The Brief

Los Angeles County is planning to shift more than $300 million in funding away from the regional homeless services agency and toward the county’s first-ever homelessness department.

The blueprint for the new department is an existing county effort known as Housing for Health, which attempts to provide homes and support to people with serious physical or behavioral conditions.

The idea is that once a person has a stable living environment, most other aspects of their lives can become more stable as well, including health.

"From the beginning at Housing for Health, we really have tried to center the people we're serving,” said Housing for Health Director Sarah Mahin. “We will walk alongside someone for as long as it takes to help bring them inside.”

And it’s been successful, county authorities say.

Of the 1,100 clients who left shelters through the Housing for Health program last year, 37% landed in permanent housing, according to the county. By comparison, 29% of those who left shelters within the county’s broader network ended up housed, according to regional data.

Citing problems with transparency and oversight, L.A. County voted earlier this month to pull its funding out of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. A series of audits found that LAHSA, which is funded by both the city and county of Los Angeles, had improperly accounted for billions in taxpayer dollars.

Those findings prompted a federal fraud investigation, launched last week.

What the supervisors say

When the Board of Supervisors voted to create a new homelessness department within the county government, they stressed that they wanted it grounded in the idea that housing was key to a person’s overall well-being.

“I want to be clear that this is not more government, it is better government,” said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath at a board meeting this month. “And the gold standard exists right here in the county's Department of Health Services. It's called Housing for Health.”

Horvath led the effort to pull county funding from LAHSA.

“The status quo needs to change,” she said. “When seven people a day die on our streets in Los Angeles County, our need is urgent.”

Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who abstained from the vote to pull out of LAHSA, said she wanted more evidence that a new department would be more effective and accountable.

“I just want us as a policymaking body to make sure that we are using every tool in our toolkit to make sure that what we've created is better than what we're trying to move away from,” Mitchell said.

A homeless person walks by a closed business in Santa Monica.

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Bringing people inside

There are more than 75,000 people experiencing homelessness across L.A. County, according to last year’s point-in-time count. The county now has billions in funds from state, federal and local sources that it’s using to address the crisis, including an influx of new sales tax dollars flowing in under Measure A, approved by voters in November.

Housing for Health began in 2012 as a “prescription for housing” for people known to make frequent trips to county-run hospitals for all their healthcare needs. The initial goal was to cut down on costly emergency room visits.

The program expanded in 2017 because of federal dollars from Medi-Cal and county dollars from voter-approved Measure H.

Last year, Housing for Health served 57,000 people with a budget of $875 million and more than 600 staff. Working with various service providers, the program operated 3,200 temporary housing beds and placed nearly 5,000 people into permanent supportive housing, according to the county.

When it comes to housing placement, the program’s performance last year is comparable to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe, which has also placed 37% of clients who left interim housing into permanent homes since it launched in 2022, according to the city.

Housing authorities also say Housing for Health has shown some success at getting people who have been living on the street into housing after its outreach teams make initial contact. In 2024, the teams connected 6% of people they contacted with housing.

That compares with 2.5% in outreach programs across the region, according to LAHSA.

Many of those programs do not include clinicians — medical professionals who can assess health needs and refer patients to doctors for further treatment.

Fostering a ‘culture of care’

Housing for Health provides homeless services across a spectrum, from prevention to permanent housing.

Its prevention unit has a 90% success rate at keeping clients housed, and 94% of its permanent housing residents remain housed after one year, according to the Department of Health Services.

LAist asked for data it could use to compare those rates to other programs, but LAHSA did not provide it.

Gary Blasi, a retired UCLA law professor who has tracked homelessness policy for more than 40 years, said Housing for Health has a strong “culture of care,” meaning its staff are willing to meet people where they are.

“That’s different from a lot of the so-called human services parts of the county that are really about managing people rather than caring for them,” he said.

Ferrino Norris has experienced that approach firsthand. He said a Housing for Health social worker helped him get medication for bipolar disorder a few years ago.

“He's always supportive to everybody here," Norris said. "He's got a good attitude, personality, everything. He's ... awesome.”

