting, director of public affairs for the California State Association of Counties, said she was initially skeptical about No Place Like Home. At the time, assuming it would pass regardless, she decided to help craft a legislative package that she and the counties she worked with could support. She considers the construction of more than 1,600 units so far “a huge achievement,” one she doubted would happen back when de León and Steinberg first floated their idea in 2016.

But when it comes to getting housing built faster, she said, “none of us”— not governors, not Senate leaders, not countless others —“nobody has been able to figure out how to make this stuff happen.”

“I definitely think it’s progress,” she said. “Whether it’s the best way to make progress, I don’t know.”

The 61-year-old driver of a minivan that killed three people when it crashed outside a Los Angeles metro station during rush hour was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and three counts of murder, a police spokesperson said Wednesday.

Police have said the driver was taken out of the vehicle and was able to talk, but he appeared in shock after Tuesday’s crash. Officials were not immediately able to determine the cause or whether he acted intentionally.

Police identified the driver as Ihor Demianenko, a resident of the Valley Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, Officer Norma Eisenman said. She didn’t know whether he was still at a hospital early Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear if Demianenko had a lawyer who could respond to the allegations.

The crash at a busy intersection in the North Hollywood neighborhood also critically injured two women. The vehicle ended up under a food vendor’s tent, and Mayor Karen Bass said the victims included street vendors and pedestrians.

Investigators will go through video of the crash frame by frame, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said.

“It will be probably a prolonged but a very deliberate investigation to determine what happened here,” he said.

Luis Luna-Guzman was working at a burger stand nearby when he heard a loud boom and saw people on the ground along with food and cups. People nearby started running toward the crash.

As he moved closer, he found an injured woman lying near the bike racks, her face, arms and legs bloody, he said, recalling her eyes were closed as she moaned in pain.

“I told her, ‘Don’t move, help is coming,’” Luna-Guzman said, adding that he saw a woman’s body nearby, while another woman was lying unmoving on the stairs leading to the station.

Adrin Nazarian, a Los Angeles City Council member whose district includes North Hollywood, described the area as a close-knit community where there is always commotion and activity.

The minivan was on the sidewalk surrounded by debris Tuesday night with its driver’s side door open and an air bag deployed. Fire engines and emergency crews worked nearby as a helicopter flew overhead.

One entrance to the metro remained closed Tuesday night, but otherwise the property wasn’t impacted and the stations for the bus and subway were open, according to Jose Ubaldo, spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Thanawala reported from Atlanta.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Last week’s election was full of surprises, especially for California school districts seeking to fix leaking roofs and broken air conditioners.

Although election officials are still counting votes in many parts of the state, the preliminary results show that nearly half the school bonds on California ballots are failing.

“It’s a shocking outcome,” said Sara Hinkley, director of policy and research at UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities and Schools. “This leaves some school districts with very few options. I’m sure they’re sweating.”

Eighty-six school districts put bonds seeking to do school repairs and modernization on last week’s ballot, totaling $12.4 billion, a relatively low amount of money compared to other big election years. Two years ago, school bonds totaled almost four times that and most of them passed.

As of late Tuesday, 50 bonds had either passed or were leading, with the rest failing. Bonds need 55% to pass.

Painful cuts

School district officials blamed the shaky economy.

“Everyone wants what is best for the kids, but when gas, groceries and utilities are cutting into people's budget, they have to find places to save,” said Mays Kakish, superintendent of Beaumont Unified School District near Banning in the Inland Empire. “In the short term, this loss of funding will be painful.”

Beaumont, one of the few districts in California where enrollment is increasing, desperately needs the $86 million the bond would have brought in. Last year, its schools had 138 roof leaks, district spokesman Thomas Guzowski said. In addition, the district needs to replace 81 portable classrooms.

A 2024 state bond — Proposition 2 — that provided $10 billion for school construction, is an alternative source of money for some school districts. But districts need to provide matching funds to get Prop. 2 money, and if the bond fails Beaumont will not qualify, Guzowski said.

Regardless, most of the Prop. 2 money set aside for school repairs is already spoken for. There’s still money available for new construction projects and emergencies, but there’s a long waiting list for the remaining money to fix leaky roofs or make other maintenance repairs.

Rich get richer

John Affeldt, managing attorney at the public interest law firm Public Advocates, said he wasn’t surprised at the outcome of the school bond elections. Many bonds in wealthier areas like the Bay Area and Orange County tend to be for more money and usually pass, enabling those districts to get Prop. 2 money using matching funds. Bonds in lower-income areas, meanwhile, tend to be for less money and fail.

