The Brief

By law, the American Hotel in downtown Los Angeles is supposed to be reserved for residents who can’t afford to live anywhere else. For decades, the building was a haven in the city’s sky-high housing market, where artists, musicians and people down on their luck could rent rooms for about $500 a month. At the end of the day, longtime tenants would hang out at Al’s Bar, a legendary punk and alternative rock venue on the ground floor where bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers played long before they sold out stadiums.

But amid the largest homelessness crisis in the nation, the American’s owner has turned the building into a boutique hotel where tourists can book rooms for as much as $209 a night.

And the city has done nothing to stop him.

Long before Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a housing emergency last year, city officials recognized that affordable housing was vanishing and sought to address it by making it difficult for developers to scoop up the residential hotels whose single-room dwellings were the only places many people could afford. Residential hotels consist of small, bare-bones rooms, some with shared bathrooms and most with no kitchens, in aging downtown buildings and roadside motels. In 2008, the L.A. City Council passed an ordinance to place strict limits on the conversion of more than 300 such buildings, totaling nearly 19,000 rooms (about 15% of the city’s lowest-cost housing units today).

But seven years later, the American’s new owner, Mark Verge, called the residents to a meeting. He said he planned to remodel the crumbling building and, according to tenants, offered to pay them to move. For months before the meeting, rumors had swirled around the American, said Jomar Giner, a barista who lived there until late 2014. The main topic on everyone’s mind, she said, was: “They’re going to ask us to move, but where are we going to live?”

Many of the American’s residents said they took Verge up on his offer, unaware that his plan to eventually turn the American into a tourist hotel was supposed to be illegal under the residential hotel law. The conversion disrupted a tight-knit community that had lived at the hotel for years — including at least one person who said he ended up sleeping in his car.

Under the law, Verge was required to compensate the city for the loss of affordable housing by either building replacement units or paying into a fund for housing construction. In Verge’s case, that could have cost more than $10 million. But like many landlords, Verge did neither of those things, and the city Housing Department didn’t compel him to, even though the law provides for $250-per-day fines and jail time for violators.

Scouring city records and online advertisements, Capital & Main and ProPublica identified 21 residential hotels, totaling more than 800 dwelling units, that were supposed to be preserved as housing but that have recently been on offer to tourists.

“That is illegal by statute and problematic for several reasons,” because residential hotels are supposed to be for the city’s lowest-income people, said Deepika Sharma, a housing law professor at the University of Southern California. “These are the folks struggling the most.”

It’s a staggering loss considering the severity of L.A.’s affordable housing shortage and what it would cost to replace 800 dwellings: more than $475 million at the current average cost of nearly $600,000 for the construction of a single affordable unit.

Some hotels have done little to hide their boutique transformations, advertising “expertly crafted” cocktails in a lobby bar and “a whimsical home away from home” for $270 a night. The hotels list rooms on their websites, on travel platforms like Expedia and Booking.com and on outdoor signs.

The American says on its website that the hotel in L.A.’s Arts District provides “affordable options for guests who are looking to make the most of their visit to the city of angels without blowing their entire vacation budget.”

Yet none of the 21 hotels, including the American, have received clearances from the city that would indicate they’ve replaced the low-cost housing they’ve taken off the market, Housing Department records show. Nor have the owners taken the other option of paying the fee to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. And none have been fined or prosecuted for failing to comply.

L.A. Housing Department director Ann Sewill referred questions to her staff. “We need to enforce it better,” said Greg Good, a senior policy adviser at the agency. “We’re working 24/7 to get there, and we’ve got to get better.”

A man pushes his cart filled with aluminum cans past the American Hotel in April. He said he has lived in L.A.’s Arts District for some 40 years and currently stays in a small room inside a gas station.

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Barbara Davidson

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Verge — who founded Southern California’s go-to apartment listing service, Westside Rentals, before selling it to CoStar Group, the parent company of Apartments.com — insisted he was unaware of the residential hotel law and of the American’s inclusion on the city’s residential hotel inventory.

“I don’t know about this magical list,” Verge said, though records show the city informed his lawyer that the American was residential after he bought the hotel in 2013.

Verge said he has been paying the city’s hotel tax for years and noted that he has openly advertised the American as a hotel.

“Do you know how many banners I’ve put on that thing?” he said. “I definitely don’t think I’m violating any law.”

The story of how Verge was able to convert the American into a tourist hotel underlines the city’s failure to preserve affordable housing — and how easily landlords have avoided the law.

