The Brief

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to establish a long-debated “Right to Counsel” ordinance, which aims to provide free attorneys to low-income tenants facing eviction.

Tenant rights groups cheered the passage of a policy they’ve spent years advocating for, but cautioned that it could take five years or more before the city has enough funding and lawyers to give all eligible renters free legal representation in eviction court.

“We’re working to get there,” said Catalina Romo Paxcle with Stay Housed L.A., a coalition of legal service providers funded by the city and county of L.A. “This is a win moving toward justice in the courtroom and having a chance at a fair trial.”

Tenants facing eviction have not had the same right to a free attorney as defendants in criminal court. As a result, very few L.A. renters are accompanied by a lawyer in eviction court, where an estimated 95% of landlords have an attorney.

Tenant advocates say this imbalance in legal representation puts renters at a severe disadvantage, increasing their odds of becoming part of an unhoused population that has grown sharply in L.A. over the past decade.

Where will the funding come from?

The ordinance was approved by the City Council in a 14-0 vote. Councilmember Curren Price was absent.

The language of the ordinance clarifies that free eviction attorneys will be provided only to tenants earning less than 80% of the area’s median income. Right now, that means up to $77,700 per year for an individual or $110,950 for a family of four.

In Tuesday’s meeting, Councilmember Nithya Raman said L.A. was finally able to pass a policy she and other councilmembers introduced more than two years ago due to funding approved by voters through Measure ULA. It’s sometimes called the city’s “mansion tax,” though much of the measure’s revenue comes from the sale of commercial buildings and apartment complexes.

Some questions remain about "Right to Counsel," such as how much funding the city will be able to put toward the new program. Measure ULA raised nearly $300 million dollars in the 2024 fiscal year, and the measure requires 10% of annual revenue go toward the "Right to Counsel" program.

One previous report from L.A.’s Housing Department concluded that a fully funded "Right to Counsel" program would cost the city about $68 million per year.

Advocates say more lawyers are needed 

Barbara Schultz, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of L.A., said if the program launches with around $30 million in funding, the city would be able to connect low-income renters facing eviction within certain priority ZIP codes with about 80 lawyers currently handling eviction defense cases countywide through Stay Housed L.A.

“This has to be phased in,” Schultz said. “We can't instantly provide all tenants in the city of L.A. with a right to counsel and evictions, because we don't have enough attorneys to do that yet. It's something that we need to build up.”

Schultz said tenants living outside the current priority ZIP codes would not be disqualified for eviction defense attorneys, but they would be less likely to receive them. Schultz estimates L.A. needs closer to 300 eviction attorneys to serve every qualified renter throughout the county.

With Tuesday’s vote, L.A. now joins other cities, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, that have passed their own versions of a "Right to Counsel" in recent years. Tenants in unincorporated areas of L.A. County became the first in Southern California to receive such support after a vote by the county’s Board of Supervisors last summer.

How tenants can ask for help

 
Landlord groups have argued that local governments would be better off spending funds on rental assistance to struggling tenants, rather than paying lawyers to defend them in eviction court.

In a letter to the City Council ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Janet Gagnon with the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles urged lawmakers to change a provision in the ordinance that would have allowed all tenants to challenge an eviction if their landlord failed to notify them of the Right To Counsel protections, even if that tenant did not meet the program’s qualifications.

“It is astounding that such unwarranted complications are being proposed,” the letter read. Councilmembers amended the ordinance Tuesday to clarify that this protection applied only to tenants eligible for the program.

For now, Schultz said, tenants facing eviction who believe they would qualify for help should reach out at StayHousedLA.org or call (888) 694-0040.

The story first appeared on Boyle Heights Beat.

A free community food pantry that had been set up outside a market in East Los Angeles now has a new home in Boyle Heights, thanks to community members who rallied to keep it going.

Created by East L.A. native Rebecca Gonzales, the pantry had been stationed outside of Ramirez Meat Market on the corner of Folsom Street and Rowan Avenue since November, offering produce, snacks and shelf-stable items.

Gonzales created the resource after seeing how ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and SNAP delays were affecting the most vulnerable in her community. 

A few days after Boyle Heights Beat published an article about the pantry, the market’s owner asked Gonzales to move it.

Rosa Ramirez, who has owned Ramirez Meat Market for 26 years, said she hadn’t expected the pantry to be permanent and noticed that fewer people were coming into her store when the pantry was stocked. Ramirez appreciated Gonzales’ intentions, but said the piles of donated clothes and shoes next to the pantry were difficult to manage.

Soon after learning the pantry would have to move, Gonzales posted the news on Instagram. Within an hour, she received about a dozen messages from friends and community members reaching out to help. 

“I was worried that I was gonna have to just bring it home and it’s gonna be a lapse of services,” Gonzales said. 

That same day, Yvonne I. Monje Perez, owner of SuperNova Thrift — a shop near Mariachi Plaza that sells second-hand clothing — reached out. Though she had never met Gonzales, Perez didn’t think twice about offering help. 

The East LA free food pantry now sits outside of SuperNova Thrift on 1st Street in Boyle Heights.

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Boyle Heights Beat

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“We could benefit from something like that here in this neighborhood,” Perez recalled thinking after seeing the post. 

With coordination from Gonzales and guidance from the Boyle Heights Chamber of Commerce, Perez and her husband picked up the pantry last Friday and it was open for the community the following day. 

“It makes me so happy seeing people come to it and look at it, and just take from it,” said Perez. “It’s been received very well, a lot of people are very happy about it.”

Now, Perez and Gonzales have a schedule for opening and closing the pantry, and donations have continued to roll in. 

While Gonzales does not keep track of how many donations come in every day, she noticed items usually remain at the end of the day, a change from when the pantry would go empty in East L.A.  

