The Brief

After languishing for decades due to a contentious freeway project that never got built, empty homes in El Sereno that were once slated for demolition are now being prepared for new owners.

Leaders of San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity announced plans Friday to purchase and rehab some of the vacant properties currently owned by Caltrans. The state’s transportation department originally bought the homes to clear a path for a connection between the 710 and 210 freeways.

With those construction plans now officially dead, Caltrans has started putting the homes up for sale in batches. SGV Habitat officials say they’re closing on deals to buy 16 of the vacant properties. They plan to fix them up and sell them to low-income, first-time homebuyers.

“The oldest house that we're looking to purchase was actually acquired by Caltrans in 1961,” Bryan Wong, CEO of SGV Habitat, told LAist. “We're excited to jump in and get these things ready to go.”

The history behind El Sereno’s many vacant homes 

Aerial view over time of the neighborhoods where the 710 extension was planned. Other properties were bought by the state along the route, but not demolished.

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Courtesy City of Pasadena/UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

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Caltrans bought hundreds of homes in the 1950s and 1960s in preparation for the 710 connection project. Originally a surface-level freeway that would have run through El Sereno and South Pasadena, the plans later morphed into an eight-lane underground tunnel.

After much resistance from surrounding communities, the $6 billion plan was officially killed when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law ending the project in 2019. That decision left these El Sereno properties with an uncertain fate.

A no-trespassing sign reading “state property” is taped to a boarded-up window in a home owned by Caltrans in El Sereno.

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David Wagner

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Caltrans has rented out some of the properties to tenants. But many of the homes have remained empty and boarded up, becoming dilapidated eyesores. In 2021, state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo ushered a bill through the legislature to put the properties up for sale at their original acquisition price, as long as housing organizations agreed to use them as affordable rentals or sell them as affordable single-family homes.

Caltrans spokesperson Lauren Wonder said the department recently awarded 37 of the properties to housing organizations through a formal bidding process.

“No homeowners have lived in these homes since the ‘60s, ‘70s, or ‘80s, depending on when they were acquired,” Wonder told LAist via email.

Who will be eligible to buy the homes?

This map, which is oriented North to South from left to right, shows the location of many of the properties bought to make way for the 710 expansion. SGV Habitat is working to acquire 36 of them. Credit: Courtesy City of L.A.

Wong said Habitat plans to remodel some of the homes, but others with extensive damage will need to be torn down. Some of the properties are completely vacant, requiring brand new construction. Wong said SGV Habitat plans to split some of the lots and build a total of 24 homes of varying sizes, some for individuals and some for larger families.

Once that work is finished, these homes will be occupied by actual homeowners for the first time in decades. The sales will be limited to first-time homeowner households earning up to 80% of the area median income. That’s $110,950 for a family of four in L.A. County, or $77,700 for a single-person household.

Wong said giving working families a chance to own a home in a neighborhood like El Sereno is crucial at a time when young adults — including his own two sons, now in their 20s — are fleeing California in search of affordable housing.

“The prospect of owning a house is just almost impossible, unless you have help from a relative,” Wong said. “When you lose that stability, you lose the fabric of communities.”

Families selected to own the homes will pay no more than 30% of their income on monthly mortgage payments, substantially bringing down the cost of ownership compared with L.A. County’s current median home price of $805,100.

The homes will also come with affordability agreements barring sales at market rates for the next 45 years, a move to prevent these new homeowners from making a windfall on a quick sale.

What about the Reclaimers? 

Wong said all of the homes Habitat is buying are currently vacant. But during the pandemic, other Caltrans-owned homes have been occupied by formerly unhoused Angelenos who say the region’s crushing rents and home prices have led them to “reclaim” the homes.

Sandra Saucedo moved into a vacant Caltrans-owned home early in the COVID-19 pandemic after living in her car for years. The single mom said she became unhoused after losing her job as a nurse. Moving here helped her reunite with her children, she said, after they had been living with in-laws.

Sandra Saucedo with Reclaiming Our Homes stands outside the El Sereno home where she has lived with her children since 2020.

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David Wagner

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The Housing Authority of the City of L.A. gave Saucedo and other members of Reclaiming Our Homes two years to stay and look for permanent housing, but Saucedo said they were never able to help her find an affordable alternative in the area. She and other “reclaimers” are now fighting eviction cases in court.

