The Brief

When it first opened in 2015, Blue Butterfly Village was hailed as a rare sanctuary for women veterans overcoming homelessness.

But some tenants now say conditions at the taxpayer-subsidized San Pedro townhome complex have become so bad, they’re willing to give up their rental subsidies and take their chances on finding a home they can afford on their own limited incomes.

“I’d rather be freaking homeless than continue to live [at Blue Butterfly],” said Jade Easley, who served in the U.S. Army for nearly a decade.

She said that in 2024, the city’s Housing Department inspected her unit and found violations, such as faulty smoke detectors, defective stairs and bad plumbing. She said she frequently heard mice crawling in her walls.

Easley said she told property managers last year that locks on one of her doors were broken. The next month, she suffered a break-in. Seven months later, she said, the door still hadn’t been fixed, so she paid out of pocket to repair it herself.

Easley left Blue Butterfly earlier this year. She now lives with her two children in Tucson, Arizona. She said she moved there because rent is cheap enough to cover with her VA disability benefits. But she is now cut off from her social support system.

“This was not a choice to live here," Easley said. “I’ve lived outside before. I’ve lived deployed. But I never experienced mice in my home for that long of a period of time, clawing at my walls as I'm trying to sleep, and my kids running to my room saying something’s trying to get them.”

What happens after veterans get housed?

Easley is one of 12 current and former tenants who filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court last week against Blue Butterfly’s nonprofit landlord, Volunteers of America.

The tenants allege the organization and its affiliated groups have neglected the property, have failed to provide safe and habitable housing and have harassed residents who complained about worsening conditions.

According to the lawsuit, the property — which is nestled in a hillside down a winding private street lined with other abandoned military housing structures — has become infested with snakes, insects and other wildlife. Coyotes have crawled under poorly maintained fences, tenants say, and black widow spiders have taken over their patios.

Other alleged problems at the property include broken street lamps, sewage overflowing from defective septic systems, trash piling up as collections stopped and lax security that allowed one unit to operate as a “drug den” for years.

“It really has been stressful,” said Alisa Randell, a Public Counsel attorney representing the tenants. “There have been impacts on folks' mental health because of all of these issues not being able to get their homes fixed and not feeling safe and secure at this property.”

Raytevia Evans, a Volunteers of America spokesperson, declined an interview. She emailed a statement, saying the organization could not comment on active litigation.

“We regularly inspect our properties, including Blue Butterfly Village, and respond promptly to maintenance and safety requests from our residents,” the statement read. “We remain deeply committed to ensuring Blue Butterfly Village serves as a supportive environment for female veterans and their families, and we continue to collaborate with municipal partners and property management to address any outstanding maintenance or operational needs.”

Blue Butterfly Village is located down a winding private road. Residents must drive past derelict former military housing in order to reach their homes.

(

David Wagner/LAist News

)

The allegations come at a time when L.A. has been making progress on bringing unhoused veterans indoors. According to this year’s regional homeless count, about 2,250 veterans currently experience homelessness across L.A. County on any given night. That represents a decrease of about 42% from levels of veteran homelessness seen in 2020.

But veteran advocates said some of that decrease is the result of placing people in substandard housing where habitability concerns go unaddressed.

Rob Reynolds told LAist the Blue Butterfly allegations are similar to complaints he has heard from veterans placed in new housing on the VA campus in West L.A. He said those complaints also involve alleged lack of security, frequent staff turnover, pests and broken plumbing.

“I hope the plaintiffs in this case are successful in holding the defendants accountable, and I hope this leads to greater oversight and accountability for the property management groups operating veteran housing in Los Angeles,” Reynolds said. “They deserve better.”

Units received public funding, then failed city inspections

Easley said she spent about one year couch surfing and living in her car before moving into her unit at Blue Butterfly. At first, she said, her new home was “rainbows and sunshine,” describing it as a life-changing opportunity that gave her a reason to keep living.