One of the most pro-tenant ordinances

Today, more than 1 in 10 unhoused people in the U.S. — some 75,000 people — live in Los Angeles County. Far beyond downtown’s Skid Row neighborhood, tents and tarps are jammed together under bridges alongside overflowing shopping carts, broken-down bicycles and blankets. Men and women wrap themselves in ragged blankets under the overhangs of grocery stores and strip malls. They spread bedrolls in parks and next to the stars of celebrities on Hollywood Boulevard.

A roadside encampment in L.A. in December 2022. Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency over the city’s homelessness crisis on her first full day in office.

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Frederic J. Brown

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AFP via Getty Images

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The human misery on display across the city made homelessness the central issue in the 2022 mayoral race and drove Bass to proclaim a housing emergency on her first day in office.

But in reality, the emergency has been coming for a long time. Nearly two decades ago, L.A. officials foresaw that rapid gentrification would eat away at residents’ ability to live in the city. Residential hotels were rapidly being converted to condos.

So, in 2008, the City Council voted to preserve the hotels with a law. L.A.’s then-housing director Mercedes Márquez — who now leads the mayor’s effort to combat homelessness — called it at the time, “without question, one of the most pro-tenant ordinances to come before the City Council in its entire history.”

City officials drew up a list of 336 hotels, using the state’s legal definition of a residential hotel: a building of six or more units that are the primary residences of their guests. Some were traditional single-room occupancy buildings with shared bathrooms. Others were motels with various claims to fame. One was the hotel where singer Janis Joplin was found dead; another served as the site of Julia Roberts’ apartment in the final scene of “Pretty Woman.”

By the time of the ordinance, the once-grand downtown hotels that served travelers in the early 20th century and the roadside motels that catered to mid-century motorists had fallen out of fashion with tourists. City officials determined they were being used as living spaces for local residents, not tourist accommodations.

The new law strictly limited what residential hotel owners could do with their properties. But Márquez and the city attorney’s office assured councilmembers it would stand up in court: A nearly identical San Francisco law had been upheld by California’s Supreme Court in 2002, and the U.S. Supreme Court had reviewed the case, affirming the state’s power to decide such issues. Márquez signaled that enforcement would be stringent.

City councilmember Bill Rosendahl, who strongly supported the ordinance, asked Márquez somewhat tongue-in-cheek questions about a prime beachfront property in his district that had been designated as a residential hotel.

“My God, I could tear that down and build high-end condos and move in the rich. Does this stop me from doing that?” Rosendahl asked.

“Pretty much,” Márquez replied.

The law “is designed to make it difficult,” although not impossible, for owners to convert their buildings into condos or tourist hotels, Márquez told the City Council. Owners would first have to apply to the Housing Department for approval. They would then have to either replace all the residential housing units or pay a fee, set at the acquisition cost of nearby property plus the cost of constructing 80% of the replacement dwellings.

Márquez referred an interview request to the mayor’s press office, which did not make her available. And she did not respond to emailed questions.

“I would think the owners would find it quite onerous,” Gary Painter, an economist who specializes in housing at USC, said in a recent interview. “Anything that makes it harder for them to fully exercise their options on their real estate, they’re going to be upset about.”

Many hotel owners are indeed unhappy with the residential hotel designations. Ray Patel, who heads the North East Los Angeles Hotel Owners Association, said the law was an unfair attempt to shift the burden of L.A.’s housing problems onto hotel owners.

“The city was trying to avoid the elephant in the room: how difficult it is to build housing,” he said. “There’s too much red tape.”

But in adopting the law with no opposition, the City Council decided that limiting hotel owners’ property rights was in the public interest because the loss of residential hotel rooms had become a housing emergency that affected elderly, disabled and low-income people “who are least able to cope with displacement in the Los Angeles housing market.” The council predicted that “unregulated conversion or demolition of residential hotels would lead to an unacceptable and socially harmful increase in homelessness.”

The ordinance allowed owners to appeal their designations by submitting tax records, housekeeping reports and guest registration records to prove their buildings had operated as traveler hotels. Patel, who owns the Welcome Inn on old Route 66 — Colorado Boulevard in the Eagle Rock neighborhood — said he submitted reams of paperwork, got his motel off the list and helped others to do the same. About 100 properties were removed, though others have since been added. The city’s most recent list contains more than 300 hotels.