The Star Apartments in Skid Row house more than 100 people with health needs. Housing for Health's offices and flagship clinic are on the ground floor.

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Nearly a quarter of all homeless residents in L.A. County have serious mental illness, and 27% have a substance use disorder, according to data from the 2024 Homeless Point-In-Time Count.

In 2022, UC San Francisco conducted a massive statewide survey of people experiencing homelessness and found that 60% of participants reported having at least one chronic health condition.

Studies show that moving chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing significantly reduces costs associated with them living on the street.

A 2017 RAND Corporation study found that Housing for Health's permanent supportive housing program saved the county 20% in costs because of fewer hospital visits and jail stays. The average cost per person decreased from about $38,000 in the year before they received housing to $15,000 in the year after.

However, researchers caution against focusing solely on savings. This kind of housing, with intensive case management and medical support, is expensive, and many clients are housed for the rest of their lives.

The RAND study didn’t look at long-term costs.

“The cost will escalate over time,” said RAND researcher Sarah Hunter, who led the study. “You don't always find huge cost savings from these programs. They're more likely to be sort of cost neutral, but you are addressing chronic homelessness, and that's what they were designed to do.”

Accountability and transparency

County supervisors say the feedback they’ve received from service providers is mostly positive. They described Housing for Health’s contracting and accounting practices as “scrupulous” and “hands-on.”

Other observers agreed.

"They follow their protocols very strictly," said Blasi. "If you don't have notes to prove that you provided those services, you're going to have to explain that. I don't think that happens with most of the contractors for the other government agencies.”

A recent audit revealed LAHSA does not monitor its contracts with service providers while those contracts are in effect. In contrast, Housing for Health actively manages each of its service contracts and reviews data continuously, said Mahin, director of Housing for Health.

“We're not just doing it annually,” she said. “We’re doing it every day. We're also on the ground with our providers. We go to their sites and see how things are operating.”

She said providers are required to document every service they provide.

“If they're not providing the minimum level of service, we actually do contractor discrepancy reports and we will recoup payments if they haven't provided the minimum level of service that we expect,” Mahin said.

An apartment building in Pomona leases through the Housing for Health program.

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The road ahead

The new county homelessness department is expected to be fully operational by summer 2026.

L.A. County officials are executing a risky transition: overhauling the entire homeless service delivery system without interrupting critical services. The new department is expected to have double the staff and budget as Housing for Health and will take on many of the responsibilities that LAHSA currently handles.

“It's a monumental administrative and bureaucratic system that they are inheriting,” said Blasi. “A lot of it is not healthcare. There's no reason for administrators in [Department of Health Services] to know anything about monitoring things that have nothing to do with healthcare.”

Some L.A. city leaders, while supportive of Housing for Health, remain skeptical of the county’s move away from LAHSA and toward an entirely new county department.

“What I fear most is that we are moving the money from one bureaucracy to another,” said L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman.

The new funding pouring into the county’s coffers through Measure A comes with requirements that the homeless services sector work towards specific goals and allows residents to track progress. The new department will be responsible for that.

“We’re always looking at how we can do things better,” Mahin said. “We don't pretend that we have the answers for everything, or that our system is perfect.”

She continued: “I think this is an exciting step for the county, but it's not a silver bullet.”

LAist reporter Nick Gerda contributed to this report.

A refrigerated warehouse operated by Lineage Logistics has burned in Boyle Heights for nearly a week. Public health officials are urging residents nearby and downwind to protect themselves from the smoky air.

But what exactly is in the air is still unclear.

Authorities say they’ve cleared the most hazardous materials — ammonia and lithium-ion batteries — from the fire zone. A spokesperson for the L.A. Fire Department said foam insulation, wood pallets of food, and solar panels on top of the 500,000 square-foot building continue to smolder.

Materials including plastics, electronics and even rotting meat are likely burning, which means the pollution particles emitted “tend to be highly enriched with toxic organics, toxic metals, that are above and beyond what just normal, day-to-day air pollution would look like,” said UCLA air pollution researcher Yifang Zhu.

She said air quality indexes may capture the concentration of particulate matter in the air, but not necessarily the specific toxins in them.

