The Brief

As a series of winter storms barreled toward Southern California around the start of the new year, the 211 LA hotline prepared to hand out motel vouchers and reserve shelter beds for people seeking refuge from wet weather.

The hotline received more than 12,700 calls for assistance between Dec. 22 and Jan. 6, when the Emergency Response Program was activated in response to the severe weather.

But it had only 140 motel vouchers to distribute — 50 from the city of Los Angeles and 90 from the county. All vouchers were handed out within a day, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA, which helps distribute funding.

Only one shelter in the program, in Long Beach, was open at that time and it was full during the two-week activation period, according to LAHSA. Another winter shelter program offers 335 beds but was mostly full at the time, officials said.

The situation highlights long-running challenges 211 LA has faced during weather emergencies, including inadequate staff and long wait times. Officials say hotline callers are often frustrated when they find out that so few resources are available.

“A lot of the responses that we get from callers is anger … about not being able to provide them with that resource that they were told they can call us for,” Nancy Dueñez Velazquez, 211 LA’s housing director, told LAist.

She noted that when city and county officials encourage people to call 211 LA for shelter during a storm, they often don’t make clear that resources are "extremely limited.”

County supervisors say they’re working to address 211’s challenges, but there are budget constraints. The county is considering major cuts to homeless services and programs in the next budget year as it faces increased costs and funding losses.

Other county officials say they’re working to improve messaging around 211 and are shifting more funding through LAHSA to boost staffing.

Supervisor Janice Hahn told LAist she wants the county to look into providing more shelter beds during storms.

“In an emergency when lives are on the line, we have to be able to do better,” Hahn said.

LAist reached out to several authorities in the city of L.A., including Mayor Karen Bass, but none responded by the time of publication.

Thousands of calls; limited resources

Southern California experienced historic rainfall in late December — Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were the wettest on record — followed by more rain in early January.

During that time, the 211 hotline received 12,784 calls for assistance, Dueñez Velazquez said. But it didn’t have enough staff to handle them all.

The hotline had funding for 17 agents, working around the clock, who were able to field about three quarters of those calls. The rest disconnected before reaching an agent. Ideally, the hotline needs nearly 60 agents to handle the call load, according to 211 LA estimates.

Officials said they can boost staffing during emergencies by paying staff overtime. During the recent storms, 211 LA added about 58 hours of overtime, officials said.

Fewer staff can mean people wait longer to get connected to an agent for assistance. The average wait time for people calling during the storms was a little under eight minutes.

The longest wait time happened on Dec. 23, a day before Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in L.A. and five other counties because of the weather. Some 211 callers waited two hours to reach an agent.

Long wait times are not new to 211. In February 2024, as an atmospheric river was pummeling the region, LAist called the hotline and waited three hours and 30 minutes before reaching an agent. That was a little longer than the average wait for most callers that day, officials said at the time.

Officials from 211 LA have communicated those challenges in multiple after-action reports, most recently in June 2025. The reports highlight strained capacity, extensive wait times, frustrated callers and delayed funding.

Dueñez Velazquez said 211 LA has the ability to respond quickly to emergency events and assist people in need, it just needs the resources and budget to support the work. On a typical day, the hotline is “able to handle the call volume,” she said, but callers’ needs fluctuate with the weather.

Resources can run out quickly, so 211 LA provides whatever assistance is available at the time of the call, Dueñez Velazquez said.

“Whether that's a motel voucher, whether that's placement in a winter shelter site or whether that's information and referral to the next possible best resource that we can connect you to,” she said. “We really are here to help.”

She added that 211 LA updates its website with information about the number of available motel vouchers so callers with access to the site can decide whether to stay on the line.

LAHSA officials said the agency's goal is to serve as many unhoused people as possible each winter, and they’re proud to have “maximized resources” during the latest emergency.

“We would welcome additional resources, but we understand there are several competing priorities,” Ahmad Chapman, LAHSA’s director of communications, told LAist.

County officials respond

L.A. County officials say they’re working to fix some of the problems facing 211.

Supervisor Hilda Solis, chair of the Board of Supervisors, told LAist her office is improving public messaging so people calling 211 get the most up-to-date information on how many vouchers and other emergency resources are available.

“Extreme weather events highlight both the importance and the limits of motel vouchers,” Solis said. “While they are an essential emergency tool during storms, they are resource-intensive and difficult to scale quickly enough to meet the full level of need.”

Measure A, a half-cent sales tax increase passed by voters in 2024, directs funding to 211 LA to help ramp up capacity during the winter shelter season, Solis said. Cities can use their Measure A dollars to help add emergency shelters beds and motel vouchers to the overall inventory.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger told LAist the county’s new Department of Homeless Services and Housing is focused on making the most of limited resources while working with LAHSA on outreach.

“While emergency shelters are one critical tool, they are not the only option — motel vouchers and other interventions are also part of the County’s response — but all of this is constrained by fiscal realities,” Barger said. “That’s why we continue to look for ways to better coordinate, communicate, and stretch resources as effectively as possible.”

Officials with the Department of Homeless Services and Housing told LAist that more emergency shelter units were available during the winter storms, nearly half of which were allocated to 211 LA.

The department said in a statement to LAist it connects with people experiencing homelessness to make sure they’re aware of incoming storms, moves them out of areas prone to flooding and provides temporary shelter for as many as possible. Outreach teams also have their own motel vouchers to hand out, according to officials, in addition to 211 LA.

“[The department] has taken steps to support 211 in addressing an influx of callers seeking support during inclement weather, including shifting funding through LAHSA to pay for around-the-clock staffing to meet urgent needs,” the statement read.

Officials with the city of L.A. have expressed concerns about the region's storm response in the past.

Councilmember Nithya Raman has said previously that her office struggled to get people seeking shelter into temporary rooms during winter storms in 2024, and that there needed to be better lines of communication between LAHSA, 211 and the city.

Raman, chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, vice-chair of the committee, didn’t respond to LAist’s questions about the recent storm response.

Mayor Karen Bass’ office did not respond to LAist’s request for comment.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.

In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.

The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.

A blow for Tilly Norwood 

Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.

Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.

The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.

Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.

"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."

Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.

International films prioritizes filmmakers over countries

While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.

Largely positive response

The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.

The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.

The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)

But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.

The ruins are still there 

On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.

Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.

A car speeds away from the lodge onto New York Avenue. The stone archway that still stands can be seen in the background.

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“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”

Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.

“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”

We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.

In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.

“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.

Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.

Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.

The exterior of the locker rooms for the old Crystal Pool.

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We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.

And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.

Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.

“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.

Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”

“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.

In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.

The archway that still stands outside of what's now known as Mountain Oaks.

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Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.

“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.

What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.

The future of Mountain Oaks 

After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.

A map showing the Mountain Oaks public property acquired by The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

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Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.

Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.

“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.

The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.

“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.

Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.

“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.

Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.

That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.

‘I just couldn’t stop’ 

At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.

Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.

Chieh's 3D rendering of Room 237

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Anthony Chieh

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“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.

“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”

“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.

Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.

“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”

Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.

“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.

In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”

How spaces scare 

Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.

“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.

“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”

Chieh's 3D rendering of the Torrance's apartment in 'The Shining'

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Anthony Chieh

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What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?

Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.

That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.