Some hotel owners have tried to challenge the ordinance in court, arguing that the city’s designation of the motels as residential amounts to an unconstitutional government taking of private property. But last year, a federal judge dismissed one claim, noting that the ordinance falls within the city’s authority to promote residents’ health and welfare. And in 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected another hotel’s claim and upheld the ordinance as a “rational” attempt to preserve low-income housing.

Barbara Schultz, director of housing justice at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, said the law is well-settled. Her 2002 lawsuit against the city’s redevelopment agency resulted in a settlement that preserved downtown residential hotels and sparked the city’s interest in an ordinance.

“The city is squandering a great opportunity to have more housing,” Schultz said. Without tight enforcement, she said, “people on the street who could be in housing are not.”

By the time Verge bought the American, the Housing Department had determined it to be a residential hotel in 2008 and again in 2011. City records show Verge’s attorney inquired about the American’s status, and in a 2013 letter, the department confirmed it was subject to the residential hotel law, providing him a copy of the ordinance.

“I don’t even recall anything like that,” Verge said in an interview, asserting that he bought the American because he intended to run it as a tourist hotel.

How Verge turned the American into a tourist hotel

Verge said in an interview that he wanted to buy the American in 2013 because of its rich history and his own memories of hanging out with friends at Al’s Bar.

“We were kids from Santa Monica and liked to go there,” he said. It was, he added, a “different world.”

Al’s Bar, located on the American’s ground floor, rose to fame in the city’s arts and music scene in the 1980s and 1990s as it attracted up-and-coming bands like Nirvana, Hole and Sonic Youth. Some tenants thought of Al’s as their living room where they played pool and drank beer. But it also attracted celebrities. Then-Gov. Jerry Brown and singer Linda Ronstadt once dropped in at Al’s, where graffiti covered the walls and a neon sign near the bar warned, “TIP OR DIE.”

Patrons, including some American Hotel tenants, hang out at Al’s Bar in the late 1990s. The bar closed in 2001.

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Courtesy Sally Mander Howard

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But above all, the American provided cheap housing for people who didn’t have other options. The American, which was originally called the Canadian, was built in 1905 as the one of the only Los Angeles hotels where African Americans were welcome. And ever since, it had been a refuge for people on the margins of society. It was a classic residential hotel that one former tenant dubbed “a flophouse for artists,” offering basic single rooms and shared bathrooms.

At the American, former residents said they needed no application or credit check. A month’s rent would buy a month’s shelter, no questions asked.

When Verge took over, the American was in bad shape. In 2012, a housing inspector had warned the building department that the hotel was in danger of collapsing.

Verge denied offering buyouts to move and said the residents requested relocation payments from him. “I’m not a cash for keys guy,” he said. But seven former residents interviewed by Capital & Main and ProPublica said they had received a buyout offer and knew of others who had as well. A printed notice provided by a former resident says, “the owner of the building would like to offer relocation assistance to anyone already considering a move.” The former residents said Verge also promised that if they were willing to endure the noise and dust of a remodel, he would let them stay. And some did.

Verge said the American had been partially operating as a tourist hotel when he bought it. But five tenants said that wasn’t the case. “They were all residents,” Giner wrote in an email. A photo published in the Los Angeles Times in 2013 shows Verge perched atop a pay phone outside the hotel. Just above him is a sign that reads, “Apartments for Rent,” with the name of his company, Westside Rentals.

Verge had started other hotels, restaurants and bars and seemed to bet that the American’s mystique would lure guests willing to lug suitcases up stairs and share bathrooms for a chance to drink in the hotel’s bohemian past. Graffitied walls, an Al’s sign and a giant mural of L.A. artist Ed Ruscha adorn the building’s façade, though most of the American’s artist residents and the noise and chaos of the hotel’s heyday are long gone.

A guest leaves the American Hotel in April.

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Barbara Davidson

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For Verge, who once owned racehorses and was briefly the CEO of Santa Anita Park, it was a bet that paid off.

Yet Verge never applied to the Housing Department for permission to convert his new purchase, according to department records. And as he remade the American into a tourist hotel, Verge suffered no legal repercussions for failing to build replacement housing or pay the in-lieu housing fee to the city. Either option would have been costly: In addition to site acquisition, the cost of building affordable housing averaged about $450,000 per unit between 2014 and 2016, according to the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.

Even when the American remodel began, it slipped undetected through a key enforcement mechanism in the residential hotel law: The Housing Department must approve building permit applications at residential hotels to ensure the owners aren’t converting rooms into tourist accommodations.