But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Easley said, the property managers changed and problems in her townhome were left to fester. At the time, she was running a licensed, in-home daycare.

“I was actually pretty proud of myself because I finally was owning my own business,” Easley said. But she said neglect by the landlords left her home too unsafe to operate the daycare.

“I didn't want to be in my own unit,” she said. “I didn't want other people to be in my unit, so I just stopped that completely.”

A car with a popped hood is parked in a driveway outside of a townhome at Blue Butterfly Village in San Pedro.

(

David Wagner/LAist News

)

Disputes between landlords and tenants over habitability are fairly common in L.A. But the situation at Blue Butterfly is notable for how much taxpayer funding has flowed into the property.

The property consists of 74 two-bedroom townhomes. They were repurposed from existing structures that previously provided housing to military families stationed at a nearby Navy base. That housing was closed in 1997. The complex was redeveloped in part with about $12 million in state and local funding, loans, waived development fees and donated land.

Tenants living at Blue Butterfly typically pay up to 30% of their income on rent, with government-funded housing vouchers covering the rest. Some vouchers are administered through the HUD-VASH program, specifically targeted to housing veterans, while others are funded through mainstream Section 8 vouchers.

When landlords fail to fix deteriorating conditions, the local governments that administer these vouchers can place housing units under “abatement,” meaning rental subsidies will be withheld until homes pass future inspections.

LAist discovered through a public records request that the Housing Authority of the City of L.A. has placed at least three units at Blue Butterfly Village under abatement in recent years.

In 2024, Housing Authority officials told a Volunteers of America subsidiary they would not provide rental subsidies until the landlord fixed a faulty toilet, a broken bedroom door handle, a damaged refrigerator and dishwasher, non-functioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and cleared a mouse infestation.

‘It makes you feel like nobody cares’

Anesha Aird, a U.S. Navy veteran, spent about two years without stable housing after retiring from the military. She said she was usually able to pay for short-term hotel stays, but she spent some nights in her car.

Like Easley, Aird said her early days at Blue Butterfly were positive. But over time, her requests for maintenance and increased security on the property were ignored, she said.

At first, “we had proper security that stopped you at the gate, asked you where you were going, checked your name against a ban list to ensure that you were allowed to be on the property,” Aird said. “All of that is gone.”

Anesha Aird stands in front of her townhome at Blue Butterfly Village in San Pedro.

(

David Wagner/LAist News

)

When the attached townhome next to hers burned down in February 2024, the unit was left as a burned-out husk for about nine months, Aird said.

Before the repairs began, Aird said, she asked management to relocate her. She said she worried the construction noise and irregular work hours would disrupt her son’s home-schooling and trigger her post-traumatic stress disorder.

She said management denied her request.

“There are veterans here — veterans like myself with extreme PTSD and bad anxiety and depression,” Aird said. “It makes you feel like nobody cares.”

Tenants say they faced retaliation after asking for repairs

The tenants’ lawsuit alleges that Volunteers of America and other defendants violated the city of L.A.’s tenant anti-harassment ordinance by threatening to remove tenants and blaming them for conditions that landlords are responsible for maintaining.

Randell, the tenants’ attorney, said the lawsuit asks the court to require the landlords carry out repairs, restore services, end alleged retaliation and pay damages to compensate tenants for alleged overpaid rent and emotional distress.

“This site has a lot of promise,” Randell said. “We just want to see it live up to its promise.”

A spokesperson for the L.A. Housing Department said it currently had no records of open complaints or violations at the property. Officials with the Housing Authority of the City of L.A. did not respond to LAist’s request for information on current conditions at the complex.

Aird said she recently came home to find a three-day notice warning of a potential eviction on her door. She said she did not believe the threat would hold up in court. In any case, she plans to move out once she can find another building where she can use a housing voucher.

“I served this country honorably for 20 years,” Aird said. “All I'm asking is that I get treated with that same respect.”