“Those who have more, get more,” Affeldt said. “It’s an unfair system, and part of a long pattern of the state’s failed system of financing facilities.”

Affeldt’s firm sued the state over the alleged inequities in Prop. 2 and is awaiting a judge’s decision on whether to grant the state’s request to throw out the case. Earlier this year, a judge denied the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction but said they had a “reasonable chance of succeeding” on at least part of the case.

Windfall in San Diego

San Diego Unified is on the other end of the school bond fortunes. Voters said “yes” to its $3.4 billion bond, the largest in California, ushering in a windfall for swimming pools, new performing arts venues, staff housing, new air conditioners, security systems and other upgrades. Homeowners will pay an average of $294 a year.

“It was a great night. I’m still on a high,” said school board vice president Sabrina Bazzo. “This means that all students in our district — not just those in wealthy neighborhoods — will get access to high-quality facilities.”

Basso attributed the bond’s success to plenty of community support. Labor unions threw their weight behind the measure, in part because the district agreed to hire local union workers for much of the work, Bazzo said. Even the local taxpayers association supported the bond, largely because it wasn’t a new tax; it replaced a previous bond from 2022.

Repair and replace

Visalia Unified near Fresno doesn’t look to be so lucky. Its bid for a $158 million bond is trailing and expected to lose.

“The economy is challenging right now for a lot of folks,” said Superintendent Kirk Shrum. “I’m disappointed, thinking about what we could have done — upgraded bathrooms, new furniture — and now we have to wait.”

More than 70% of the district’s buildings are 50 years old or older, and are in dire need of repairs, Shrum said. A few years ago, the district assessed the condition of its buildings and the total for repairs came to $600 million. That seemed too high for a bond, so the district went with $158 million, the amount needed for only the most urgent projects.

Without the bond money, the district will shift funds around to pay for repairs when needed, but “we’ll never be able to get ahead of it,” Shrum said.

“You get stuck in a cycle of replace and repair when things break,” Shrum said. “But you can patch a roof only so many times.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

A big thank you to all the service members who’ve served our country this Veterans Day. There’s lots going on to honor them, including a ceremony on the beach in Santa Monica, a celebration at the VA and more.

Elsewhere on LAist, you can learn about one couple who chose the LAUSD coffee cake for their wedding, come hang out with us at CicLAvia in Pasadena and grab tickets for FilmWeek’s screening of Sideways.

Music

Licorice Pizza has your music picks for the week ahead — it is Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction time, after all — including:

Wednesday 

• Bonobo begin their two-night run at the Wiltern
• Australian EDM star Ninajirachi begins her four-night run at the Fonda Theatre 

Thursday 

• The Smashing Pumpkins performing ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’ in full at the Forum
• Sparta at Sid The Cat

Friday 

• Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds at the Wiltern
• E-40 with Too $hort, Mack 10 & more at the YouTube Theater
• Band of Horses at Pacific Electric

Saturday 

• Darker Waves Festival in Huntington Beach with Morrissey, Simple Minds and many more
• Kate Nash at Sid The Cat
• Sugarhill Gang at Stage Red

Sunday 

• Milk Carton Kids at the Fonda
• Ghostface Killah with Raekwon and GZA at The Novo
• Lissie at Venice West

Monday

• Gary Numan at the Fonda
• The Aces with Gatlin at Pacific Electric

Tuesday

• The Damned at the Wiltern 
• First Ever Hologram Teen Concert (with Fred Armisen on Drums) at Zebulon

Events

International Churro Day

Wednesday, Nov. 11
El Moro 
Multiple locations (Echo Park, Costa Mesa, La Habra)
COST: $1; MORE INFO 

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Foodie Flavours

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What better way to get through the rest of the week than with $1 churros to celebrate International Churro Day? Mexico City institution El Moro now has three L.A. area locations where you can score a deal on the fried treat all day long, plus get a complimentary 12th churro when you purchase 11.

James Cahill: The Beverly Hills Housewife: Hockney’s Californian Muse and the World Beyond the Pool

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7:15 p.m.
Book Soup
8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Courtesy EJS Media

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We lost the great Brit-turned-Angeleno artist David Hockney this year, but his legacy in L.A. is remembered in author James Cahill’s new book, The Beverly Hills Housewife: Hockney’s Californian Muse and the World Beyond the Pool. The book tells the story of David Hockney’s pivotal early years in Los Angeles, his unlikely friendship with a Beverly Hills collector named Betty Freeman, and the city itself — all through the lens of a single painting, Beverly Hills Housewife (1966-67). Cahill will be in conversation with writer David Ulin.