Five times between 2014 and 2018, the American applied for building permits. Verge repaired a crack in an exterior wall and put a new roof on the building. He remodeled bathrooms and repaired drywall and stucco. But only one permit was ever reviewed for adherence to the residential hotel law, according to building department records.

In 2016, a housing inspector found 32 rooms had been remodeled and a laundry area had been added, noting “permit required.” Records show the inspector didn’t inquire about whether the rooms were redone for short-term guests and never followed up. Verge wasn’t cited for violations of the residential hotel law.

The Housing Department’s code enforcement director Robert Galardi told Capital & Main and ProPublica that the hotel was inspected last November, resulting in “minimal code violations with compliance obtained in a timely manner.” The inspection made no mention of the hotel’s tourist offerings, which the hotel advertises on a sandwich board sign just outside the front door.

Told of the tourist conversion, Galardi said he’d “conduct further investigation.”

Failure to enforce

The Housing Department has plenty of mechanisms for enforcing the law, yet the city has used hardly any of them — even in the face of what appear to be violations.

The TikTok account of the Hometel Suites in Koreatown features videos of guest rooms and the reception desk as K-pop songs play in the background. Guests can dine on $115 steamed crab dinners at the hotel’s seafood restaurant. Years ago, the Housing Department had determined Hometel — once known as the Hamilton — to be a residential hotel, and in 2008 and in 2011 the department informed the hotel’s then-owners it was subject to the ordinance.

Galardi said his inspectors saw no evidence of short-term rentals at the Hometel when they visited the hotel in May 2019. But at least since March of that year, a three-story-tall banner on the façade has shown a family with suitcases on a luggage cart and the message “Book your stay today.”

General manager Becky Hong said neither she nor the owner would comment on Hometel’s residential hotel status or city enforcement, and she did not respond to emailed questions.

A review of more than 10,000 pages of Housing Department documents obtained under the California Public Records Act, including inspectors’ notes, correspondence and other enforcement records, along with interviews with housing officials, shows hotel owners have little reason to fear fines or prosecution for violating the residential hotel law.

Logan Altman, the former owner of the Ramona Motel in South Los Angeles, said when he bought the property in 2016, the previous owner had assured him he could rent out rooms on a nightly basis without fear of a city crackdown.

“What I heard was enforcement was somewhat lax,” he said. “The seller said he hadn’t had any problems.” And neither did Altman, according to Housing Department records. He sold the motel to a nonprofit housing developer in 2021.

In the past 15 years, L.A. Housing Department data shows, the city has cited just 17 hotels under the law. However, the city’s recordkeeping seems deficient: Capital & Main and ProPublica found two additional hotels it cited by separately looking through enforcement records provided by the department. Only four of the 21 residential hotels that Capital & Main and ProPublica found marketing rooms to tourists have been given warnings by housing inspectors for residential hotel violations.

A block away from Hometel at the H Hotel, a neon H on the building’s brick façade signals the former East West Hotel’s new hip vibe. A Saturday-night stay ranges from $200 to $270, and a crystal chandelier hangs above the lobby near a lounge where guests can order brunch and $115 bottles of champagne.

The H Hotel, formerly known as the East West Hotel, on 8th Street in L.A.’s Koreatown.

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Barbara Davidson

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A vendor sells clothing and kitchen items on 8th Street near the H Hotel.

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Barbara Davidson

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People dine at the H Hotel’s bustling restaurant, the H Cafe.

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Barbara Davidson

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Special to ProPublica

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Last year, a housing inspector noted that Nojan Haddadi, the H Hotel’s operations manager, told him that the property is currently being used as a “transient hotel,” using the legal term for hotels that rent rooms to tourists. But the hotel, which is officially designated residential, never applied to convert to a tourist hotel, Housing Department records show. And there’s no evidence in the records that the department took any enforcement action against the hotel for violating the residential hotel law. Haddadi told Capital & Main and ProPublica that the hotel hasn’t accepted long-term residents since 2019. He said he didn’t know if the hotel was violating the law but noted that the hotel’s management has asked the city to remove its residential designation. The H Hotel’s owner, Mike Barry, declined to answer questions, citing advice from his attorney.

When asked why the Housing Department hasn’t enforced the law against the H Hotel, Galardi noted that his inspector was barred from entering without an administrative warrant. Haddadi said the hotel had been instructed by its attorney not to let inspectors in. Galardi wrote, “Moving forward, staff will conduct further investigation regarding tourist units.”