“You'll have almost like a double jeopardy in a sense that the levels [of particulate matter] are higher, and the toxicity is also higher,” she said.

Measuring heavy metals or volatile organic compounds requires special monitoring equipment, Zhu said.

“It’s very difficult to measure,” she said.

But she suspects at least some types of health-harming heavy metals are likely to be in the smoke.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado on Monday called for more specifics about what is in the smoke.

People “shouldn't have to guess about what they're breathing or rely on rumors, scattered information and updates, and incomplete information,” she said at a news conference. Jurado, whose council district includes Boyle Heights, added that data from regulators, such as the South Coast Air Quality Management District, should be released in clear, understandable language in English and Spanish.

The South Coast AQMD told LAist before Jurado spoke that the agency has monitors that measure particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, but not other types of pollutants. The agency said it has set up additional monitors at Eastman Avenue Elementary and Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School. The agency added that the Environmental Protection Agency is also monitoring air quality at the fence line of the facility. LAist has reached out to the EPA for details.

Zhu added that even when the fire is eventually put out, the cleanup can kick up even more pollution — a lesson learned through her research after the L.A. fires.

“ I think people really need to take precautions,” Zhu said, emphasizing that those closest to the fire and downwind should avoid being outside as much as possible, keep windows closed, run a HEPA or MERV 13 air filter, and wear an N95 or similar mask otherwise.

UC Irvine toxicology professor Michael Kleinman said if thawed meat is also burning, that could lead to further toxic gases being released.

Experts urged precautions, especially if you smell smoke.

“ For people who are very close to the fire, like the firefighters themselves, they have exposure to both particulate matter and potential toxic gases, and that's why you'll see them wearing respirators,” said UC Irvine chemistry professor Suzanne Blum. “But once you're some feet away from the building, then the primary concern is the particulate smoke that is coming from this fire.”

As the Boyle Heights warehouse fire burns into its sixth day, SoCal residents are increasingly concerned about the air quality and potential health risks that come with breathing in the smoke. So, what alerts have been issued so far and how can residents be prepared?

Both Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency on Saturday, a designation that helps California coordinate with local agencies to make sure there are enough resources for the firefight and residents who have been affected after a fire started at a cold storage industrial facility. Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said at a press conference Monday that  the county is "delivering supplies, air filters, and air purifiers" to local households.

Los Angeles County public health officials and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) also issued a particle pollution advisory that remained in effect until today. Affected areas included: Central Los Angeles County, the San Gabriel Valley, East San Fernando Valley and Northwest San Bernardino Valley.

Although recent air quality readings appear as “moderate” to “good” on South Coast AQMD’s website, the fire is still burning and might be for a few more days.

So what can SoCal residents do to protect themselves?

If the air quality index reads “good” or “poses little to no risk” in some areas, hazardous ash can still be present. If you see ash on your car, or windowsills, you might want to stay inside if possible. In “moderate” or yellow zones, unusually sensitive people are also recommended to avoid longer periods outside.

In the next few days, some might notice windblown ash floating in the air or coating outdoor surfaces. These particles are otherwise known as “fine particulate matter,” which consists of soot, burned plastic and perhaps even traces of the spoiling frozen food from inside the warehouse.

Why that matters

Too much exposure from these materials may cause temporary irritation to the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. If you suffer from health issues that are exacerbated by poor air quality, like respiratory illnesses, you may be affected by these conditions even more.

Four expert tips to protect yourself and your family:

• If you smell smoke or see ash, try to remain indoors with the windows closed. If you can’t, consider stepping outside with an N-95 mask, and refrain from engaging in any rigorous physical activity. 
• In your homes, also avoid using whole house fans (air conditioning is okay), as they can bring in the polluted air from outdoors. 
• If you have an air purifier, this is the time to use it. 
• Avoid using fireplaces, candles and vacuums, as they can introduce toxins into the clean, indoor environment.

For more guidance on precautions following the fires, visit Los Angeles County’s public health website for more. South Coast AQMD’s website also has more healthy and safety tips.

Updated June 22, 2026 at 16:22 PM ET

Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi has broken the record for most World Cup scoring.

