The Brief

To slow the rise of homelessness, one program in Los Angeles County has been using artificial intelligence to find and offer help to people before they lose their housing.

The program has shown promise at preventing homelessness. But first, outreach workers need to convince people the help they’re offering isn’t a scam.

“We hear all the time from our clients that our program sounds too good to be true — what’s the catch?” said Dana Vanderford, head of the Homelessness Prevention Unit run by the L.A. County Department of Health Services.

The stakes are high for the prevention unit. Many policy experts have become convinced that L.A. County won’t solve its homelessness crisis by focusing only on the expensive, lengthy process of moving people from the streets into new housing.

Prevention advocates note that for all the people in L.A. who’ve been rehoused in recent years, more have become unhoused. This stark math recently helped persuade county leaders to vote against $21 million in planned budget cuts to prevention programs.

But the work of preventing homelessness is complicated. In many cases, the difference between keeping someone housed and watching them fall through the cracks comes down to a delicate human interaction — two strangers trying to establish trust in an unexpected phone call.

The art of building trust

In a Skid Row office building, Emily Gonzales-Zentgraf looked at a spreadsheet and dialed a phone number. This time, someone actually picked up.

“Hi,” Gonzales-Zentgraf said. “I'm calling from L.A. County's Department of Health Services Housing Stabilization Team. How are you doing today?”

The person on the other end said she was at a doctor’s appointment.

“OK, I'll give you a call later today,” Gonzales-Zentgraf said before making a note in her spreadsheet.

The goal was to get this person enrolled in services provided through the county’s prevention unit, a special initiative of the Department of Health Services’ Housing for Health program.

Housing for Health is now being cited as a model for the county’s new approach to funding homeless services. Last week, elected leaders voted to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding from the region’s troubled L.A. Homeless Services Authority.

The prevention unit can offer quick cash assistance for things like rent, medical care or car repairs. It also gives people six months of case management and help signing up for other county programs.

Gonzales-Zentgraf wasn’t able to sign up the person she reached on the phone for help yet. But she considered the call a success.

“Every time I'm able to have a conversation with someone, it's me building trust,” she said.

Many people eligible for help are unreachable

Outreach workers say they’re getting better at winning that trust. One strategy is to avoid the word “homeless.” They’ve found it can scare people. Instead of saying they’re with the county’s “Homelessness Prevention Unit,” they say they’re with the “Housing Stabilization Team.”

Improving the program’s contact success rate is critical. At last count, more than 75,000 people are experiencing homelessness in L.A. County. Even as thousands move into shelters and apartments each year, thousands of others become newly unhoused.

In the past, only about 21% of the people the prevention unit called ended up enrolling in the program. About half never called back at all.

“Phone numbers wouldn't work,” said Vanderford. “Voicemails would be left and not returned.”

She said the people they’re trying to reach are by nature difficult to contact. Many are sick and frequently in and out of hospitals. Some can’t afford reliable phone service. Others have been stung by past experiences with government programs.

“We've learned a lot in the last couple of years about what works in cold calling our clients, but we still get clients who hang up on us,” Vanderford said.

Dana Vanderford, associate director of homelessness prevention for L.A. County's Department of Health Services, stands in the call center where outreach workers try to establish connections with people on the brink of losing their housing.

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If calls, emails and physical mail all fail, the prevention unit will try to establish contact through a person’s medical provider. For now, the unit does not send text messages because of concerns about running afoul of federal telemarketing laws. Some hope that will change.

In a world where spam calls seemingly never cease, Vanderford said her team understands the need to patiently explain what the program is and what it offers.

“That's something that keeps us up at night,” she said. “There's some segment of eligible clients who we’re not reaching. But I think the trade off there is we know that we're reaching a group of people who have a really high level of need.”

Using AI to predict homelessness

County prevention workers know the people they’re reaching out to are at high risk of homelessness because they’re relying on a statistical model created by researchers with the University of California system’s California Policy Lab.

The model uses artificial intelligence to comb through county records on emergency room visits, psychiatric admissions, food assistance, arrests and other factors that put someone at high risk of becoming unhoused in the next 18 months.

Janey Rountree, executive director of the California Policy Lab, said the predictive model identifies people with about a 1-in-4 chance of becoming unhoused.

“What we know from the unit so far is that 90% of people complete the program and are still housed,” Rountree said. “Which is great.”

Rigorous studies on the program are still in the works. Results from a randomized control trial are expected in 2027.