Throughout the inspection records, a pattern emerged: Hotel owners or their attorneys could dodge city regulators simply by refusing to consent to inspections without a court order.

The department could obtain such warrants, but Galardi said that its inspectors have not secured them — to enter either the H Hotel or others whose owners have barred inspectors.

Even when city inspectors have attempted to enforce the law, their efforts have proved futile because they haven’t always followed up to ensure compliance. Between 2016 and 2018, L.A. housing inspectors ordered the owners of the Studio Lodge, Hyland Inn, Central Inn Motel and Top Hat Motel to either return their rooms to residential use or obtain the required clearances to convert them.

But after inspectors said they’d return to ensure the violations were corrected, attorney Frank Weiser, who represented the Hyland, the Central Inn and the Top Hat, sent letters to the Housing Department that said they would not be allowed to reenter without administrative warrants. Housing Department enforcement records show no evidence that inspectors obtained warrants — even though the hotels were also cited for fire safety and electrical issues that inspectors rated as “high severity” violations.

And until recently, travelers could still book rooms online at any of the three hotels.

The owner of the Central Inn and the manager of the Top Hat said they had recently begun providing short-term housing funded by local homelessness programs. But the Top Hat manager said the motel still does nightly rentals when there are vacancies, and both acknowledged they’d been offering daily rates until earlier this year. Neither hotel owner answered written questions about whether the nightly rentals violated the residential hotel law. The owner of the Studio Lodge didn’t return phone calls or emails seeking comment.

Weiser, who still represents the Hyland’s owner, said he thinks the hotel corrected its housing code violations. But he said of the residential hotel violations, “The bottom line: There was never any action taken by the city. I think that speaks for itself.”

Sharma, the law professor, who previously advised former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti on housing policy, noted the residential hotel law allows the city attorney to seek court orders to stop building owners from renting to tourists.

“I think by even filing against a few buildings, it sends a message to the rest of the buildings that the city is watching,” she said. “That’s how enforcement works in larger scale.”

The residential hotel ordinance also required the Housing Department to file annual reports to the City Council and mayor, informing them of the total number of residential hotel units, any conversions or demolitions and the department’s enforcement activities. But in response to a public records request, the department told Capital & Main and ProPublica that it didn’t have any of the reports. The city clerk’s office said it has no record of receiving any, and Galardi said he didn’t think the reports were ever compiled.

Good, the Housing Department’s senior policy adviser, said that understaffing is an obstacle to enforcement, pointing out that a single inspector is assigned to all of the city’s residential hotels. “There are significant capacity issues,” he said.

The bleak contrast between the American’s trendy remodel and the city’s homelessness crisis can be seen on the surrounding streets. On one recent day, a man pushed a shopping cart full of plastic bags past the hotel’s sandwich board advertising rooms and suites. On another, a man covered head to toe in dirty blankets stood against a graffitied wall as a tour group admired the art behind him.

Tourists on an arts walk pass a man draped in blankets in the heart of the Arts District in April.

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Barbara Davidson

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As tourists spilled out of the American, many said they were shocked by the seemingly endless tents pitched on downtown sidewalks and were startled to learn that the American was supposed to be reserved for the city’s neediest residents.

“I don’t like to hear that,” said Britt Booram, a real estate agent from Indianapolis as she got into a black van after checking out of the hotel.

Galardi said Capital & Main and ProPublica’s reporting had “gotten the ball rolling” on another potential enforcement tool to shut down short-term rentals in residential hotels: the city’s 2018 Home-Sharing Ordinance, which regulates listings on sites like Airbnb. But it’s rarely been used in the past. The city has fined just two hotels, and the planning department issued warning letters to a third hotel in 2020.

Only one of the three has stopped accepting online bookings. The others continue to advertise residential hotel rooms to tourists.

Los Angeles Unified is expanding its winter break school program to a full week with the goal of drawing more than 70,000 students back into the classroom the week before school starts.

The 2026 Winter Academy will start on Jan. 5, at the tail end of winter break, instead of following the end of the fall semester as in past years.

“By students returning to school earlier, it'll get 'em into the routine and the rhythm [of school],” said LAUSD Chief Academic Officer Frances Baez. “Once the spring semester begins, it shouldn't be too difficult.”

The free program, which started in response to pandemic learning loss, is now an annual offering during the district’s winter and spring breaks.

While some parents and educators have questioned its effectiveness, district leaders say student outcomes — and interests — have shaped the program’s evolution.

