The Brief

On Friday, President Donald Trump released a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year that would take a chainsaw to social, environmental and education programs. Some of the sharpest cuts are directed at housing programs meant to serve the poor, housing insecure and unhoused.

In California, millions are served by these funds, and state and local governments depend on them to operate affordable housing, rental assistance, homeless service, planning and legal programs.

In a letter to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, the president’s budget director, Russel Vought, laid out $163 billion in annual spending cuts coupled with “unprecedented increases” in military and border security spending. The cuts, Vought wrote, are directed at areas of spending that the administration found to be “contrary to the needs of ordinary working Americans and tilted toward funding niche non-governmental organizations and institutions of higher education committed to radical gender and climate ideologies antithetical to the American way of life.”

That includes $33.5 billion in proposed cuts to the Housing and Urban Development department, a 44% reduction from current levels.

Presidential budget requests rarely reflect what Congress ultimately passes into law but are instead often viewed as something between an opening negotiating bid and a political vision board.

Even so, the budget document makes for quite a vision — one that, if realized, would upend decades of federal housing policy and affect millions of lives.

The sheer breadth of the cuts provides an odd kind of solace to some affordable housing advocates.

“By following through on such a huge level with so many proposals that are going to gut assistance to low-income people across the country, including his own party’s states, he’s putting his own members of Congress in a very difficult place,” said Matt Schwartz, president of the California Housing Partnership, a nonprofit that advocates for more affordable housing. “The level of carnage that would be involved in doing these things is probably going to send some Republican senators running for the exits.”

A handful of powerful GOP senators have, indeed, already pushed back on the president’s proposal, though much of their ire was directed at what they saw as a lack of sufficient military spending.

The largest single cut in federal housing policy would target the Housing Choice Voucher program. Better known as Section 8, it’s currently administered by the federal government and helps low-income tenants with their rental payments. The White House is proposing shifting responsibility for the administration of that program, which it calls “dysfunctional,” to states, while cutting its funding in half.

It also proposes a two-year limit on how long a single person can receive help. That change is “completely out of touch with what people are facing in the housing market,” said Alex Visotzky, senior California policy fellow at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. With soaring rents outpacing people’s incomes, low-income tenants aren’t going to be able to magically earn enough money to start paying rent in two years, he said.

Additional cuts to four other housing voucher programs are meant to save $27 billion annually.

“You’d be looking at millions of people out on the street virtually overnight,” said Schwartz. “There’s no way states could maintain the same level of assistance.”

The administration proposes to save nearly $5 billion more by eliminating funds for local economic development grants, affordable housing developments and local initiatives to reduce regulatory barriers to new housing.

That latter program, a Biden-era initiative known as Pathways to Removing Obstacle Housing, was denounced in the administration’s budget write-up as a “woke” program that has pursued “radical racial, gender and climate goals.”

The White House pointed specifically to a $6.7 million grant made to Los Angeles County to fund infrastructure planning, public transit-oriented housing and, as described in the county's funding proposal, rezoning that would reverse the region’s “legacy of past systemic racism.”

Radical reshuffle of homelessness policy

The budget would slash federal homelessness funding by $532 million, while also radically changing the way those funds are distributed. The Continuum of Care program — the main way the federal government distributes funds to fight homelessness — would effectively end. It would be replaced by an Emergency Solutions Grant program.

The continuum program funds long-term solutions to homelessness, including permanent supportive housing, which is housing that comes with case management, counseling and other services for people with disabilities, mental illnesses, addictions or other struggles that mean they require extra help. Emergency Solutions Grants, on the other hand, fund more short-term solutions, such as homeless shelters, or short-term rental assistance for people who don’t need extra services.

That shift in funding would mean thousands of people would lose their supportive housing and end up back on the street, said Visotzky from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

“This would be a significant shift away from the solution to homelessness, which is housing, toward shelter,” he said. “This budget is going to take away all the pathways to get out of shelter and into housing.”

Homeless veterans fared better. The budget proposes a $1.1 billion increase “for the President’s commitment to ending veterans’ homelessness.” Those funds would go to Veterans Affairs for rental assistance, case management and support services.