Rountree said early results suggest preventing homelessness saves money in the long run. Research on the prevention unit shows that on average, it takes about $6,500 to stabilize a participant’s housing. Helping someone find new housing after they’re already living on the street tends to be much more expensive.

“Our system is trying to solve a crisis, and it does not have enough funding to do everything it needs to do,” she said. “The future, I think, is around thinking strategically around the maximum impact for dollars.”

Reaching out before people know they need help

Preventing homelessness is not as easy as it sounds. First, you need to know who is going to become unhoused. Otherwise, prevention dollars may end up going to people who — while seemingly vulnerable — were not likely to become unhoused in the first place.

Researchers say looking at eviction filings is not always a reliable way of predicting homelessness. Some renters who get evicted do become unhoused. But many do not. They might move in with family members or find cheaper housing elsewhere.

People at high risk of becoming unhoused are also likely to not be renting directly from a landlord. A 2023 UC San Francisco study found that in the months leading up to their homelessness, 49% of Californians were not lease-holders. Instead, they were chipping in on rent as a roommate or living somewhere for free.

All of this makes it extremely difficult to pinpoint who will become unhoused. Often, people don’t realize they’re on a slippery slope to homelessness. Many never think to ask for help.

Unlike programs in New York and Chicago, which rely on people calling a homelessness prevention support line and asking for aid, L.A. County’s program proactively finds people at high risk and calls them.

Research has shown the Angelenos identified by this model rarely ask for help on their own.

“We were not only finding a unique group, but we were finding a group that was more vulnerable,” Rountree said.

Armando Carrillo plays with his Pomeranian dogs, Snuggles and Elle, inside his living room in Arcadia on March 29, 2025. Enrolling in homelessness prevention services helped him secure pet food assistance through Pasadena Humane.

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Zaydee Sanchez

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He picked up a call that changed his life 

Armando Carrillo was part of that unique group. He had lost his job as an after-school tutor and was close to maxing out his credit cards when he got a call last year from an unknown number.

“I ended up trying to swipe it away, and I accidentally swiped it to answer,” said Carrillo, who lives in an Arcadia apartment with his disabled mother and two siblings.

At first, Carrillo was skeptical. He said he hadn’t asked for any help avoiding homelessness. But he later realized the offer was genuine after the county mailed him a letter confirming the offer.

By enrolling in the program, Carrillo found help covering his portion of the rent, paying down his debts and feeding his family’s pets. He said getting treated for anxiety and depression was critical in helping him find a new job as a special needs aid in a local school district.

Now Carrillo has stable housing. He said he’s glad he didn’t hang up the phone that day.

“I felt very, very, very lucky that I was one of the people considered to be helped because I would have ended up homeless," he said.

Carrillo said he understands why others don’t immediately answer the phone. But he urged people who get the calls to check their voicemail, even if they don’t pick up at first.

“It's OK to be skeptical,” he said. “Especially now, with everything that's going on, a lot of scams and all that… All it takes is looking [the prevention unit] up on Google. Within 10 seconds, you know that they're a legit organization.”

The unions representing Los Angeles Unified teachers and support staff have given the district a "red line" of April 14 to reach a deal for new contracts, or else face an open-ended strike.

The walkout was announced at a rally Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles that brought together thousands of members of United Teachers Los Angeles, SEIU Local 99 and Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, an increasingly active union that represents principals and other education leaders.

“We have a common vision, and we're in it together,” said Maria Nichols, president of AALA. “We’re understaffed, we're overworked, we don't have the necessary resources to really say we have safe schools and to really say that we're servicing students.”

All three unions have been negotiating with the district over pay, benefits and additional support for students for more than a year.

In response to the rally, LAUSD issued a statement and plans to hold a press conference Thursday morning.

“Los Angeles Unified is actively engaged in negotiations with our labor partners and remains committed to reaching agreements that balance the needs of students, families, and staff while ensuring long-term fiscal stability,” the statement read.

What happens now?

A strike would almost certainly shutter schools for about 400,000 students, as was the case during a three-day work stoppage in 2023.

Emily Reyes, a fifth grade teacher at Laurel Cinematic Arts near West Hollywood, says she hopes families understand why a strike may be necessary.

“A strike this year ensures that your children are going to get all the resources that they need in the classroom, that they're given the best teaching resources,” she said.

The unions are seeking increases in pay for their members. The district has said it cannot afford what the unions have proposed.

The unions are still working their way through the bargaining process, but have said the district's offers do not meet their demands. UTLA appealed to LAUSD’s board ahead of a committee meeting Tuesday.