Federal forecasters say this year the planet could see the strongest El Niño event on record. It's already being called "Super El Niño" and even "Godzilla El Niño." El Niño is a natural climate pattern that has far-reaching impacts across the planet, potentially affecting hundreds of millions of people.

Where those impacts happen can vary drastically from one El Niño to the next. Here are the basics of what this historic event could bring.

What is El Niño?

El Niño occurs every two to seven years. It develops when a vast amount of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean warms up around the equator. That water releases massive heat, redistributing warmth from the ocean to the atmosphere. That shifts weather patterns around the world.

The flip side of El Niño is a La Niña, which is marked by relatively cool water in the tropical Pacific around the equator. These events are responsible for some of the biggest weather variability the planet experiences.

El Niño is like dropping a rock in a pond, says Daniel Vimont, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Even though you're not where the rock hit, you still may feel the effects of those waves," he says. "El Niño is the same thing, except it's an enormous rock in our entire Earth's system, and we feel the response."

How strong is it?

Sure, "Godzilla El Niño" is catchy, but technically, NOAA forecasters say this year's El Niño will fall into the "very strong" category. It's measured by the temperature of the ocean in a particular region off South America. The warmer the water, the stronger the El Niño. When that water is more than 2 degrees Celsius warmer than average, it qualifies as a "very strong" El Niño.

The last strong events were in 2015-16, 1997-8 and 1982-83. El Niños typically peak in November and December, but already, this El Niño is the strongest ever measured for this time of year. NOAA forecasters expect it to last through early 2027.

What will the impacts be globally?

All that added heat in the atmosphere raises temperatures globally. El Niño years tend to be the hottest on record. Forecasters say this year may get close to taking the top spot, but it's very likely that temperature records could fall in 2027. The planet is already warmer due to climate change, because emissions from burning fossil fuels are trapping more heat in the atmosphere.

El Niño also shifts rainfall patterns globally, raising the chances for destructive flooding in some parts of the world. Other regions get drier, exacerbating droughts. Both impacts can be catastrophic to agriculture around the world. The United Nations World Food Programme estimates that El Niño could push at least 49 million more people into acute food insecurity by the end of 2027.

What will the impacts be in the U.S.?

In El Niño years, the southern U.S. tends to see more intense rainfall because the jet stream shifts to the south. That raises the risk of floods along rivers and in cities. Still, in the Southwest, more rain could alleviate drought and recharge underground aquifers.

"El Niño tends to juice up those storms so that you get more really strong rain events," says Martin Hoerling, meteorologist and adjunct lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder. "So if you were running a deficit in your water supply, a big El Niño, especially like the one we're having, can really get you into recovery mode that otherwise might have taken you years."

The northern half of the country gets warmer and drier, something that could exacerbate the current drought in the Intermountain West. Some states experience mixed effects during El Niños, like California. The state saw historic flooding in the 1997-98 El Niño, but was drier than average during the 2015-16 one. Climate experts say the current El Niño is so strong, it's more likely California will experience extreme rain.

El Niños can also lead to fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, since it's more difficult for the storms to form. In the Pacific Ocean, hurricanes can get more frequent, fueled by warmer ocean water. Already this year, hurricanes have intensified rapidly in the Pacific, and Hawaii has had close calls with several hurricanes that brought destructive rain and wind.

Can we blame it all on El Niño?

Certain weather changes are common during El Niños, but there are no guarantees that extreme weather events this winter will match those predictions for every region.

"El Niño is like loading the dice," Vimont says. "While we're loading the dice for a certain type of response from El Niño, we still know that in any given year, there are still natural fluctuations that may mask that or cause the response to be slightly different than what we might expect."

In addition to that natural variability, weather events are also being affected by climate change. The most intense storms are already producing more rainfall in most of the U.S., since a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor. Heat waves and droughts are also getting more intense due to rising temperatures. Climate experts say El Niño and climate change impacts will both play out this winter, but while El Niño will fade, the effects of climate change will continue.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Fans of Hollywood Burbank Airport have a new way to rag on LAX-ers.

