A worker with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) helps a person experiencing homelessness move a cart with their possessions in Los Angeles on on Jan. 28, 2021.
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Patrick T. Fallon
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
California cities and counties are supposed to work together to help their homeless residents. But those partnerships can be fraught.
Why it matters: After scathing audits criticizing the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the county is blowing up that joint agency and starting over — despite the objections of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. Now, questions remain about how the shakeup will affect the more than 75,000 unhoused people living in LA County. It’s the most dramatic recent example of a phenomenon playing out all over California. Cities which supply shelter beds, and counties, which provide crucial mental health and addiction treatment, can’t effectively address homelessness unless they work well together. But all too often, they don’t.
How this is playing out in the state: In multiple cities, mayors are publicly attacking their counties for failing to pull their weight. In San Diego, a 150-bed shelter created as a partnership between the city and county is in jeopardy, as both sides squabble over who should pay for what. In the San Joaquin Valley, the city of Turlock is refusing to let Stanislaus County fund a shelter there. A state bill that would have forced counties to pay for half the cost of city-run homeless shelters faced fierce pushback from counties, and was swiftly gutted.
Read on... what this looks like across California.
For three decades, the city and county of Los Angeles managed California’s biggest homelessness crisis together.
They had equal say in big funding decisions, and worked in tandem to coordinate housing programs through a joint city-county agency called the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
But after scathing audits criticizing the homeless authority, the county is blowing up that joint agency and starting over — despite the objections of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. Now, questions remain about how the shakeup will affect the more than 75,000 unhoused people living in LA County.
It’s the most dramatic recent example of a phenomenon playing out all over California. Cities which supply shelter beds, and counties, which provide crucial mental health and addiction treatment, can’t effectively address homelessness unless they work well together. But all too often, they don’t.
In multiple cities, mayors are publicly attacking their counties for failing to pull their weight. In San Diego, a 150-bed shelter created as a partnership between the city and county is in jeopardy, as both sides squabble over who should pay for what. In the San Joaquin Valley, the city of Turlock is refusing to let Stanislaus County fund a shelter there. A state bill that would have forced counties to pay for half the cost of city-run homeless shelters faced fierce pushback from counties, and was swiftly gutted.
There’s no shortage of evidence on why working together is beneficial. Cities don’t have behavioral health departments, or funding for those services. So when residents of city homeless shelters need mental health or addiction treatment, which they often do, that falls on the county.
The League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties even released a report in 2018 highlighting the importance of cities and counties addressing homelessness together.
There is no mandate from the state that lays out how much of the responsibility should fall to a city and how much should fall to a county. Especially in tight budget years such as this one, cities don’t want to pay for services they could pass on to the county – and vice versa. And neither wants to take the blame for falling short as they struggle under the immense challenge of getting people off the street.
While both sides bicker, the fate of real shelters that provide lifelines for real people hangs in the balance.
“The lack of partnership between cities and counties around people living in shelters is a major problem,” said Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, whose Senate Bill 16 would have forced counties to shoulder half the cost of city shelters until it was amended in a way that weakened her proposed requirement.
L.A. County overhaul
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority formed in the 1990s as a result of a series of lawsuits claiming that homeless Angelenos couldn’t access county services. The joint agency was supposed to fix that problem by forcing the city and county to work together.
City and county officials have pointed out some of the good that came out of that partnership. The two entities are working together to improve the way they share client data across homelessness and mental health systems. They have a joint team of outreach workers that can go anywhere in the county without being restricted by the boundaries of its 88 cities, which in addition to Los Angeles include Long Beach and Glendale.
Last year, the city of LA saw a 10% decrease in street homelessness — the first double digit decrease in at least nine years.
LA County voters showed they were willing to pay more to address homelessness when they backed a sales tax to fund those programs in 2017 and in 2024. The new money forced the homeless services authority to grow quickly. Things didn’t go smoothly.
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority workers observe L.A. city sanitation workers removing an encampment during a “CARE+” sweep on Venice Boulevard in Venice Beach in June 2023.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Two critical audits since November found the agency was failing to properly track spending and outcomes. The LA County Board of Supervisors voted last month to pull more than $300 million – more than a third of the joint agency’s funding — and more than 700 employees out of the joint authority and into a new county agency.
After that, in quick succession, the head of the joint agency said she would resign and a federal task force announced it would investigate the agency for fraud. The LA City Council is considering pulling its funding as well.
The result will be a complete overhaul of how the county administers its homelessness programs, scheduled to take about a year.
While the problems at the homeless authority were obvious, the county’s gutting of the joint agency — done over the objections of Mayor Bass — created more friction between the city and county.
In a letter to the county before the vote, Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman warned pulling funding from the joint agency would “create a monumental disruption in the progress we are making and runs the serious risk of worsening our homelessness crisis.”