The budget also calls for the elimination of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, an agency tasked with coordinating homeless policy at the federal level, which the administration had already gutted.

End of 'fair housing' enforcement as we know it

The White House also proposes zeroing out a grant program that funds nonprofit legal aid organizations that enforce national fair housing laws. According to the explanatory summary of the cuts published by the administration, these organizations advocate “against single family neighborhoods and promote radical equity policies.”

That characterization is strongly disputed by Caroline Peattie, executive director of the Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California. Federally recognized nonprofit fair housing groups processed 74% of all fair housing complaints submitted across the country in 2023, according to data compiled by the National Fair Housing Alliance. The remainder go to federal and state housing regulators.

A recent example: In 2022, Peattie's organization received a complaint that a Nevada-based appraisal company was systematically undervaluing homes owned by Black and Latino Californians. The nonprofit investigated and submitted a complaint to the state. The California Civil Rights Department reached a settlement with the appraisal company in mid-April.

If all the cuts go into effect as proposed, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California would lose roughly 75% of its funding, said Peattie.

“It’s just appalling,” she said. “When the fair housing organizations go away, then what?”

The across-the-board cuts come after months of legal battle between fair housing organizations and the administration. In February the Department of Government Efficiency, helmed by Elon Musk, abruptly terminated a key source of congressionally authorized funding for dozens of private fair housing organizations, including Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California. The groups sued. With that lawsuit pending, the funds, appropriated for fiscal year 2024, “are still in the ether,” said Peattie.

Last month, Congress passed a bill to keep government spending at current levels from the prior year, meaning that fiscal year 2025 spending is in a holding pattern for now.

“But as for fiscal year 2026, all bets are off,” said Peattie.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Singer-songwriter Dwight Yoakam has lived in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. But coming up during the 1980s in the clubs of L.A. and the San Fernando Valley, you might say his style is more California Country than anything.

Yoakam recently sold out The Roxy for a concert benefitting Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles. The 69-year-old musician and actor had a lot of backup from a younger generation of country acts.

He was joined on stage by Grammy-nominated people like Lukas Nelson — as in Willie’s son — guitar prodigy Marcus King and others.

Dwight Yoakam and Lukas Nelson (center) take the stage at The Roxy.

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Brian Bowen Smith

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“It’s flattering on a personal level that five artists of that generation would come and collaborate with me to do this. But more importantly it was gratifying to hear their response to the charitable cause of Children’s Hospital,” Yoakam said.

Yoakam and wife, Emily Joyce, had a very personal inspiration for organizing the benefit concert. In 2020, during the peak of COVID, their own infant son was seen at Children’s Hospital. They were relieved it was nothing, but an experience Emily relayed to Yoakam changed him.

“She heard the little boy behind in another recovery bed come to. Five or six. And his eyes opened — I guess his father was there with him at his bedside. And he said ‘Was I brave daddy?’ And I said: ‘Wow, it puts everything in life in quick perspective.’"

Yoakam said the experience stuck with Joyce so much that she was determined to put a benefit show together. And it was heartening having so many of his friends back him up for the "Rockin’ for the Kids" concert, Yoakam said. The night even had a surprise on-stage FaceTime call from actor Billy Bob Thornton. The actor and director — who cast Yoakam in his 1996 film Sling Blade — was originally scheduled to help emcee the event, but was stuck at an iced out movie shoot in New Jersey.

Los Angeles calling

Yoakam came out to the warm California sun in the late 70s, and it wasn’t long before he was gigging hard at long gone honky-tonks like The Palomino and The Corral in the San Fernando Valley.

“[I] spent a year of my life on the off nights [at The Corral] — let me tell you — that’s the real world,” Yoakam recalled. “The time I was out there doing, you know, five sets a night. You’d start at nine and end at two in the morning... And you know I really made my bones there.”

It wasn’t long before Yoakam’s California Country music was mixing and merging with a new scene in L.A. One that blended the punk rock ethos with the twang of country.

“The crossroads of time and place happened again in the early 80s with the quote ‘Cowpunk’ movement. A lot of them were punk rock bands. Like The Dills became Rank and File. The Plugz — with a Z — became Los Cruzados,” Yoakam said.