Burbank’s ambitious new terminal building has been completed on time and on budget. The long-awaited structure, known as the Elevate BUR project, is ready for prime time.

It’s slated to open to the public on Oct. 13, with a new entrance at Winona Avenue and Hollywood Way. On Monday, LAist got a look inside.

Why now?

The $1.3 billion terminal is a decade in the making. The project comes from Burbank’s Measure B, which voters passed in 2016.

Burbank Mayor Tamala Takahashi said the new building will replace the terminal that opened in 1930, which will eventually be demolished.

“ The old building is not to code, so it can’t be reused. It’s too close to the airstrip. That’s why we had to do this in the first place,” she said.

The new facility is more than 50% larger. Plus, it has a slate of improvements needed to meet FAA safety standards and state building requirements. That includes new seismic and accessibility features and more runaway space.

The new terminal will have the same 14 gates but with a lot more room.

(

Cato Hernández

/

LAist

)

The entrance to TSA. Once you're in, you either go left or right to your gate number after screening.

(

Cato Hernández

/

LAist

)

Takahashi said the new terminal will open up  capacity because all of the gates will be able to accommodate modern planes.

“What that means is that we’re going to have the same number of flights, the same number of planes, the same number of gates, but more people going through the airport every day,” she said.

There’s one thing travelers can count on to stay the same: You’ll still be able to board your plane on the tarmac.

The Hollywood touch

Tyron Hampton, president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which owns the airport, said it’s time everyone knows about L.A.’s best insider tip for flying.

“ This is no longer a secret,” he said. “We want people to come here. We want people to see this experience.”

Hampton said the new building has space for more amenities, which feature local retailers like Jones Coffee and Octavia’s Bookshelf.

The specs on the ceiling are supposed to mirror one of Marilyn Monroe's dresses.

(

Cato Hernández

/

LAist

)

Art is also woven into the design. Brent Kelley, who worked on the architecture at Corgan, said one of their themes was classic Hollywood.

For example, small dots on the ceiling are meant to evoke Marilyn Monroe’s glimmering dress during her iconic “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” moment.

A “silver screen” canopy extends across the building outside, alongside an installation that honors the time the buildings were covered in camouflage during World War II.

California State University is betting that artificial intelligence will transform the workplace — and that its 470,000 students need to learn how to use it before they graduate.

Last year, CSU became the nation’s first public university system to pay for students’ access to ChatGPT Edu. It has awarded over $3 million in grants for faculty to experiment with how to use AI in classrooms. Several campuses now train students in how to responsibly use the technology.

Those measures are all pieces of CSU’s strategy to prepare students for a future labor market reshaped by AI. But the investment in AI has come under criticism from some CSU faculty, and some students remain skeptical of the value of knowing how to use AI even as most are concerned the developing technology will threaten their chances of landing a job and keeping it.

The success of CSU’s AI strategy will depend on the extent to which AI affects the workforce that today’s college students will soon enter.

Hiring is frozen in many sectors right now as employers wait to see the true extent artificial intelligence will change the labor market, said Eric Bettinger, a leading education economist with Stanford Graduate School of Education. But it’s not clear if the slowdown in the labor market can be attributed to AI.

As with previous emerging technologies, AI is forcing employers to decide whether they should replace workers with the technology, or hire more employees who can leverage AI to be more productive, Bettinger said.

New graduates are facing a difficult labor market, considering the unemployment rate for this population has steadily risen since 2022, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“The reality is that the world outside of school isn’t slowing down, and we need to prepare our students for that reality,” James Frazee, San Diego State University’s vice president for information technology, told EdSource.

Students worry AI is taking their future jobs

Ismaeel Malik, a San Jose State University justice studies student, said he worries about AI taking over jobs in his desired field.

“Entry-level jobs are work that people don’t want to do,” Malik, who will graduate next spring, told EdSource. Malik said he doesn’t think AI proficiency will make it easier to win a position out of college.