“We can settle this contract before we have to go on strike if you all are active in that process,” Julie Van Winkle, UTLA's vice president said. “But if that doesn’t happen then we’re still ready to go because we need to be able to afford to live in our cities and we need our schools to have basic resources.”

Los Angeles Unified has maintained that it values employees, but needs to make tough financial decisions to reduce an ongoing budget deficit. This month, layoff notices were sent to more than 650 LAUSD employees, including hundreds of support staff.

Danny Martinez teaches art at Mendez High School in Boyle Heights. He’s witnessed multiple strikes over his 20 years in the district.

“They were tough, but worthwhile,” Martinez said. “We did get a certain raise and stuff, but you know what, how the economy is right now, everything goes up, but our pay doesn't.”

How did we get here?

Earlier this year, members of United Teachers Los Angeles and SEIU Local 99 voted overwhelmingly to give their leaders the power to call a strike as negotiations over pay and benefits stalled.

UTLA’s bargaining team has met with the district more than a dozen times since negotiations began last February. The union declared an impasse in December, a legal step that triggers intervention from a neutral mediator appointed by the state’s labor relations board. That stage of the process, “fact finding,” ended this month without resolution.

The teachers union seeks 17% raises for educators over two years and changes to the salary schedule so that newer teachers who complete professional development can earn increases more quickly.

The district has countered with an 8% salary increase and 3% one-time bonus over two years. Here are the other details of the district’s proposal.

SEIU’s contract, meanwhile, expired in June 2024. That union wants 30% wage increases over three years and more hours for workers who don’t have enough to qualify for benefits.

Maria Avalos is a supervision aide at Fernangeles Elementary School in Sun Valley. Avalos said she’s only assigned four hours of work a day and also cleans houses and sells tamales to support her daughter.

“We need more hours,” Avalos said. “I live in an apartment that has one bedroom for ten of us.”

The district has countered with a 13% wage increase over three years. Here are other details of the district’s proposal.

Associated Administrators of Los Angeles declared an impasse in February, an assessment the district disagreed with, but it agreed to continue negotiating and has another meeting scheduled Friday.

The union’s primary demands include salary increases, a reduced workload and the ability to use flex time more easily.

“Our intent is not to disrupt schools and students and families,” Nichols said. “Our intent is to get a fair and equitable contract, [and] dignity and respect for the folks.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

For 15 years, The Garage Board Shop in East L.A. has been a safe, welcoming place for students to go to do their homework, get tutoring, hang out with their friends and learn how to skate through its Skate 4 Education after-school program. 

But the program was put on pause Saturday after mounting issues, including a lapse from the initiative that has provided paid mentors and dwindling sales at the shop caused by immigration raids. Skate 4 Education founder Maria Patricia Ramblaz said she’s now looking for new funding sources to bring the after-school program back, but its future remains in limbo.

“Our best option to ensure the program continues for future generations is a momentary pause to not only find funding but also regroup as a team to see how we will work moving forward,” wrote Ramblaz, who runs The Garage Board Shop as well as The Urban Warehouse nonprofit organization, in a letter sent to partners, sponsors and community members Friday.

The abrupt closure of the program has left parents saddened and worried their children’s grades and personal development will also be affected.

Ramblaz, known by students as Ms. Patty, told Boyle Heights Beat that when she announced the news last week, the kids sprang into action to brainstorm ways to save the program. 

They planned to spread the word about the program by making TikTok videos and handing out flyers to their friends and teachers at school. One girl handed Ramblaz two folded dollar bills she had in her pocket that day, a gesture that Ramblaz said filled her heart with joy and sadness. 

“These kids should be the next governor, the next mayor, but because we’re cutting the education, I don’t think it’s gonna give us a chance to open more bridges for the kids,” Ramblaz said. 

A place for students to thrive 

When Rose Duran, 10, went home after learning the program would shut down, she surprised her parents with her idea to bring it back. 

“I don’t want a quinceañera anymore,” she told her mother, Itzel Tlapalco, asking to donate the money that her family has been saving for her huge, coming-of-age celebration for years. “I want to help Miss Patty.” 

Rose has been attending the Skate 4 Education after-school program since she was 7 years old, following in the footsteps of her older brother, who got involved after walking into the store to buy a skateboard with his parents over three years ago, Tlapalco said. 