Cj Hendry: Flower Shop

Through Saturday, Nov. 21
6 Rose Ave., Venice
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Kirsten Cox

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Maximus Communications

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Australian artist Cj Hendry has taken over churches, swimming pools and more around the world with her bright creations. Her latest installation, Flower Shop, takes over the Rose Room in Venice, where you can purchase one of her felt flowers starting at $10 — the perfect headstart on unique holiday gifts.

The Who’s Tommy

Through Sunday, Nov. 15
Pantages Theatre
6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood 
COST: FROM $45; MORE INFO 

Fun fact: The Who’s Tommy was the first show I saw on Broadway in 1995 (starring the great Michael Cerveris), and now I’m dating myself by saying the revival is on tour at the Pantages. The Who’s timeless 1969 soundtrack follows the story of Tommy, a child struck by tragedy who wins hearts with his pinball prowess. Pete Townshend and director Des McAnuff reunite to tell the story again for a new generation. Tommy, you’re a sensation.

National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest

Saturday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
The Wallis
9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills
COST: FROM $27.50; MORE INFO 

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I saw the live National Theatre production of The Importance of Being Earnest in London last year, and it’s laugh-out-loud funny, with great performances from Doctor Who himself (Ncuti Gatwa) and Sharon D. Clarke as Lady Bracknell. Directed by Max Webster, the Oscar Wilde classic mistaken-identity comedy took the West End by storm, so don’t miss a chance to catch the filmed-live version at the Wallis. If you just can’t get enough "Earnest" this week, the Bardfly Theatre Co. has their last live performance of the sendup of Victorian England at the L.A. Arboretum the same night.

Sheryl Crow at Live on Sunset

Saturday, Nov. 14, 4 p.m.
Sunset Strip
Sunset Blvd. between San Vicente Blvd./Clark Ave. and North Doheny Drive, West Hollywood
COST: FREE, RSVP REQUIRED; MORE INFO

Sheryl Crow will play a free show on Sunset.

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Erika Goldring

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Sheryl Crow will play 'til the sun comes up on Santa Monica Boulevard (well, more likely 'til just after it goes down) at the free concert on the Sunset Strip, Live on Sunset. The nine-time GRAMMY Award winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee joins a host of other performers, including Local Natives and Empress Of, at the block party show.

Meow Wolf: Desert Hearts and Justin Martin All Night Long

Saturday, Nov. 14, 10 p.m.
Academy L.A.
6021 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood 
COST: $39.95; MORE INFO 

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Art collective Meow Wolf is opening soon in L.A., but you can catch the vibe early with this DJ set at Academy L.A. The music takeover will feature some of Meow Wolf's favorite characters and oddities from their unique multiverse, alongside DJ performances from Desert Hearts and house producer Justin Martin.

Second Saturday Art Walk and Film Festival

Saturday, Nov. 14, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Downtown San Pedro
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

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Courtesy San Pedro Film Festival

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The Second Saturday Art Walk takes over downtown San Pedro this weekend, with galleries, record stores and more opening their doors to celebrate independent artists in the harbor town. Plus, the San Pedro International Film Fest will present two ocean-themed documentary short series at the John Olguin Auditorium at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

Hello Again public exhibit opening 

Thursday, Nov. 12, tour at 11:30 a.m.
UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art
Segerstrom Center for the Arts
3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

Henrietta Shore, Mount Wilson, 1927.

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Courtesy UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art

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The O.C. Museum of Art opens its fall exhibit, Hello Again, with a public celebration on Thursday featuring a tour with curators. The show leans on “thematic fluidity” in the curation rather than chronology, with a focus on California art of the 1960s and '70s as well as more contemporary work. The first exhibit from newly-appointed director Kathryn Kanjo, it “reveals how regional landscapes, domestic spaces, and urban culture remain fertile territory for material and conceptual experimentation.” The exhibition includes work from many artists you’ll be familiar with and some to discover, including Glenn Ligon, Suzanne Lacy, Robert Rauschenberg, Betye Saar, Ed Ruscha, Narsiso Martinez and more.

25th Annual Tree Lighting Celebration 

Monday, Nov. 16, 7 p.m. 
The Grove
189 The Grove Drive, Fairfax District 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

The Grove's Christmas Tree in 2024.

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Jay L Clendenin

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It’s that time of year again. The annual Christmas Tree lighting at the Grove happens next Monday — just 39 days till Santa gets here, folks. This year’s party features performances from Nicole Scherzinger, Jason Mraz, Mark Ambor, Jamie Miller, “O” by Cirque du Soleil, American Authors, Kenedi Anderson, JYT and more.