He would go on to share the bill with bands like X and The Blasters. And Yoakam was embraced by crowds of punk rockers too.

“I said, ‘You know what? We don’t have to play The Roundup out in the Valley, we don’t have to play just The Palomino. I said ‘We can go over the hill,’” he said.

Yoakam remembered it was Bill Bentley, a former music editor for the LA Weekly, who saw him performing at The Palomino and then invited him to play Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd.

“That introduced me to a different audience. And then we started playing... the rock n’ roll side of the hill,” Yoakam said.

By 1986, Yoakam was playing at The Roxy for the record release party for “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc.” The live performance was recorded and included on later releases of the album.

“We did the record release party, 40 years ago in March, at The Roxy. It was kind of a full-circle moment. Interesting book-end, if you will, from 1986 to now,” Yoakam said.

Yoakam will play Ontario’s ONT Field on March 21, right before heading out on tour with ZZ Top.

Tickets are available via Ticketmaster.

Thousands more students joined walkouts Friday to protest the Trump administration’s militarized crackdown on immigrants, detainment of children and violence against U.S. citizens protesting the raids.

By mid-afternoon, nearly 12,500 students from more than 85 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District had walked out, according to a district spokesperson. Hundreds of students in other districts — from Pasadena and the greater San Gabriel Valley to Orange County — also marched in their communities.

At Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar, about 100 students—some as young as 11—walked out of their science, English, and math classes, then walked to a nearby park.

For many students, Friday’s walkout marks the first time they’ve ever participated in a protest. And after months of watching federal immigration agents violently detain people on social media, the students told LAist that protesting — on behalf of their communities and in honor of Renee Good and Alex Pretti — filled them with a sense of freedom and power.

Isaac, a seventh grader, walked out of science class.

“This felt like I was breaking out of some sort of chamber,” he told LAist. “I felt like I was being free for once.”

Many of the 12-year-old’s family members are from Mexico and he’s been worried about what could happen if they’re detained.

“I'm standing up for my family and my friends, our community, really,” he said. “The most we [can] do is what we're doing right now.”

After months of being scared every time his parents go to work, Isaac said the protest was a type of salve.

“It makes us feel better,” he said. “It makes us stronger.”

M, right, is a sixth grader at Olive Vista and organized the school's walkout.

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How to organize a middle school

A few weeks ago, M, an 11-year-old sixth grader at Olive Vista Middle School, asked her mom, Maritza Ocegueda, why students in Minnesota and elsewhere were walking out of school. LAist has agreed to refer to her solely by her first initial, after her mom raised concerns for her safety.

Ocegueda shared with her daughter that she walked out of Van Nuys High School as a junior in 2006 to protest proposed federal immigration legislation. Nearly 40,000 students from across Southern California joined the movement.

“ I was floored,” Ocegueda said. “It inspires me and gives me that little bit of hope… Maybe we can make a change.”

M decided to organize a walkout at her school concurrently with other students in the community. 

She made several lunchtime announcements about a walkout on Friday, Feb. 6 at 10:24 a.m.

“If you'd like to join, please come over here and if you have any questions, just ask me.”

Those announcements did not come easily to M, who is soft spoken and admittedly shy. “ I try to be the bravest I can,” she said. “ I want [my classmates] to understand how serious this [is] … [The federal government is not] letting people be themselves, like, they can't go to Home Depot without feeling unsafe.”

M, and several other students said some teachers and administrators discouraged their organizing. M said at one point she was pulled out of class for more than an hour to talk about the walkout.

“ One of the things I told the school [is] you dropped the ball because this is a learning moment,” Ocegueda said. However, she said she’s open to more conversations with school and district leaders on how to support students.

Maritza Ocegueda's daughter M organized Olive Vista Middle School's walkout. She said she's active in the community passing out food and clothes to unhoused neighbors and helping other people connect with resources.

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A Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson provided a statement that said students were informed that walkouts are not school-sponsored, there are spaces on campus for students to exercise their freedom of speech and that they would be marked absent for missed class periods. A similar message was posted to the school’s Facebook page Thursday afternoon.