“We're seeing that it's working because our students are improving,” Baez said.

What is Winter Academy?

Winter Academy runs the hours of a regular school day with the option of afterschool care.

Teachers and parents who participated in the program told LAist class sizes are generally smaller and there’s flexibility to adapt the curriculum the district provides to the students in their class.

“We want to offer programs that are gonna be aligned to student interests and at the same time, continue with that opportunity for them to grow academically and thrive,” said Executive Director of Secondary Instruction John Vladovic.

There are also several “camps” focused on specific activities like science, arts, math and gaming.

The program offers some relief to working families who struggle to cobble together child care during the district’s three-week winter break (prior attempts to reduce the break failed).

Catskill Elementary School fifth-grader Chloe Campbell has participated in several of the district’s winter and summer programs.

“I love doing work and seeing different people and making new friends and learning different things,” she told LAist in 2023.

In an interview this year, her mom Christal Campbell said her daughter particularly enjoyed the math lessons and the art activities like papier-mâché.

“They did basic academics, but made the projects more fun and learnable for them,” Campbell said.

The evolution of ‘acceleration days’

Winter Academy started in 2022 as "acceleration days,” meant to help students make up for lost learning time during the COVID-19 pandemic using winter and spring breaks.

“This is a homegrown program,” Baez said. “That means our educators and our leaders developed this program for our students.”

Changes this year include offering transportation, piloting a more camp-like experience focused on specific activities like art and math, and extending the program to five days.

Winter Academy enrollment has represented less than 20% of the district’s student body:

• 2022: 71,458 students
• 2023: 74,414 students
• 2024: 73,946 students

Average attendance is 55-60%, according to a statement provided to LAist by a district spokesperson.

The district said in a statement that the demographics of the participants mirror the district’s overall makeup.

However, some educators say the students in their classrooms during the winter program are not those that have fallen behind or are struggling academically.

Charnock Road Elementary third grade teacher Jason Buchalter has worked for LAUSD for almost three decades and taught summer school in addition to Winter Academy.

“These are the parents whose kids are doing well, who are keeping up with the homework, who are providing a really supportive educational environment,” Buchalter said. “So, of course they sign up for more school.”

Buchalter said his school, in Palms, calls and sends messages to the families of children who are struggling to tell them about the program, but it’s not clear why they don't sign up.

“They have trouble getting the kids to school,” Buchalter said. “Some of these families don't see the benefit even a few days can have.”

What do we know about student outcomes?

In 2023, the district started testing students at the beginning and end of Winter Academy to measure growth in reading, writing and math. The district provided some of this information in a statement to LAist.

In December 2023:

• Scores in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade increased 9.8% in English language arts and 8.8% in math. 
• There were “smaller improvements” in grades six through eight. 

In December 2024:

• TK through fifth grade English language arts scores “continued to show gains.” 
• In grades six through eight, there were “math gains,” with “mixed’ English language arts scores in grades seven through eight. 

“Every bit helps,” said Buchalter, the Palms teacher. “If at the end of the day we provide some kids with a fun, safe, structured, friendly day with three hot meals… it's a good investment.”

Buchalter said he’s looking forward to the additional days of Winter Academy in 2026.

“When kids work together for a whole week, they make friends, they build community,” Buchalter said.

Some high school students can increase grades from the previous semester by completing specific work assigned by their teacher through an Academic Course Extension (ACE) contract. Increasing a student’s below-C grade can improve college prospects and options for post-graduation financial aid.

More than 17,000 letter grades improved after the December 2024 Winter Academy. That’s more than double the number of letter grades improved the previous year.

Some teachers, including Sadia Aziz, say the work of a semester cannot be made up with just a handful of assignments completed over the course of Winter Academy.

“It becomes a little tricky because the students now expect their grade to be increased because they showed up and they did the work,” said Aziz, who teaches at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School.

How much does Winter Academy cost the district?

In a statement to LAist, a district spokesperson said the programs cost approximately $24 million to offer and that the money goes primarily to educator salaries.

The money comes largely from a state program called Expanded Learning Opportunities or ELOP that’s pumped about $18 billion a year into schools for afterschool and enrichment programs over the last five years. LAUSD’s share of the funding is about $612.3 million in the 2025-26 budget.

Previously, LAUSD leaders said federal COVID-19 relief money funded the program, before it expired in September 2024.

Housing policy in California had a big year.