When asked what she thinks about Caltrans selling some of its homes to various nonprofits, Saucedo said it feels like the Reclaimers are being cut out of the conversation.

“Habitat for Humanity is not really looking to house any of the Reclaimers,” Saucedo said. “Their affordable housing is not affordable for all of us.”

The Reclaimers had hoped to see Caltrans sell more of the homes to the El Sereno Community Land Trust with the goal of keeping them not just “affordable,” but “deeply affordable.” Caltrans sold one property to the land trust.

Stay tuned for home sales timeline

Wong said the Reclaimers are welcome to apply for the homes once they’re put up for sale, just like everyone else who meets the eligibility requirements. He said Habitat aims to sell at least half the properties to households already living or working in El Sereno.

Caltrans officials confirmed that two of the homes going to SGV Habitat have already closed escrow. Wong said there’s still work to do on transferring the titles of the properties. The timeline for when the properties will be put up for sale is still being worked out.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered major changes to reported conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County, granting a preliminary injunction that requires federal immigration officials provide people with clean drinking water and adequate medical care.

U.S. District Judge Sunshine Suzanne Sykes ruled that the detainees who brought the lawsuit “demonstrated they are likely to prevail” on their claims that conditions at the facility violate Fifth Amendment protections against inhumane conditions of confinement. While the case will continue to work its way through the courts, the judge issued the ruling now, finding that people being detained could suffer irreparable harm without court intervention.

The suit came after two deaths at the facility within weeks of each other last fall: Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a 39-year-old former DACA recipient, and 56-year-old Gabriel Garcia-Aviles. Both deaths are still under federal investigation as scrutiny over the conditions inside immigrant detention centers in the Trump administration continues to mount.

In their lawsuit, lawyers for the detainees said Adelanto violated ICE detention guidelines by failing to provide clean drinking water, nutritious meals, sanitation, access to medical care and medicine, as well as medical intake screening upon arrival at the facility. They also alleged violations of rules around recreation time outside, visitation time for family, daily headcount to ensure detainees are alive, and accommodations for people with disabilities.

In response, Sykes ordered 24-hour access to clean drinking water, meals with a sufficient number of calories, and access to soap and hygiene products free of charge. The injunction also requires the facility to be cleansed daily and for mold to be identified and removed. Detainees are to be provided blankets and temperature-appropriate clothing, as well as access to recreational yard time outside for at least four hours every day.

The order prevents Adelanto, which is located about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles, from limiting family visitation during regular business hours, including removing time restrictions and physical contact, such as hugging or holding hands, with family members. It also says the facility can not cancel a visitation if a family member needs to use the restroom during the visit.

The majority of people being held in immigration detention centers in California have not been accused of committing crimes, only of civil immigration violations.

The court ordered Adelanto to perform at least two headcounts every day, once overnight and once during the day, to ensure detainees are present and not incapacitated. The court also ordered restrictions on sending detainees to isolation, barring a life safety risk to staff or if the detainee requests it.

The ruling requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other named defendants to immediately provide detainees with the condition upgrades the judge ordered.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the ruling. DHS attorney Pushkal Mishra argued in court last week the federal government couldn’t be held liable for the actions of its contractor, GEO Group, which runs Adelanto and 18 other immigration facilities around the country.

In a motion to dismiss the case, DHS argued that it should not have “to take over the daily management of a federal contract from a private contractor.”

GEO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Disability access in ICE facilities has been a recurring issue since the Trump administration took office for a second term. According to the complaint, one person described being placed in handcuffs and ankle chains for court appearances despite using a cane. Others alleged people with mobility issues were routinely assigned top bunks. The new court order requires the government to provide people with disabilities with reasonable accommodations.

The court has given the federal government 14 days to create a plan to address medical care and disability needs for detainees. The order requires all detainees to be given an intake screening upon arriving for physical or mental illnesses, ensure ongoing treatment and medication, and treat and segregate detainees to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. The order also mandates that every detainee must have access to primary, secondary, and tertiary medical care and be advised of their patient rights.

