The Brief

Officials have announced the new leader of the L.A. county's first-ever department on homelessness.

The Board of Supervisors has named Sarah Mahin, head of the county’s existing Housing for Health program, as inaugural director of the Department of Homeless Services and Housing.

The board officially appointed Mahin Tuesday after voting for her in closed session last week.

Mahin will help lead the county’s overhaul of the homeless services delivery system after officials moved to pull nearly $350 million in funding from the region's top homeless services agency, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA. The new department shifts those taxpayer dollars to the county’s direct oversight and control.

County supervisors say one of their goals with the new department is to increase transparency and accountability.

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who led the county’s move away from LAHSA along with Supervisor Kathryn Barger, said in a statement that Mahin is ready to hit the ground running.

“Sarah knows the County, she knows LAHSA, and she knows how to get things done,” Horvath said. “Sarah is a collaborative leader who will bring service providers and all of our city partners together in this vital effort."

What we know 

Mahin is the director of Housing for Health, an existing county effort that is the model for the department she’ll be taking over. The program provides homes and support to people with serious physical or behavioral conditions. Last year, Housing for Health served 57,000 people with a budget of $875 million and more than 600 staff.

Mahin told LAist that creating the new department is a bold and exciting move that could help make processes easier for service providers and people seeking those services.

Sarah Mahin, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Homeless Services and Housing.

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Courtesy of L.A. County's Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors

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" We have the opportunity to really simplify things, really understand what's working well, and investing our resources in the things that are showing the greatest results," she said.

Mahin has more than 20 years of experience with housing and homelessness, according to county documents, including as the former director of policy and systems at LAHSA. Her responsibilities there included coordinating services across hundreds of organizations, as well as multiple city and county departments.

She previously worked with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, leading programs and services focused on ending veteran homelessness in Southern California as regional coordinator of the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, according to her resume.

Mahin said she has led with an approach of “doing whatever it takes, for as long as it takes,” a saying borrowed from the late Mollie Lowery, a well-known L.A. advocate for people experiencing homelessness and mental illness.

Mahin said she plans to carry that philosophy over to the new job.

“It's really not allowing administrative bureaucratic barriers to get in the way of ensuring that people have access to the healthcare, to the housing, to the social services that they need,” she said.

Mahin has a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Georgetown University.

She was selected after a month-long nationwide search that included input from county staff, residents and service providers.

And Mahin has a big job ahead of her.

She’ll be responsible for a range of responsibilities throughout the transition and beyond, including coming up with a strategic plan for the department, managing its budget and helping integrate staff and funding from LAHSA by next summer.

Her annual salary is listed as $375,000. For comparison, county supervisors are paid a little more than $232,000 a year.

What officials say

Barger said in a statement that she’s optimistic about the future of the county’s homelessness response with Mahin leading the new department and that she’s uniquely qualified to spearhead the effort from day one.

“Sarah’s forward-thinking strategies to address past system challenges and her ability to scale programs and forge cross-agency collaboration are aligned with my commitment to bold, accountable action,” Barger said. “This is the type of leadership we need to deliver results.”

Supervisor Hilda Solis said in a statement that she is confident Mahin
will "advance comprehensive, person-centered solutions to homelessness" and help strengthen partnerships with other cities across the county.

Horvath said Mahin is exactly who is needed for the job.

“Her deep experience with contract management, data integration, and creating a culture of innovation and progress will be instrumental in charting a new way forward for homeless services in LA County,” Horvath said in a statement.

Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement that Mahin will bring the knowledge, authority and grace the department needs.

“It’s time to tackle our homelessness crisis in a new way and I think Sarah has what it takes,” Hahn said.

LAist has reached out to Supervisor Holly Mitchell for comment.

How we got here

In April, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to strip funding from LAHSA — jointly overseen by the city and county of L.A. since it was created in 1993 — to develop its own department on homelessness instead.

The change followed a series of harsh audits that highlighted major issues at the agency, including an inability to properly account for billions in taxpayer dollars and failing to track whether contracts were followed. Those findings also prompted a federal fraud investigation.

Hovarth has said moving away from LAHSA was necessary to fix a broken system and to make it more transparent and accountable.

“I want to be clear that this is not more government, it is better government,” she said at an April board meeting.

Mahin said accountability and transparency are top priorities. The new department will mirror some of the structure from Housing for Health, including closely managing contracts with service providers, for example.

“Every single month we go through our data and we make sure that those care plans are updated, that the assessments have been updated and that the minimum levels of services are delivered,” Mahin said. “And if they're not, we issue contractor discrepancy reports and we ultimately recoup the funds.”

What’s next

The Department of Homeless Services and Housing is expected to be officially established by the beginning of next year and fully operational by next July. It’ll help serve the more than 75,300 people experiencing homelessness across L.A. County, according to last year’s point-in-time count.

The department will combine the existing Housing for Health program and the Homeless Initiative, bringing county homeless services under one umbrella while taking on many of the responsibilities currently managed by LAHSA.