Between the state lawmakers passing pivotal legislation that affects how much housing can be built and where and shifting construction rules prompted by the Palisades and Eaton fires, 2025 policy changes will have lasting effects on how new housing is built in Southern California.

As we head toward closing out the year, here are the top housing updates of 2025.

1. California upzoned neighborhoods near major transit stops

What happened

The state Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom approved SB 79 in October. It requires a handful of major counties, including L.A. County, to allow buildings of up to nine stories tall in areas near major transit stops.

This change overrides local zoning laws in those areas. It was one of the most significant legislative milestones yet for supporters of upzoning and faced major hurdles before it was signed into law. In L.A., a slim majority of the City Council formally voted to oppose it and Mayor Karen Bass asked Newsom to veto it.

Why is this a big deal?

Creating enough housing to address California’s shortage requires being legally allowed to build in areas with demand. That’s where zoning laws come in.

Advocates for more housing density have argued that neighborhoods near transit stops should be first in line to upzone, because not only would that approach create new housing, it also would deliver new potential riders to struggling public transit agencies.

Cities like L.A. have offered developers incentives to build more in some areas if they provide affordable units. But SB 79 requires this upzoning to happen, despite whatever local zoning laws might be in place — even in neighborhoods currently zoned only for single family homes. That's caused backlash from local governments and homeowners in many of these neighborhoods. 

Does this affect my neighborhood?

Possibly, if you’re within a half-mile of a major transit stop.

If you’re in the city of L.A., you can check out this draft preliminary map to see areas that could be upzoned under SB 79.

2. Expect fewer lawsuits against new housing projects

What happened

California’s state Legislature passed new laws that significantly roll back the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA. CEQA requires expensive environmental reports for many new housing projects and allows almost anybody to sue to block developments on environmental grounds.

CEQA still is in place, but it no longer will apply to most new apartment buildings built in and around existing development.

Why is this a big deal?

A CEQA lawsuit can add many years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to a housing project.

For years, critics argued that CEQA was used more often as a political weapon and a tool to block housing — including affordable housing projects — rather than a way to raise legitimate environmental concerns.

One study found that in 2020, CEQA lawsuits targeted nearly 48,000 new housing units — about half of all new units produced in a year in California on average. This rollback means that large new apartment buildings can more easily move through the pipeline to be approved.

3. Housing development policies are shifting in fire-affected areas

Construction workers begin to rebuild a business destroyed by the Palisades Fire on May 7, 2025.

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Justin Sullivan

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Getty Images

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What happened

The communities of Altadena and the Pacific Palisades are rebuilding after massive wildfires razed both areas in January. This is where many thorny questions about how to build new housing are colliding on an expedited timeline.

Here’s what’s happened so far:

• More homes are required to use fire-resistant materials. The California state Legislature expanded the areas where new homes are required to be built with wildfire-resistant materials. This doesn’t change much for the Pacific Palisades, which largely already has those requirements. In Altadena, where the Eaton Fire burned, about 1,500 homes will have to be rebuilt under a stricter code. It’s worth noting that another 7,800 homes in Altadena that burned still fall outside these zones.
  
• Duplexes are banned in burn areas: After the fires, Newsom allowed local leaders to suspend SB 9 in high fire-risk zones. The state law is meant to add more housing density by allowing homeowners to split their lots and build duplexes on land zoned for single-family homes. Mayor Bass, along with officials in Malibu, Pasadena and L.A. County, approved the suspensions, which means duplexes won't be approved in these jurisdictions.
  
• Density is restricted in Altadena’s foothills. Before the fires broke out, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved a new zoning plan for Altadena that restricted new construction in the foothills and increased density in the area’s interior, so that’s the plan residents will have to follow while rebuilding.
  
• Who’s buying up the land? A recent analysis showed that more than half of Altadena properties up for sale through September were sold to corporate developers, which will impact how the area gets rebuilt. Other groups are trying to find ways to support affordable housing — for example, a foundation led by Altadena residents awarded a nearly $6 million grant to build 14 affordable units and told LAist it hopes to spur other funders to get involved too.

All of these issues are a big deal, even though the fundamental issues around housing in L.A. — like lack of funding for affordable housing or the cost of building anything new — remain largely the same.

If you're curious about some of the biggest issues we're tackling about how to build new housing in L.A., sign up here for Building Your Block, LAist's seven-issue newsletter starter pack on housing development.

LAist's David Wagner contributed to this story.

Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo describe themselves as accidental activists who found an “immediate family” in Michele and Rob Reiner.