Other San Jose State students who spoke with EdSource say they think some majors will be more affected than others. San Jose State prenursing student Jade Goodewin said the “hands-on” part of her preferred future career seems fairly AI-proof. But second-year student Vien Tang, who is studying advertising, said that AI could replace some of the work of entry-level jobs in the advertising industry.

“It’s definitely a possibility, because I think a lot of companies try to cut costs,” Tang said. “There’s a likelihood of that happening.”

Given SJSU’s proximity to Silicon Valley and many companies whose technologies are reshaping the workforce, the university hopes to be a leader in AI adoption, said Sandra Hirsh, special assistant to the university’s provost for AI initiatives.

“We need to be preparing students with whatever the latest opportunities are, but also prepare students for the fact that change and evolution are going to continue to happen,” she said.

Hirsh said companies want graduates to have a basic understanding of AI and how to use it in their work. Despite the nebulous changes happening in the job market, companies that hire SJSU graduates have told university leaders that students also need skills in leadership, inventiveness and ethics.

The CSU system is paying $13 million a year to provide ChatGPT Edu to all 470,000 CSU students.

Artur Gafurov, president of the California State Student Association and a fourth-year student at San Jose State, said many students appreciate access to AI tools like ChatGPT Edu, but don’t necessarily know how to use them responsibly and effectively.

“I know a lot of students who are taking it upon themselves to learn a bit more about the tool and restrict themselves with how they use it,” Gafurov said.

Some question the value of AI initiatives 

Other private and public universities have signed agreements with companies such as OpenAI to give students access to large language models, including ChatGPT Edu. Large public university systems, such as State University of New York, have also developed systemwide AI policies, and some colleges, such as Northwestern University, have launched AI majors.

But not everyone at CSU has embraced the growing use of AI on campuses. Some professors pushed back on the OpenAI deal after CSU signed it in early 2025. Martha Lincoln, an anthropology professor at San Francisco State University, said CSU administrators did not clearly explain how AI would be used on campuses and in classrooms by students.

“What will students be doing with AI that’s so valuable? If it’s so valuable to them professionally, educationally, where is that value and what does it look like?” Lincoln said.

Martha Kenney, a professor in the SFSU Department of Women and Gender Studies, said CSU’s claims that AI is helping prepare students for the changing labor market are dubious because the university has not clearly identified skills young people should develop for their future careers.

“It’s possible it has no use for our students in this way,” Kenney said.

According to an OpenAI spokesperson, ChatGPT Edu provides students with access to the company’s latest large language model, and includes plug-ins that students and faculty can use to personalize their accounts for teaching and learning.

University officials say providing access to tools like ChatGPT is essential to prevent a digital divide for CSU students who may not be able to afford subscriptions to these technologies.

“We believe we’re doing the right thing to serve our mission to prepare our students for the future workforce,” said Ed Clark, CSU’s chief information officer.

The future workforce

Erika McEntarfer, the former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, said some experts in recent years have forecast that AI would wipe out white-collar workers’ jobs. There’s little evidence that has happened, she said.

It’s difficult for universities to predict which skills will be in demand in the future, she said, but colleges should prepare their students for disruptions to their careers. She noted that roughly 60% of today’s jobs didn’t exist in 1940.

Universities need to prepare students for a tough labor market, and not just because of AI, McEntarfer said. The recent rise in the unemployment rate among new graduates started before ChatGPT was introduced in 2022, she said.

McEntarfer’s advice to recent or soon-to-be graduates is to develop skills that make you a good “human” worker, such as small talk, showing up to work on time and meeting the needs of company leaders.

“With AI you need to make sure you’re using it as a personal trainer, not a human forklift,” McEntarfer advised future college graduates. “Hopefully that’s what colleges are doing.”

Mariana Sanchez is a fourth-year journalism major at San Jose State University and a member of the EdSource California Student Journalism Corps.

This story was originally published by EdSource.