Looking ahead, Gonzales hopes to inspire others to start free food pantries in their own communities.

“People want to help,” she said. “People want to do good things. People want to see other people not just survive, but thrive.”

The East LA free food pantry was recently moved in front of SuperNova Thrift on 1st Street in Boyle Heights.

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The heat isn’t the only thing to worry about this weekend.

If you’re looking to escape the summer-like weather, the beach might be a spot to cool off, but it's a good idea to stay out of some waters.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is advising people to avoid contact with ocean water at certain L.A. County beaches because of bacteria levels that exceed state health standards.

After recent samples showed unsafe bacterial levels, which may increase the risk of illness, health officials recommend beachgoers to:

• avoid contact 100 yards up and down the coast from the public restrooms of the Malibu Lagoon at Surfrider Beach.
  
• avoid contact 100 yards up and down the coast at Santa Monica Canyon Creek at Will Rogers State Beach. It's located near Will Rogers Tower 18.
  
• avoid contact 100 yards up and down the coast from the Castlerock Storm Drain at Topanga County Beach too.
  
• avoid contact 100 yards up and down the coast from the Escondido Creek at Escondido State Beach.
  
• avoid contact 100 yards up and down the coast from the Marie Canyon Storm Drain at Puerco Beach.

Good news, some beach areas have been cleared of previous warnings because of recent water samples that identified quality levels back within California standards. Those include:

• Leo Carrillo State Beach in Malibu.
  
• Mother’s Beach in Marina Del Rey.
  
• The Pulga storm drain at Will Rogers State Beach.
  
• And last but not least, the world-famous Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica.

You can find the latest information and a map on beach conditions online here. You can also find information on the last 30 days of beach water quality across L.A. County at Heal The Bay's Beach Report Card.

Millions of spring break travelers are heading to the airport this month, and Johnny Jones was hoping to be one of them. But the ongoing shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security forced his family to cancel its vacation plans.

"I won't be traveling anywhere, but I'll be helping out getting people to where they're going," said Jones, a TSA security officer at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. He also serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 100, which represents about 45,000 TSA officers nationwide.

Those TSA officers have been working without pay since funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed on February 14th. They've already missed part of one paycheck, and many security officers received no money at all in their paychecks on Friday as the partial shutdown approached the one-month mark.

"They're panicking, they're scared, they're afraid. And they don't know what they're going to do," Jones said in an interview. The majority of TSA employees work paycheck to paycheck, Jones said, and don't have enough savings to cover their expenses. "They're just flat-out not paying their bills because they don't have any money," he said.

Passengers have encountered hours-long security lines at major airports in Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin, and elsewhere, as many TSA officers have called out sick. Some officers have taken on second jobs in order to make ends meet, Jones said.

"The officers can't afford to come to work. The gas is expensive right now," said Suzette, a security officer at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport who's worked for TSA for more than two decades. She requested we only use her middle name because she is not authorized to speak to the media.

TSA staff members at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas unload donated lunches from MGM Resorts on Wednesday as a partial government shutdown continues, and workers stopped receiving paychecks.

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"People have childcare. You have a mortgage that you have to pay," Suzette told NPR's Morning Edition. "Where are you getting the money from to pay?"

DHS has blamed the long lines on Democrats in a series of social media statements over the weekend, though Democrats say Republicans are also to blame.

Democrats have refused to approve DHS's budget unless GOP lawmakers and the White House agree on changes to how immigration officers operate after the fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis. Senate Democrats introduced bills to fund TSA and other components of DHS instead, but Republicans blocked them.

More than 100,000 DHS workers will miss their first full paycheck Friday, according to the White House, including employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the TSA. 

Meanwhile, airline passengers are still paying the security fees that help to fund the TSA's budget, even as the partial shutdown drags on. The passenger fee, also known as the aviation security fee or the September 11 security fee, was enacted when the TSA was created after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.

"That fee has underwritten part of the TSA budget for all those years," explains former TSA administrator John Pistole. Airlines collect $5.60 for each one-way segment on a domestic flight, Pistole says. And that money has continued to accrue, even though none of it is finding its way into the bank accounts of TSA workers.

Security officers also went more than 40 days without a paycheck last year during the partial government shutdown last year. The back-to-back shutdowns have only made it harder for the agency to attract and retain workers, Pistole said, as more than 1,000 security officers resigned from TSA during October and November of last year.

At Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, TSA workers are still on the job Friday despite not receiving a full paycheck due to the partial government shutdown.

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Annabelle Gordon

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"The longer it went, the more officers who resigned," Pistole said. "Not knowing how long the shutdown will continue, [they] will basically look for other work, because surprise, they have bills to pay."

An additional 300 TSA officers have quit during the current shutdown, according to the White House.

Travel and aviation industry leaders say all of this is creating unnecessary stress and confusion for passengers.

"Travelers should be concerned that Congress has created unpredictability in the system. They've created a system where we don't know whether we should show up at the airport one hour ahead, four or 5 hours ahead," said Geoff Freeman, the CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.

Freeman had urged the Trump administration to restart Global Entry, a program that allows pre-approved, low-risk travelers to get expedited processing when they enter the U.S. from abroad. DHS moved to reopen the program this week.

Now Freeman is hopeful that a change in leadership at DHS will help to break the stalemate over funding for the department. Last week, President Trump announced that he is removing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and wants Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R.-Okla., to take over.

"The politics of the shutdown are complicated," Freeman said in an interview. "Changes at the Department of Homeland Security create additional opportunities for compromise," he said, though he expects the shutdown to continue into next week at a minimum.

NPR's Milton Guevara contributed reporting.
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