When same-sex marriage was banned in California with the 2008 passage of Proposition 8, Katami and Zarrillo began speaking out about what marriage equality meant to them.

They caught the attention of some “changemakers,” including Rob and Michele Reiner, and became plaintiffs in Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenged the constitutionality of Prop. 8 and ultimately led to a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that reinstated gay marriage in California.

The fact that they were able to make it through the legal fight to restore the right of same-sex couples to marry in California, and marry each other in Los Angeles in 2013, they credit, in large part, to the Reiners.

“ We would not be married without Rob and Michele Reiner”

It started with writing the first check to fund the organization that took on Prop. 8 — the American Foundation for Equal Rights — but the Reiners' contributions quickly expanded to emotional and moral support, too.

The first time they really got to know each other was the day they filed their lawsuit, at dinner with the Reiners, their co-plaintiffs and legal team.

“Rob and Michele were, from the moment we met them, nothing but extremely kind, curious, passionate believers in LGBTQ rights,” Zarrillo said.

When Katami and Zarrillo held their 2014 wedding with family and friends, five years later and after a hard-fought win in the Supreme Court, they sat the Reiners at their head table.

 “We had such a great time celebrating the work that had been done, but most of all, celebrating the family that we created… It's a very fond memory of us knowing that we got to sit at their table to start our journey towards marriage,  and they got to sit at ours when we got married,” Katami said.

“ Michele was every bit Rob's equal”

Katami and Zarrillo both describe the Reiners as wanting to use their platform in Hollywood to make the country a better place through advocacy.

Jeff Zarrillo (L), Paul Katami (Center) and Michele Singer Reiner (R) on the day of their wedding at L.A. City Hall on June 28, 2013.

And while Rob Reiner was more public-facing and famously gregarious, Katami said Michele was a powerhouse and the driving voice behind their work: “She was just a creative force that had this vision of a future and a country that was more equal and more accepting.”

 Michele Reiner’s rule for the dinner table

Today, Katami and Zarrillo have adopted a principle they learned from Michele in their own home.

“There's only one conversation at a time. So the person speaking has your full attention, your respect,” Katami said, adding that the rule exemplifies exactly how the Reiners lived their lives. “They wanted to make sure everyone felt seen, everyone felt heard, and respected and loved.”

If you’re already planning to return a holiday gift that you’re just not that into, you could be in for a surprise.

More stores and shopping outlets are charging a restocking fee or a return surcharge of some kind. And many are also imposing deadlines or restrictions on returns, according to the National Retail Federation.

A quick search turned up these policies that might complicate your return plans:

• Best Buy charges a restocking fee of $45, or 15% of the purchase price on certain items, such as prepaid cell phones, cameras, drones and projector screens and … saunas.
• Macy’s offers free in-store and return shipping for its Star Rewards members, but non-members can face a $9.99 return shipping fee, plus tax, that will be deducted from your refund.
• UNIQLO requires online purchases to be returned online, not in a brick-and-mortar location.

How we got here

The reason is simple. We love to return stuff. Retailers are expected to see nearly $850 billion — with a "b" — in returns this year. And nearly 20% of online sales will be returned, according to a report by the National Retail Federation. (Interesting fact: Gen Zers are more likely to return an online purchase, the report found.)

Processing all those returns cuts into company profits. And then there’s the fraud, abuse and waste that goes along with it. (This includes everything from returning empty boxes, using and abusing items and then requesting returns, and something that I do quite a lot of — it’s called “bracketing,” where you buy two or more sizes of something to try them all on, planning on at least one return.)

It all adds up, and businesses are not in the business of wasting money.

“We’re seeing return figures that are much more than the norm,” said David Sobie, the Santa Monica-based co-founder and CEO of Happy Returns, a third-party business that you’ve probably seen inside places like Ulta. For consumers, it provides returns without a need for printer labels or packing tape. For businesses, this service provides built-in fraud protection.

He said limitations on returns in the form of restocking fees and charges are likely to increase in response to what businesses see as “costly consumer behaviors."

What you can do about it

Sobie said consumers can avoid unpleasant surprises with a little pre-purchase sleuthing:

• Ask about return policy details.
• Consider whether you might be better off checking the item out in person before purchasing.
• Find out about any “fine print” issues regarding return details, fees, or limitations. For example, if you purchase in person, can you return the item by mail?

And of course, hang on to receipts.

“I always say you want to check it out before you check out,” Sobie said.