How to get involved

Mahin and county officials want your feedback.

The participation process “ will lay the groundwork for how we will be engaging with the community moving forward,” Mahin said. “We want input on not just how should we set up this department, but how do we keep on working together.”

You can submit questions and comments about the transition here and learn more about the process here.

The Los Angeles Public Library system is known for more than just books. You can check out tools and computers. And it even has a recording studio.

But did you know it has its own map collection?

They’ve got fire insurance maps spanning Los Angeles; old maps detailing curiosities like an alligator farm or an ostrich farm in L.A. County; copies of the Ord Survey, the first formal land survey of the city from 1849.

A recent donation has added thousands of maps from the region and all over the world to the collection.

Stacks of maps from the Central Library's map collection.

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Peter Hauge

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Peter Hauge

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The mapping link

The new addition came from the collection of Bill Hunt, the founder of the now defunct Santa Barbara-based map distributor Map Link.

Hunt is also an avid collector and traveler. His collection, consisting of hundreds of boxes of well preserved and carefully catalogued maps, took up an entire storage space in Ventura.

Hunt got in touch with the Los Angeles Public Library in November to offload some of his collection. The library brought them in starting in January.

Stacks of boxes containing a lot of Bill Hunt's donation of maps to the Los Angeles Public Library.

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Peter Hauge

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Peter Hauge

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A treasure trove

Not since 2012 has the Los Angeles Public Library landed on such a sizable collection. Then, they were from collector John Feathers, who had thousands of maps filling his Mount Washington Home.

“It was said that John Feathers’ collection doubled our map collection,” LAPL’s map librarian Peter Hauge said. “I would say this Map Link donation probably boosted us again by another 30 or 40%. It is absolutely massive.”

Hauge said Hunt’s collection is much more organized, which should make cataloging it all a lot easier.

What’s in the boxes?

Many of the new maps will be housed in the  history and genealogy department of the Central Library, located on lower level four. There they’ll be accessible to all Angelenos, no library card required for viewing.

Flat map drawers where a lot of the Los Angeles Public Library legacy collection is kept.

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Peter Hauge

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Peter Hauge

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Hauge said the donation, global in scope, helps to fill out the library’s own collection. For example, the library now has 12 new maps from different time periods and regions of Senegal, building on its much smaller, previous collection.

“That was really the most exciting part of it,” Hauge said. “The quality and the scope of the maps I think is what made it so much more important and valuable.”

The donations span pretty much every country in the world and just about every type of map you can think of.

“ This collection has folded maps, travel maps, street guides from the entire United States, just about every county, from every state in the country,” Hauge said.

A Legacy of Maps

Many of the new maps are already available for the public to access. However, Hauge said it'll take at least a year before the entire trove is added to the collection, and even longer for them to be properly cataloged and indexed.

These maps are lenses to the world and the past. Hauge said people come to the map library for all sorts of reasons. Some are writers looking to accurately describe what the transportation system was like in Los Angeles. Others are residents looking for the history of their neighborhoods and how they developed.

Whatever it is, the library probably has a map that can help you out.

Crowds packed into the Pike Outlets in downtown Long Beach on Thursday evening for the free motocross and car show that marks the beginning of Grand Prix weekend every year: Thunder Thursday.

Stunt motorcyclist rides in the air for the Thunder Thursday event by The Pike Outlets, Long Beach on April 16, 2026.

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Justin Enriquez

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Long Beach Post

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Already, the area has transformed into 1.97 miles of track that on Sunday, will belong to the world’s best IndyCar racers as about 200,000 fans watch them during the 51st annual Grand Prix.

Marcus Ericsson driving the purple and black indy car races against Rinus Veekay driving blue and white car race on Shoreline Drive, Long Beach on April 16, 2026

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Justin Enriquez

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Long Beach Post

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On Thursday night, families, fans and revelers got a taste of the high-energy fun with motocross stunt shows, exhibition races, classic car displays and pit crew competitions.

Audiences took their phones to record the final race for the Thunder Thursday event on Shoreline Drive by The Pike Outlets, in Long Beach, April 16, 2026 Photo by Justin Enriquez

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Justin Enriquez

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Long Beach Post

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Big Bang on the Bay, the July 3 fireworks show over Alamitos Bay, will be canceled this year after a last-ditch effort to allow fireworks was voted down by the California Coastal Commission.

Without the fireworks, what’s the point, longtime organizer John Morris said.

Morris, who owns the nearby Boathouse on the Bay restaurant, originally hoped to put on a larger-than-usual pyrotechnics display to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, but in January, Coastal Commission staff told him no. On Wednesday, the full panel of commissioners unanimously upheld that decision despite Morris’ appeal, which included letters of support from local, state and federal politicians asking the commission to allow fireworks.