Maria Patricia Ramblaz talks to Itzel Tlapalco and Guillermo Duran about the Skate 4 Education program being put on pause inside The Garage Board Shop on Thursday, March 12.

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Tlapalco and Guillermo Duran said their son was struggling in math at the time, and soon after starting, they saw significant improvement in his grades thanks to the tutoring and attentiveness of the mentors at the program. 

“It helped him a lot; he developed significantly at school, and he came here to learn even more,” Duran said in Spanish. They saw the same improvement when their daughter began participating, too. 

Tlapalco said she has tried to understand her daughter’s homework, but she can’t help as well as the mentors at The Garage Board Shop do. She’s now worried her grades will take a hit. 

Bernardo Lopez has been bringing his two daughters, Eliana and Emily, to the after-school program for over a year and said the girls offered to donate their birthday money to save it. They have also been spreading the word to their friends at school, Lopez said. 

The program has been a great way for his daughters to socialize with other children and stay off of their phones and tablets, he added. “That’s really important because they don’t have that anymore,” he said. 
”I feel like kids don’t have that anymore.” 

A plan to keep it going

The program began 15 years ago, when Ramblaz set out to create the type of education program that she needed when she was a young student growing up in Boyle Heights. 

Maria Patricia Ramblaz stands in the classroom located at the back of The Garage Skate Shop on Thursday, March 12.

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Over the years, with the help of grants from the county and organizations including L.A. Care, LA2050, Nike and Southern California Edison, Ramblaz was able to create a multifaceted program with paid mentors via America’s Job Center of California, offering students homework help and working with them on projects and activities. Through getting good grades and completing their assignments, students were rewarded with skate supplies at the shop, giving them a place where they could not only stay on track in school, but also spend time with friends and lean into their skating hobby. 

Ramblaz said that this school year, AJCC was only able to provide paid mentors through December, with a new cohort set to start in July. Normally, she’d cover the gap out-of-pocket, but over the last year, her business has faced rising costs and the lasting effects of immigration raids. 

Last June, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids hit her business hard. She went from making $400 a day on average to suddenly only making one or two sales per day in the weeks following the raids. Now, sales have steadily gone up, but it’s still not like before. Ramblaz said she’s had to take money out of her retirement fund to cover rent and bills at the shop.  

The raids also caused some families to stop bringing their kids to the after-school program out of fear. Attendance went from 12 to 15 students a day to 3 to 5. Parents pay a $50 donation per month to keep their children enrolled, so the drop in attendance has also caused the program to take a financial hit.

Her only option, she said, is to put the program on pause to continue seeking out other avenues for funding.

Ramblaz said she needs about $50,000 to guarantee that the program survives for the rest of the year. That money would cover mentors’ salaries and pay for school supplies, projects, activities and snacks for the students.

Ramblaz said she has submitted over 30 grant applications in the past few months. Some remain under review, and others have been denied. 

“It’s really depressing,” Ramblaz said. “This is my dream. This is my mission.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Labor rights icon César Chávez is accused of sexually assaulting fellow farmworker leader Dolores Huerta in the 1960s, according to a New York Times investigation released Wednesday. Chávez is also accused of sexually assaulting two underage girls in the 1970s, the report said.

Huerta, 95, said she was reluctant to share her story because of Chávez’s status and “for the last 60 years have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for,” she said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Just one day prior, the United Farm Workers union says it would not participate in any César Chávez Day activities March 31 after it learned of “troubling” allegations against Chávez, who co-founded the labor organization in 1962.

Huerta helped organize a labor strike in 1965 with organizers, including Chávez. She told the New York Times that Chávez raped her in 1966.

On Wednesday, she confirmed the reporting and reflected on her years of silence in a detailed statement.

Read the full statement in her own words:

“I am nearly 96 years old and for the last 60 years have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.

“I have encouraged people to always use their voice. Following the New York Times’ multi-year investigation into sexual misconduct by César Chávez, I can no longer stay silent and must share my own experiences.

“As a young mother in the 1960s, I experienced two separate sexual encounters with César. The first time, I was manipulated and pressured into having sex with him, and I didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement I had already devoted years of my life to. The second time, I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.

“I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret. Both sexual encounters with César led to pregnancies. I chose to keep my pregnancies secret, and after the children were born, I arranged for them to be raised by other families that could give them stable lives.

“Over the years, I have been fortunate to develop a deep relationship with these children, who are now close to my other children, their siblings. But even then, no one knew the full truth about how they were conceived until just a few weeks ago.

