The Brief

The vast majority of landlords filing evictions in the L.A. area have attorneys, but few tenants show up to court with legal representation.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors wants to change that. On Tuesday, they voted 5 to 0 to take the first step toward creating a program that would provide free attorneys to tenants in danger of losing their homes.

“We're in the middle of a housing crisis, and it's important to keep people housed,” said Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who co-authored the proposal. “Legal representation is expensive and unaffordable to far too many working people.”

Free legal won’t be available immediately. The vote in support of a “right to counsel” program directed county staff to develop a draft ordinance that could be voted on 10 months from now.

The first phase of the program envisioned by county leaders would only apply to low-income renters in unincorporated parts of L.A. County. The supervisors said their plan is to eventually create a universal, countywide program by 2030, depending on funding.

As mayor of West Hollywood, an eviction notice

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, the only renter on the board, said her yes vote in part stemmed from personal experience. She said back when she was the mayor of West Hollywood, her landlord taped a three-day eviction notice to her door, despite her always paying rent on time.

“If they are willing to do this to a mayor of a city — a city that at the time fought for renters — they are certainly willing to do this to people who have far fewer resources,” Horvath said. “If I hadn't had friends who had legal training to protect me, I don't know what would have happened.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, dozens of tenants lined up to deliver public comment in support of the proposal. Many recounted personal stories of struggling to navigate confusing eviction proceedings without the help of an attorney.

“My experience of what it feels like when you have no legal representation when they try to evict you was horrible,” said renter Edgar Valencia, who said he was ultimately able to find legal aid through local nonprofits. “Some of us barely can afford to pay the high rent with our income, much less will we be able to pay for a lawyer.”

Studies across the country have found that most tenants without legal representation lose their cases, but that the likelihood of staying housed significantly increases when tenants receive legal help. Cities such as New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco have passed some form of right to counsel.

Cost and timeline concerns

Landlord advocates also spoke during the meeting, opposing the plan over questions of cost-effectiveness. They said in many cases, giving tenants rent relief funds to cover shortfalls would make more sense than paying attorneys to intervene in disputes.

“It costs thousands of dollars to provide legal counsel for one case. Tax dollars can go much further through a rental subsidy,” said Fred Sutton, L.A. spokesperson for the California Apartment Association. “[A right to counsel program] only delays the process and does not stop a lawful claim to reclaim your property.”

The county’s timeline for launching a right to counsel program will leave out renters facing eviction now or in the near future as a result of L.A.’s COVID-19 protections going away earlier this year.

“We certainly would have liked to see a shorter timeline,” said Sasha Harnden, a policy advocate for the Inner City Law Center, who supports the proposal. “But it's true that we need a big expansion of these services and of the attorneys who provide them. We're glad that the county is not simply turning on a fire hose right away.”

Pablo Estupiñan, head of the L.A. Right To Counsel Coalition, estimates that there are about 50 eviction defense attorneys currently helping low-income renters across L.A. County. He said to meet demand from every tenant who needs help, the county would need about 400 attorneys.

Estupiñan said his group is working to train law students and build a pipeline of attorneys interested in housing law.

“We want to build a movement of lawyers dedicated to eviction defense,” he said.

Where to get help now

Currently, the city and county of Los Angeles are funding StayHousedLA.org, an umbrella organization made up of tenant advocacy groups. For renters who need help now, they provide legal assistance and in some cases full legal representation to those who’ve faced eviction since the start of the pandemic.

The county’s right to counsel proposal comes on the heels of a similar effort in the city of L.A. Councilmembers there voted in March to instruct the city’s housing department to report back within 60 days on plans for implementing a right to counsel program, but that report is now overdue. The council is currently on recess until the end of July.

Funding source still unclear 

In late 2019, the policy consulting firm Stout estimated that creating a right to counsel throughout L.A. County would cost about $47 million per year, not including the cost of providing lawyers to renters who live within the city of L.A. The Stout consultants also concluded those dollars would be recouped by saving the county about $227 million in costs that would typically be spent on homelessness aid and other services to tenants who could otherwise be evicted.