Messi made the record goal, his 17th, during the first half of Monday's game against Austria. It was a heated match. Austria attacked relentlessly, and Argentina relied on its defense and on goalkeeper Emiliano "Dibu" Martinez. And, near the end in stoppage time, Messi scored again, finishing off at 2-0.

The team captain started off the World Cup with a bang: in the opener against Algeria, Messi scored a hat trick: three goals. A rare feat in soccer. He has scored all five goals for Argentina this World Cup. With the win, Argentina advances to the knockout round.

Messi hails from the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, an area known for producing excellent players. He faced challenges at an early age: he had a hormonal growth deficiency, which was difficult to treat in his hometown, given the severe economic crisis facing Argentina in the late 1990s. By 2001, the Messi family had decided to accept an offer for him to join La Masia, FC Barcelona's youth academy, in Spain. Messi was 13 years old.

It was at Barca that he rose to fame and developed his unique style of walking the pitch, patiently waiting for the right opportunity to jump on the ball, dribble skillfully past his opponents, and score.

Argentina's Lionel Messi, now the all-time World Cup scoring leader, celebrates scoring his team's second goal during the FIFA World Cup 2026 group match against Austria.

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Although a legend of Barca and European soccer, he often expressed a desire to play for the Argentine national team in a World Cup. He got his chance in his 20's, but it wasn't smooth: he was widely seen as a foreigner who had not paid his dues in the Argentine soccer system. His measured, calculating style of play was often misunderstood in South America, where players tended to have a quicker, more aggressive technique.

There were several World Cup attempts that were disappointing, and after the 2016 World Cup, he announced he would not be playing again. "It's over," he said outside the locker room, visibly shaken. "I tried so hard, it is unbelievable, but it hasn't worked. Me and this team are through."

The tides turned under the leadership of Argentine Coach Lionel Scaloni, and Messi led the team to a Copa America victory in 2021. Argentina won the World Cup the following year.

This is Messi's sixth World Cup and he's considered one of the best players in soccer history.

Messi also surpassed Brazilian superstar Marta, who had scored 17 goals at the Women's World Cup.

Copyright 2026 NPR

More than two dozen state historic parks are free through the end of the year in honor of Juneteenth — and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the free “special edition Historian Passport,” which typically costs $50, as a rebuke to President Donald Trump’s attempts to “rewrite the past,” according to a news release by the governor’s office.

Since his inauguration, Trump has ordered staff working at all National Park Service locations to remove any content that casts Americans in a negative light from parks, monuments and memorials.

“California doesn’t hide from hard truths and uncomfortable history — in fact, we embrace it and learn from it,” Newsom wrote.

Until July 6, Californians can download the state historic park pass for free and use it as many times as they want through the end of 2026. The pass gives free entry to state historic parks for up to four people.

The Historian Passport grants entry to more than 30 state historic parks, including parks like Olompali and Malakoff Diggins which, rather than just providing outdoor recreation, also have an educational emphasis on the state’s history.

Jack London State Historic Park in Napa Valley, California.

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Many of these parks tell the story of the state’s cultural or indigenous history, from missions and museums to temples and the site that sparked the California Gold Rush.

Newsom made a similar move to make state parks free for Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, in response to Trump’s decision to eliminate the holiday from the list of fee-free days at national parks across the country, replacing it with his birthday on Flag Day.

How to get your free Historian Passport for up to four people

You must make an account with the state’s reservation site ReserveCalifornia.com to obtain a Historian Pass. Then, visit the site’s Advance Passes page and select “Special Edition Historian Passport” from the dropdown menu, which will show as costing $0. No payment information is required.

After checking out, you’ll receive an email with an attached PDF version of your Historian Passport.

The state recommends you print off this PDF to present at any California state historic park for free entry, although you may just be able to show the image on your phone too.

Bear in mind that cellphone service may be poor at many state historic parks, so it’s worth screenshotting the PDF to save it as an image on your phone in case you’re unable to search your email.

Looking for free entry to other state parks that aren’t included in the Historian Passport? Consider checking out a parks pass from your local library, which provides these passes as part of the California State Library Parks Pass program.

KQED’s Carly Severn contributed to this report.