“Administrators routinely meet with students to share safety information and clarify options for on-campus expression—not to threaten or discipline,” the statement read. “Leaving campus during instructional time without permission is discouraged; that message is about safety and supervision, not suppressing speech.”

M said that other teachers were more supportive and helped her spread the word about the walkout to other students.

“ What I've learned is students should not have to come protest 'cause that's what the adults should be doing,” M said. “Adults should know better to help out the community and students should not have to come out.”

Honks of support 

By mid-morning, students began to trickle out of Olive Vista.

As students joined the group of young activists, those already outside cheered and passing cars honked their horns in support. One SUV had a Mexican flag poking out of the sunroof.

Out by the curb, some of their parents, including M’s mom, were waiting. The adults encouraged the students to stick together and made sure the group waited for the light to turn before crossing the street to Sylmar Park.

" What's in my heart is that my parents are Mexican and I wanna support," said Jayden, an Olive Vista 6th grader.

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Once they gathered, the middle schoolers marched to a nearby park, carrying homemade signs and flags of Latin America.

One student turned to a friend and nervously quipped: “I just really hope we don’t get shot or tear gassed.”

‘They don't understand how much we love our parents.’

In conversation with LAist, multiple students said they live in fear of being separated from their families. They also worry that their parents could be mistreated if they are detained by federal agents.

Eleven-year-old Alejandro, for instance, usually goes to Sylmar Park to play baseball. Today, he said, he went to the protest to honor his mom and dad, Mexican immigrants from the states of Michoacán and Jalisco.

To critics who think he should have stayed in class, he said: “They don't understand how much we love our parents.”

“I just don't like how Donald Trump is calling us ‘animals,’ when we're the ones working our asses off to live paycheck to paycheck, while he's up there sitting in his chair throwing out orders at Kristi Noem,” said eighth-grader Jesús, referring to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The 13-year-old had his family and his neighbors in mind during the protest, along with 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, whose deportation the federal government is working to expedite.

“The little boy who was captured with his little bunny hat, he was captured and he was sent to prison,” Jesús noted. “And that's just crazy, because how are you going to let a little kid inside a prison?”

The federal immigration activity in the San Fernando Valley has also left him feeling nervous, even when he is on campus. “I'm trying to study and then I just get reminded: maybe there's somebody waiting outside to take us.”

Sixth grader Sophia’ said she walked out for her grandmother who’s from Mexico. "I wanna represent our people and show that we aren't bad," Sophia said. "We are actually, like, a great community."

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LAist

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As the students chanted and waved their signs, adults passed out snacks, water and pizza purchased with money donated from the community.

“They're here with clear intentions and they're here for a purpose,” said Michelle, the parent of another young protestor who requested LAist only use her first name. “I’m just proud of them.”

M, the organizer, said she wouldn’t have used that term to describe herself before the protest.

“Now that I'm looking at myself, I do see myself as a helper,” M said. She plans to continue helping her community, for example by distributing food and clothes to unhoused neighbors.

And she has some advice for any aspiring student organizers.

“ I was a shy kid, so I want them to be brave and speak up,” M said.

She said she planned to finish up the day at school after she ate.

Topline:

Why it matters: King Taco helped establish the template for the modern L.A. taqueria — shifting the city's understanding of tacos from the hard-shell, Americanized version to soft tortillas filled with carne asada, carnitas and tacos al pastor. As the late food critic Jonathan Gold noted, King Taco "solidified what we all think of as the modern Los Angeles taco sensibility."

Why now: The nomination comes as part of the city's ongoing effort to recognize Latino cultural landmarks.

The backstory: Founder Raul Martinez launched King Taco from a converted ice cream truck in 1974, eventually opening the Cypress Park brick-and-mortar location that became the chain's flagship. The business grew to 24 locations across Southern California, becoming a model for immigrant entrepreneurship and establishing key Mexican dishes like tacos al pastor and carnitas as L.A. staples.

What's next: The Cultural Heritage Commission will determine whether King Taco's original location retains sufficient historic integrity and continues to convey its cultural significance. If approved, King Taco would become one of the few designated restaurant landmarks recognizing Latino culinary contributions.