It’s not yet clear how the program will be funded. Mitchell, the county supervisor, suggested the funding for the right to counsel program could eventually come from the L.A. County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, a new body tasked with developing solutions for the region’s housing crisis and convincing voters to fund efforts through future ballot measures.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger voted for the proposal, but said the county will have to keep an eye on how any future funds are spent.

“I want to make sure that these programs are utilized by those in the most need, and not commandeered by bad actors looking to exploit resources,” Barger said. “We do not have a sustainable funding source identified at this time.”

An East Hollywood nursing home that nearly lost its license this year because of repeated state citations for deaths of residents at the facility was cited again last month after another person died.

The California Department of Public Health cited Brier Oak on Sunset after a 92-year-old resident bled to death on Sept. 27. Staff members had continued injecting her with blood thinners over a 40-hour period in violation of clinical guidelines.

It’s an AA citation, the most severe the department issues when violations of care standards are determined to be a substantial factor in someone’s death. The facility faces a $120,000 fine.

These kinds of citations are rare. The department has recently issued, on average, fewer than 20 AA citations yearly across more than 1,200 skilled nursing facilities in California.

Brier Oak has received three AA citations for patient deaths since late 2022.

State regulations require authorities to suspend or revoke the licenses of any facilities that get two AA citations within a period of 24 months.

The state Public Health Department began that process with Brier Oak in May based on resident deaths in 2022 and 2024. But officials dropped that effort later because they say they determined the two patient deaths had occurred 26 months apart — just outside of the two-year window.

A spokesperson for the company that owns Brier Oak told LAist it has appealed the first two citations and is considering whether to appeal the third.

Advocates for nursing home residents say the recent death could have been avoided if the state had taken action.

“There were red flags, and a lot of these red flags existed prior to the death of this poor resident,” said Tony Chicotel, senior staff attorney with  California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

The state said Brier Oak has until Dec. 19 to notify the department if it intends to appeal.

What led to the patient deaths?

In the recent death at Brier Oak cited by the state, multiple communication and technical failures by nursing staff led to the patient bleeding out over a period of 40 hours, according to the citation.

The 92-year-old patient was immobile and had been prescribed a blood thinner called heparin to help prevent blood clots from forming. But once a patient is bleeding, those injections make bleeding worse, and potentially fatal.

When nursing staff found bright red blood in the resident’s diaper the day before she died, Brier Oak failed to follow established processes for documenting the bleeding or communicating it to a nurse practitioner or medical doctor, according to the citation.

Nurses told state authorities they delayed informing physicians because they “get mad” when contacted in the middle of the night.

The facility’s staff also failed to fully assess the patient to determine the possible causes of the bleeding and or to properly monitor the issue during crucial periods, according to the citation.

She suffered four internal bleeding episodes over 40 hours and continued to receive blood thinner injections.

The citation says a nurse practitioner at Brier Oak told state licensing authorities later that if she’d been informed about the patient’s ongoing bleeding, she would have stopped the blood thinner and sent her to a hospital.

In 2022, Brier Oak received a AA citation after a 62-year-old woman died from respiratory failure in part because nurses hadn’t been trained to operate her breathing machine.

In 2024, the nursing home got another AA citation. This time, a 63-year-old woman with paraplegia and severe obesity fell from her bed and died while a nursing assistant was changing her. The assistant was alone, even though the woman’s care plan required two staff members.

Who owns Brier Oak?

Brier Oak on Sunset is primarily owned by Genesis Healthcare, a publicly-traded nursing home operator that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July.

Once the largest nursing home operator in the U.S., Genesis was facing billions in debt when it declared bankruptcy, according to court filings. That includes millions in potential damages from lawsuits related to patient care failures.

In a brief statement to LAist, a company spokesperson said it's still considering whether or not to appeal the recent citation at Brier Oak.

The citation should trigger a suspension or revocation of the facility's license, according to state regulations. The latter means it would have to close its doors. The two most recent deaths and citations at the facility occurred within the two-year window.

The California Department of Public Health confirmed it cited Brier Oak on Nov. 26.