Sykes ordered that the government must provide two independent monitors for the duration of the lawsuit to ensure compliance with the court orders. Detainees must also be given the opportunity to submit grievances to the monitors in English or Spanish that are contained in a lockbox only accessible to the monitors.

A report by the California attorney general this year found that six people have died in detention facilities in the state since the start of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. Nationwide, 22 people have died this year in immigration detention.

This week, the Mexican federal government called on state attorneys general to criminally investigate cases where Mexican nationals have died in ICE custody.

The White House has released a series of documents that President Donald Trump said in a primetime address reveals "shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure."

Yet Trump, who for years has baselessly claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him, did not detail allegations of widespread illegal votes in that election. Numerous reviews have debunked his claims about that election.

Instead, he focused on allegations that China had accessed voter data and that noncitizens are found on certain states' voter rolls, among his claims.

Yet Trump has often spoken of issues with elections that fall apart under scrutiny. His administration's system for identifying noncitizens on voter rolls has incorrectly flagged citizens, for example.

The remarks came as his war in Iran approaches the five-month mark, some Republican lawmakers want him to focus on the economy, and as his approval rating remains near second-term lows.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The state is often knocked by the rest of the country as being "slow" to count votes. But here's the deal: that's a feature, not a bug, of the election system.

The backstory

Things take a while here largely because California works so hard to expand the ways people can vote. For example:

• Californians in recent years overwhelmingly vote by mail — nearly 90% of votes cast in the 2024 presidential election were mail-in ballots. In that same year's primary the percentage was just as high. Those ballots can be postmarked up to and including Election Day. They're counted as long as the ballot arrives within seven days (for the June primary, that was June 9).
• California offers same-day voter registration at any voting center. These new voters must cast a provisional ballot, which is counted once election officials confirm their eligibility (they are overwhelmingly accepted — for example, Los Angeles County reports that historically between 85% to 90% have been counted.)
• Voters also have the right to cast provisional ballots if there's any problem on Election Day — like if poll workers aren't able to void an outstanding mail-in ballot, or if there’s any issue calling up voter information from e-pollbooks. Again (see above), provisionals take longer to process because eligibility has to be confirmed.
• Vote-by-mail ballots require signature matching. When the one received doesn't match the one on file, county registrars must contact that voter to let them know — and give them the chance to correct it.
• And, with more than 23 million registered voters, we're really, really big. In the 2024 general election more than 16 million Californians voted (down from nearly 18 million in the 2020 presidential election). Either way, that’s more people than the total populations of all but three other states.

Why things have sped up, some

But things have sped up considerably in the 30 counties that have adopted a 2016 law called the Voter's Choice Act, including L.A., Orange and Riverside counties. In recent elections, the changes associated with that law — like voters not being locked into a designated polling location — drastically cut down the number of provisional ballots cast, which helped move things along faster than they had before.

A closer look at ballot counting times in California where an increasing number of vote-by-mail ballots has slowed ballot counts.

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Courtesy California Voter Foundation

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Still, accuracy and a commitment to "expanding the franchise" — translation: allowing more people to vote — means the process is not designed to produce instantaneous results.

L.A. County Office of Education’s letter to Los Angeles Unified School District earlier this month, warning it was at risk of running out of money, has escalated tensions between county overseers and the state’s biggest school district.

LACOE has told the district it must revise its $21 billion budget by mid-August — or risk the appointment of an external advisor with the power to override the LAUSD board and superintendent’s decisions.

The district has already announced the elimination of hundreds of jobs, primarily in its administrative offices, and approved another plan to cut an estimated $3.6 billion over the next three years through furloughs, layoffs and school consolidations.

But LACOE says it wants a more specific plan with more details, and has assigned a fiscal expert to help.

What does it all mean — for teachers, staff and most importantly, the almost 400,000 students in LAUSD schools? We break it down.

What’s in the letter?

The letter outlines a list of why the County has determined the district will become insolvent.

These include:

• Running out of money: The district's own projection has shown that its operating cash will be $231 million in the red by November 2027. “A district that cannot maintain a positive cash balance is unable to meet payroll and other obligations as they come due,” wrote Debra Duardo, the L.A. County superintendent. 

• New labor agreements with teachers, principals, school support staff and other employees: Recently approved contracts, which the unions say are essential to helping employees weather the region’s increasingly high cost of living, will cost an additional $1 billion in the next school year. These increases outpace the state’s  cost of living increases. 
  