“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights, and I wasn’t going to let César or anyone else get in the way. I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farmworkers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights.

“I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a survivor — of violence, of sexual abuse, of domineering men who saw me, and other women, as property or things to control.

“I am telling my story because the New York Times has indicated that I was not the only one — there were others. Women are coming forward, sharing that they were sexually abused and assaulted by César when they were girls and teenagers.

“The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years. There are no words strong enough to condemn those deplorable actions that he did. César’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.

“The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual. César's actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people. We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever.

“I will continue my commitments to workers, as well as my commitment to women’s rights, to make sure we have a voice and that our communities are treated with dignity and given the equity that they have so long been denied.

“I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here.”

While César Chávez became a labor icon because of his work to elevate farmworkers and improve labor conditions in California, he had a complicated legacy that included infidelity and backlash over his views on undocumented immigrants.

But now, that’s gotten worse.

A new investigation out Wednesday from the New York Times, with more than 60 interviews, has brought to light multiple allegations that Chávez used his powerful role to sexually abuse young women, including the co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, Dolores Huerta, and underage girls for years.

Before this bombshell dropped, many still regarded him as a hero who played a pivotal role in building Latino political power. In Los Angeles, we have streets named after him. Schools. Even a public holiday at the end of this month.

The revelation will have wide ramifications nationally, but in Southern California, his local legacy will need to be reckoned with over the coming weeks and months.

LA’s outsized role

 Fernando Guerra, professor of Chicana/Chicano studies at Loyola Marymount University, said the news came as a gut punch.

“It feels personal because of how much you incorporated what he stood for,” he told LAist. “ It speaks to the frailty of humans that even when they present themselves publicly in one way, how different they are privately.”

Chávez’s journey began with L.A. and political organizing at the Community Service Organization, or CSO. His job was to get low-income Latinos out to vote, which led to a national director role based in L.A. During this time, Chávez lived in Boyle Heights with his wife and kids.

He was also one of the catalysts for the Chicano movement in L.A., such as the East L.A. Walkouts and the Chicano moratorium marches.

“ It truly helped create a moment in Los Angeles where Latinos, Chicanos specifically and Mexican Americans, began to recognize that they could seek and mobilize for their rights.” Guerra said.

And when he left to organize farmworkers in the Central Valley, that led to the creation of the United Farm Workers union, which he co-founded with Huerta. The organization eventually bought him a house south of Koreatown to serve as a homebase for him to stay at and organize while in town.

His footprint here was undeniable, and many wanted this towering figure to be celebrated. So, we put his name on a lot of things, such as libraries, schools, university departments, parks and streets across L.A. County and beyond. And his likeness can be found here too — in murals, exhibits and statues.

Cesar Chavez Campesino Park in Santa Ana, CA.

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Destiny Torres

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A mural inside the Cesar Chavez building at Santa Ana College.

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Destiny Torres

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That will probably change soon, as local leaders already are calling for renaming. Some ideas being floated are to change the public holiday to Farmworker Day and the street to Dolores Huerta Avenue. Guerra said that’s the right move.

“ While César Chávez’s name and his legacy will be tainted forever, it does not negate the farmworker movement,” he said. “It does not negate the blood, sweat and tears of thousands of people … and the impact that it had on California.”

The community and family react

During AirTalk on LAist 89.3, listeners called and wrote in to share their perspective on the allegations, echoing what Guerra said.

 Jorge in Long Beach said that while the news is unfortunate, it’s an opportunity to honor the farmworker labor movement itself and to uplift other labor leaders, including the legacies of Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong.

“I do not think the Filipino community receives enough credit for being at the forefront of the farmworker labor movement,” he wrote. “Chávez, or anyone else, must never, ever again be considered bigger than the movement or overshadow  others who served.”

Monica in Hawthorne said she’s a Mexican American who spent a lot of time learning about Chávez’s role in her community when she was in grade school. She was in tears hearing Huerta’s statement, which covered how Chávez raped her.

“I did projects on him every chance I could,” she wrote. “This is heartbreaking. My heart goes out to her, her family and all survivors.”

LAist reached out to the Chávez family for comment on the allegations. In a statement, they shared how they’re devastated and that the news is deeply painful for the family.

“We wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward. As a family steeped in the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse,” the statement read. “We carry our own memories of the person we knew. Someone whose life included work and contributions that matter deeply to many people.”

The family said it remains committed to farmworkers and the causes Chávez championed. They’re asking for understanding and privacy as they process this “difficult” information.