The county’s vote to do it anyway “felt like a breaking of a relationship that was moving towards greater trust,” Raman, who chairs the city’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, said in an interview.
Now, Raman said, programs that received city and county funds through the joint agency, such as a $170 million program that provides two-year rental subsidies, are scrambling to figure out how to separate the city and county funds. She’s also worried about shelter programs falling through the cracks during the transition.
“How are we going to make sure those shelters stay in place?” Raman asked.
The new agency will have heightened accountability measures – something multiple audits found that the old joint-agency lacked. The agency will report to the county annually on its progress, and quarterly on an online dashboard, said Cheri Todoroff, executive director of the county’s Homeless Initiative.
By operating within the existing county infrastructure, the new agency will benefit from tools the county has been using for decades to account for spending and monitor progress, said Sarah Mahin, director of the county’s Housing for Health program, which will be a model for the new agency.
LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who spearheaded the plan to create the new agency, said the intention isn’t to keep the city out of its homelessness efforts, but to be more efficient by consolidating homeless services that are being provided across more than a dozen different county departments. The county also will review all existing contracts, and cancel the ones that aren't delivering results, she said.
“The city will be as involved as they choose to be,” Horvath said.
A fight over a San Diego shelter
In this year’s state of the city speech, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria attacked his county counterparts for their “inaction” in helping unhoused people suffering from mental illness and addiction. Last month, he put the county on blast again in his email newsletter, saying it must “step up” to save a homeless shelter.
“Generally speaking, I would say where the city is responding to this with an all hands on deck approach, I don't think the same can be said for my county or for other counties,” Gloria said in an interview with CalMatters.
That tension came to a head with a dispute over the Rosecrans Shelter, where 150 people sleep in bunk beds inside a giant tent set up in the parking lot of the county’s psychiatric hospital. The city runs the shelter and the county provides behavioral health services, the land and utilities, via a connection to the neighboring hospital.
The county is preparing to demolish a vacant building on that site, which will sever the shelter’s connection to water, sewer and power.
The Rosecrans Shelter in the Midway area of San Diego on April 15, 2025.
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Vito di Stefano
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Voice of San Diego
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Now, the fate of the shelter residents is up in the air. Gloria wants the county to pay to reestablish the utilities, which is estimated to cost as much as $2 million. He also wants the county to relocate the shelter residents, most of whom are struggling with mental illness or addiction. They can’t stay at the shelter during the demolition, he said – it will be too disruptive.
Spencer Katz, director of strategic initiatives for San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, disagrees. There’s no reason people can’t live at the shelter during the demolition, he said.
“With respect to the mayor, who’s neither an expert on demolition nor on behavioral health, that claim simply doesn’t hold water,” he said.
Lawson-Remer has proposed using $800,000 in leftover federal COVID recovery funds to pay for the utility connections, Katz said, and she wants to work with the city to find the rest of the money.
He was talking about the city of Turlock, which has refused to allow Stanislaus County to support an existing homeless shelter in the city. The county awarded nearly $270,000 in state funding to the 50-bed shelter. But the money was contingent on the cooperation of the city, which would have to write a letter of support and allocate a token $1 to the program.
The city said no.
“It’s not about the dollar — it’s about accountability,” Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak said in an interview with CalMatters. The shelter is open at night, but during the day, the people who sleep there have nowhere to go – and nowhere to use the bathroom, Bublak said. As a result, the nearby businesses are complaining of public urination and other disruptions, she said. The mayor asked We Care, the organization that runs the shelter, to keep its bathroom open during the day, but they weren’t able to come to an agreement, she said.
Stanislaus County Supervisor Terry Withrow called the city’s refusal “pretty disappointing.” The people in the shelter need help, he said, and closing the program won’t make them go away.
“I don’t know how you can turn your back on these individuals and just let them die out there,” he said.
We Care did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement to CBS13, We Care said it might be forced to shut down the shelter without that funding.
Bill would have made counties pay more
The bill introduced by Blakespear, the Encinitas state senator, would have required counties to cover half the cost of operating city-run homeless shelters in order to be eligible for state homelessness funding. Counties came out in force against that mandate, and Blakespear removed it from the bill.
That was a disappointment for San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. He’s leading a push to open about 1,000 new temporary housing units this year, mostly in converted motels and tiny homes – and he wants Santa Clara County to provide case management services to the residents.
“We have basically reached our limit,” Mahan said. “We can’t defund core city services that are already understaffed. So if the county doesn't step in…We can’t scale anymore, which means we leave thousands of people outside.”
Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said the city and county already work together on many shelter programs. But she objected to forcing the county to pay for services.