The department said the facility submitted a required written response before a Dec. 6 deadline, showing how it will fix the problems and prevent them from happening again..

The department determined Brier Oak was back in compliance during an onsite visit last week, a representative told LAist.

Brier Oak on Sunset currently houses about 150 patients, according to state records.

A bankruptcy judge has stalled the proposed sale of Genesis Healthcare to an affiliate of one of its investors.

Experts say it’s unclear whether the state would revoke the license of an owner who is actively trying to sell and turn over operations to someone else.

It’s been a rough start to ski and snowboard season for California mountain towns. Snowfall is well below average, but Christmas could come with some of the white stuff. Here's where things stand:

Hmmm. Didn’t we just have a record storm?

Yes. That big atmospheric river that hit Southern California last month made it one of the wettest Novembers on records. But since then, it’s been unusually warm and dry, which is not good for mountain towns that depend on snow, and the outdoor enthusiasts that flock to them.

How bad is it?

California’s snowpack is about 20% of normal for this time of the year, according to the state’s snow-tracking website. Southern California isn’t quite as bad off — we’ve gotten about half our normal snowfall so far.

As for the resorts, only about 20% of the terrain at Bear Mountain in Big Bear is open. About 35% of Mammoth Mountain is open.

Can’t they just make snow?

They are, but the unusually warm temperatures have curbed resorts’ ability to make enough snow to open more terrain. “If you're blowing water into 40-degrees, it's going to stay water,” said Justin Kanton, a spokesperson for Big Bear Mountain Resort. “ So as much as people probably would want us to just crank the snow guns all day, every day up here and just get things moving, that's not really possible.”

But there’s a silver lining!

The dry weather has allowed Caltrans to make good progress toward opening Highway 38, said Evan Engle, who chairs the board of the Big Bear Chamber of Commerce. The road typically handles up to 40% of traffic up to the mountain town, Engle said. But it’s been closed since September when it got washed out by Tropical Storm Mario.

Getting it open as soon as possible is key to keeping visitor traffic manageable, and getting supplies to Big Bear.

What’s the snow outlook?

SoCal mountains are likely to see some precipitation around Christmas, said Kyle Wheeler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. But with temperatures not expected to drop much, it’s uncertain how much of it will be white, Wheeler said.

If you go to Big Bear: 

• If you plan to hit the slopes, get on it early, when the snow is at its best given the warm conditions. 
• No snow? There’s more to do than ski and snowboard. Check this list of winter fun events.  
• Worried about traffic? Consider going up earlier in the week. If you can’t do that, consider taking Highway 18 through Lucerne Valley. It’s a longer route if you’re coming from L.A., but less traveled, and less likely to make you car sick (fewer tight curves). 

The Los Angeles Police Department used more than 2,400 crowd control munitions in response to protests from June 6 to 14, according to a new report.

Officers used a total of 2,431 less-lethal projectile rounds and 35 canisters of tear gas over the nine days, according to LAPD reports. The department recorded 12 injuries officers caused with those weapons.

The LAPD released the missing report last week after LAist identified the use of crowd control weapons on four different days in June that had not been reported according to state law. Assembly Bill 48, which went into effect in 2022, limits when and how crowd control weapons can be used, and requires law enforcement agencies to publicly release reports on their use within 60 days.

A 30-day extension for these reports can be granted in some cases, but the LAPD released this report about three months late even if an extension was justified.

Officials acknowledged they were out of compliance on Dec. 10 before releasing the report, saying the delay “stems from the extraordinary volume and complexity of incidents” over that time.

This report is different from others

It is unusual for a crowd control report to include more than one day, and the report for June 9 through 14 covered six days and “45 sepearte [sic] non categorical use of force incidents.”

It does not describe any of those use of force incidents specifically, and the LAPD has not yet responded to LAist’s request for more detailed descriptions of those incidents.

The report also considered the entire six days to have been one continuous protest, though it included several anti-ICE protests over the week and the national “No Kings” protest on June 14.

Two reports released earlier this year for June 6 and 8 covered single days and provided more detailed descriptions of incidents where the LAPD used less-lethal munitions against protesters.