The denial didn’t come as a surprise. The Coastal Commission warned Morris last year that 2025 would be the last time they allowed fireworks at the Big Bang. They’ve pushed for years for him to move to drones, which they say are more environmentally friendly.

Morris made the seven-hour drive from Long Beach to the Coastal Commission meeting in the city of Gonzalez to plead his case to them in person. But he got up to head to his car as soon as he heard the first “no” vote.

On Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom distanced himself from the commission’s decision. “This is NOT a decision the Governor made,” his press office said on X. “Our office is looking into this matter on behalf of the people of Long Beach!”

“It’s mind-boggling the way they treated me,” said Morris of the commission, which he has repeatedly criticized, including during the public comment period at Wednesday’s meeting.

He said he still doesn’t understand why his fireworks weren’t permitted when other shows, like the one in San Diego, have continued.

On the drive home, Morris said, he received calls from numerous Long Beach residents who were in disbelief that the fireworks show wouldn’t happen for the first time since it began in 2011.

Morris said the fireworks were the key to the Big Bang, which is a fundraiser for Long Beach charities. Donors kick in to pay for the show and the rest — close to $2 million over the years — goes to local nonprofits.

Morris estimated that “more than 50%” of his donors would not accept seeing a drone show instead. A drone show would also be roughly $140,000 more expensive to put on and cut significantly into the fundraiser’s proceeds, according to Morris.

Coastal Commission staff said they considered all of those factors, but deemed that drones are still less likely to pollute the bay or disrupt herons and egrets nesting nearby.

Morris’ relationship with the Coastal Commission has been openly hostile for years.

On Wednesday, Commissioner Dennis Rodoni said he only voted to allow fireworks last year because Morris agreed he would try to transition the show away from fireworks this year.

“This has already been voted on, and it was crystal clear to the applicant that that was the final year of fireworks,” said Commissioner Caryl Hart.

Morris said he met with city officials and commission staff three times since last May to talk about the feasibility of holding a drone show for the July 3 event but none of the three companies he met with could satisfy the conditions needed.

To allow a drone show anywhere in the city, the drones could only move vertically, cannot have anyone underneath the flight path and must take off and land from the same place, said a fire department spokesperson.

Commission staff disagreed with Morris’ assertion that a drone show is not possible over Alamitos Bay, and commissioners said he was given ample time to make it happen.

Lifesize cutouts of Deputy Ringo Starr next to the defunct bathroom, Freddy Krueger standing over the entrance, delicate china guarded by the Incredible Hulk‚ and 150 tons of books and magazines.

It is moving day at Planet Books, the 4,000-square-foot warehouse of used tomes, toys, life-size posters and delicate antiquities, and all of it must leave.

Store owner James Rappaport and manager Argyl Houser have spent the first half of the month packing, consolidating and bidding goodbye to the warehouse they have worked in since 2020. They must have it all out by the end of the month.

Around them, boxes line the narrow aisles, taped tight and labeled by genre. Some glass cases are emptied of their knick-knacks, some walls naked of their posters. Public radio, KJazz 88.1, remains on as usual, though Rappaport said the queue has been nonstop rock and blues.

“We had like three solid days of Eric Clapton,” he said with a smile.

It’s a swift change from months ago, when the two were told they needed to vacate by the end of April, risking either closure or confining their goods to storage as they struggled to find a new home.

“I couldn’t find anything within a thirty-mile radius that was under two dollars [per square foot],” Rappaport said.

Approaching the store’s 30th anniversary, the two are set to celebrate in a new location, a former furniture store turned sound studio at 1819 Redondo Ave. — the second time the bookstore has moved since it opened in 1998.

The new place is larger — by about 600 square feet — and twice the cost to rent. It’ll also be a year-long sublease before they can lease it on their own. But it’s a needed move, one that offers the opportunity to organize, consolidate and rebuild their vision of a bookstore that the two have talked about for years but never had the momentum to act on.

“It’s a huge amount of work, but it’s also an opportunity to make the store just the way we wanted … an opportunity to really make the store shine,” Houser said.

The two plan to downsize a tenth of their stock through donations to nearby schools, shelters and prisons. They’re giving away half of their hardcover mysteries, at least half of their small paperbacks and looking to downsize their knick-knacks. Rappaport is also selling his treasured vinyl collection.

“It’s been in the back for years, and I’ve finally decided I’ve got to start selling my things, getting too old to save everything,” Rappaport said.

The new store, they envision, will have art books in the front; specialty vintage will rest in the back left and leatherbound classics will have the windowed area to the right. Their rarest tomes, currently spread across five locations in the store, will be consolidated and put in a glass display.

They want better seating and wider aisles, envisioning a trendy establishment where customers can sit at tables and couches and sip cappuccinos or listen to live music — preferably jazz or blues — and enjoy poetry readings or book signings.

It’s a bittersweet move and a goodbye to a long chapter of the bookstore’s history. But with change comes the relief of certainty, a fresh start and finally, two new toilets that actually work.