“Without having any control over the number of shelters or tiny homes that the city decides to build,” she said, “we don’t have control over our budget.”
Jorge "Coqui" H. Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on Wednesady to demand the Dodgers not visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.
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J.W. Hendricks
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The LA Local
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Topline:
Less than 24 hours before season opener, longtime Dodgers fans demand the team divest from immigration detention centers and decline the White House visit.
More details: More than 30 people joined Richard Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. “We are demanding that the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together we have the power to make a change.”
Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium.
“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.
Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.
More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team.
“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”
Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”
Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.
Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.
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J.W. Hendricks
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The LA Local
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In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers.
“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.
The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants.
The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.
When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a “slap in the face.”
“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”
According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.
“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”
The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place.
Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.
“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.
Destiny Torres
is LAist's general assignment reporter and brings you the top news you need for the day.
Published March 25, 2026 3:38 PM
The warmer weather and high water flow are causing an early outbreak of black flies in the San Gabriel Valley.
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Courtesy SGV Mosquito and Vector Control District
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Topline:
The warmer weather and high water flow are causing an early outbreak of black flies in the San Gabriel Valley, according to officials.
What are black flies? Black flies are tiny, pesky insects that often get mistaken for mosquitoes. The biting flies breed near foothill communities like Altadena, Azusa, San Dimas and Glendora. They also thrive near flowing water.
What you need to know: Black flies fly in large numbers and long distances. When they bite both humans and pets, they aim around the eyes and the neck. While the bites can be painful, they don’t transmit diseases in L.A. County.
A population spike: Anais Medina Diaz, director of communications at the SGV Mosquito and Vector Control District, told LAist that at this time last year, surveillance traps had single-digit counts of adult black flies, but this year those traps are collecting counts above 500.
So, why is the population growing? Diaz said the surge is unusual for this time of year.
“We are experiencing them now because of the warmer temperatures we've been having,” Diaz said. “And of course, all the water that's going down through the river, we have a high flow of water that is not typical for this time of year.”
What officials are doing: Officials say teams are identifying and treating public sources where black flies can thrive, but that many of these sites are influenced by natural or infrastructure conditions outside their control.
How to protect yourself: Black flies can be hard to avoid outside in dense vegetation, but you can reduce the chance of a bite by:
Wearing loose-fitted clothing that covers the entire body.
Wearing a hat with netting on top.
Spraying on repellent, but check the label. For a repellent to be effective, it needs to have at least 15% DEET, the only active ingredient that works against black flies.
Turning off any water features like fountains for at least 24 hours, especially in foothill communities.
See an uptick in black flies in your area? Here's how to report it
SGV Mosquito and Vector Control District Submit a tip here You can also send a tip to district@sgvmosquito.org (626) 814-9466
Greater Los Angeles Vector Control District Submit a service request here You can also send a service request to info@GLAmosquito.org (562) 944-9656
Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control Submit a report here You can also send a report to ocvcd@ocvector.org (714) 971-2421 or (949) 654-2421
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Robert Garrova
explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.
Published March 25, 2026 3:28 PM
Jeremy Kaplan and Florence at READ Books in Eagle Rock.
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Courtesy Jeremy Kaplan
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Topline:
Local favorite mom and pop shop READ Books in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say they’re just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.
The backstory: Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and their shop dog Florence.
What happened? The building where Kaplan and his wife Debbie rent was recently sold and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.
What's next? While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.
Read on... for what small businesses can do.
A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.
Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.
Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.
“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.
But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.
Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.
California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.
Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.
What can small businesses do?
Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.
Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.
“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.
She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.
“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.
Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.
While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.
Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.
Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.
By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.
When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.
“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.
“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”
Kavish Harjai
writes about infrastructure that's meant to help us move about the region.
Published March 25, 2026 3:12 PM
A field team member of the Bureau of Street Lighting installs a solar-powered light in Filipinotown.
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Mayor Bass Communications Office
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Topline:
The Los Angeles City Council approved a plan in a 13-1 vote on Tuesday to send ballots to more than half a million property owners asking if they are willing to pay more per year to fortify the city’s streetlight repair budget, most of which has essentially been frozen since the 1990s. The item still requires L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ signature, but her office confirmed to LAist on Wednesday that she’ll approve it.
Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.
Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.
Near unanimous vote: L.A.City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote on Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.
Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.
How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.
Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired.The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.
Topline:
The Los Angeles City Council approved a plan in a 13-1 vote Tuesday to send ballots to more than a half-million property owners asking if they are willing to pay more per year to fortify the city’s streetlight repair budget, most of which essentially has been frozen since the 1990s. The item still requires L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ signature, but her office confirmed to LAist on Wednesday that she’ll approve it.
Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.
Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.
Near unanimous vote: L.A.City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.
Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.
How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.
Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.