• Declining enrollment and attendance: About 40% fewer students attend LAUSD schools than two decades ago, in part because of lower birthrates and families leaving because of the region’s high cost of living. Over time, this can reduce revenue because state funding is calculated based on how many students show up for class each day. 
  
• Leadership stability: The LAUSD Board appointed Andrés Chait, a longtime district administrator, as superintendent in June, just days after his predecessor resigned amid an ongoing federal investigation. ”This transition occurs at the moment the district must execute substantial corrective actions,” Duardo wrote.

It also includes next steps. We’ll discuss those below.

Why did LACOE send the letter July 2?

The letter is part of a process outlined in California law meant to prevent districts from going bankrupt.

Specifically, LACOE is required to intervene anytime it determines the district may be unable to meet its financial obligations in the current or subsequent two years (California requires districts to budget in three-year blocks.)

Has this happened to LAUSD before?

The requirement to issue this letter is fairly new and tied to a 2021 change in state law.

However, LACOE has intervened in LAUSD’s finances in the past. The agency assigned a fiscal expert team to the district from January 2019 to December 2021 after determining the district was at risk of not meeting its financial obligations.

The team helped analyze staffing, enrollment and make adjustments to the budget, according to a statement provided by Elizabeth Graswich, executive director of LACOE’s public affairs and communications department.

How did LAUSD get to this point?

The shortest explanation is that LAUSD is spending more money than it brings in.

The last three budgets relied on billions of dollars in reserves to offset the deficit.

Some of those reserves were built up when the district was receiving federal pandemic relief money and that funding ended in 2024.

LAUSD, like other districts in the state, also faces increased costs on everything from employee salaries and benefits to providing services for students with disabilities and settlements for decades-old sexual assault claims.

The district’s unions, parents, and several board members have also called for increased scrutiny on how much money the district spends on third-party contracts, including with tech companies.

Is LAUSD making cuts? How will they affect students?

LAUSD has already eliminated hundreds of jobs, primarily in its administrative offices, earlier this year.

This summer the board approved another plan to cut an estimated $3.6 billion over the next three years.

That plan includes furlough days for all employees, the elimination of thousands more jobs and cuts to the trust that funds retiree health benefits.

Among the cuts is the elimination of $900 million that helps high-needs schools pay for counselors, tutors and other student supports.

Most of these cuts aren’t scheduled to go into effect until the 2027-28 and 2028-29 school years.

The county said in its letter that the district plan needs to be more specific and include how each proposed change will be implemented, when the change will happen and how the outcomes will be measured.

Has there been any push back to the letter’s findings?

The district did not appeal the letter’s findings to the state, according to a district spokesperson.

However, when LAist asked if the district disputed any of the findings, a spokesperson wrote that the district is quote “continuing conversations” with the County, and that a revision to the budget may not be required.

“We will remain in conversation with LACOE to ensure our financial plan remains responsible, transparent, and aligned with our long-term commitments,” the spokesperson wrote.

The teachers union has said the letter unfairly targets the union’s new contracts.

“To me it feels as though the message is, ‘We warned you not to approve these contracts, and yet you did, and now we're going to overstep,’” said Gloria Martinez, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

Martinez said the overall problem is that California doesn’t adequately fund public education.

We’re about a month away from the start of the next school year. What happens next?

The county has appointed a fiscal expert to help the district revise its budget by mid-August. Otherwise, the county says this advisor could be given the power to override decisions by the board and superintendent.

What happens if the district runs out of money?

Districts that become insolvent can lose the power to govern themselves in an arrangement called receivership. Instead of the elected school board and appointed superintendent making decisions about everything from curriculum to the budget, that power is transferred to an external administrator.

Receivership is a condition of accepting an emergency loan from the state. Only 10 school districts, out of nearly 1,000 statewide, have entered receivership since 1990, including Inglewood Unified.

The impact on students varies from district to district. The process was designed to protect students from sudden school shutdowns, but it comes at a cost. Districts must pay back the emergency loan and community-members lose the ability to elect or recall decision-makers during the receivership.

Contact your school board member

The LAUSD's Board's next meeting is a closed session scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug.11.