The Brief

The Los Angeles County homelessness budget approved last week included tens of millions in cuts to established services, including a 78% reduction in funding for the region’s main homeless workforce development program.

LA:RISE provides services for people experiencing homelessness, county authorities said, but they do not specifically align with the county’s priorities for the next fiscal year, according to Cheri Todoroff, director of the Homeless Initiative, which manages the county’s spending.

More than 90% of the county homelessness funding will go to programs that focus on providing shelter and permanent housing, Todoroff said.

LA:RISE partners with 40 organizations, including Homeboy Industries, Goodwill and Downtown Women’s Center, to provide thousands of unhoused Angelenos and those at risk for homelessness with temporary paid work, job training and other support.

Organizations that work with LA:RISE called the county’s move short-sighted, because jobs are crucial for helping people transition out of homelessness.

"Reducing the role of workforce development and employment in this budget eliminates the possibility of solving homelessness at its root and reduces the odds of long-term stability after housing,” said Greg Ericksen with REDF (formerly the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund), a philanthropy organization that manages the program.

Amy Turk, chief executive of the Downtown Women’s Center in Skid Row, said her organization has successfully worked with LA:RISE to help keep clients housed by connecting them with steady incomes and job skills.

“In the grand sense of the county's budget, it’s not that much, but the outcomes that we get are significant,” said Turk. “To hobble that is really disappointing.”

LA:RISE was among the programs that saw the largest drop in county funding in the fiscal year that starts in July. The Board of Supervisors also approved cuts to some legal services, a program providing case management to people exiting jail, a mobile showers program for the homeless and more.

Last year, LA:RISE received $8.4 million in county funding, and the program served 1,200 clients. The new budget will provide LA:RISE with less than $1.8 million in county funds.

Those cuts will shrink the program, but not end it. But it means 600 fewer people will get access to temporary paid work, job training and other support, according to the county.

Homeboy Industries in L.A. works with the LA:RISE program to provide job training to at-risk Angelenos, including those formerly involved with gangs

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Why cuts? 

The new spending plan was the first to allocate funding from voter-approved Measure A. The sales tax kicks in April 1 and is expected to generate $1 billion annually for homeless services and affordable housing efforts — essentially doubling the county’s homelessness dollars.

But a large portion of that money will go to a new affordable housing agency for L.A. County and to local governments within the county’s 88 cities for homelessness services.

Even with the influx of new sales tax revenue, the county’s general homeless services budget is facing a projected deficit, and more than $60 million had to be curtailed from existing programs.

Supervisors reversed planned budget cuts to some programs, including targeted homelessness prevention efforts and those serving unhoused young adults, but the workforce program wasn’t spared.

The Homeless Initiative is expected to propose at least $17 million in additional reductions to homeless services at the Board of Supervisors meeting this week.

“As budget amendments move forward, we urge against further cuts to the Homeless Initiative so providers can continue meeting people where they are with the care, support and proven solutions needed to create real impact,” Turk said.

How workforce development works

The LA:RISE initiative exists to help people locked out of the labor market because of homelessness, incarceration or disability become self-sufficient and less dependent on public assistance, program administrators said.

It began in 2014 with grant funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, but has since been funded by L.A. County and the city of L.A.’s workforce development departments, which partner with local service organizations.

“This program is like the bridge from coming out of homelessness, getting ready to go to work, but they're not quite ready right yet,” said Alexandria Piñeda, a former LA:RISE participant who now works full time for Downtown Women’s Center.

Piñeda said she moved from Texas to L.A. about five years ago to find work as a bartender. Then COVID-19 hit, and bars closed.

“I wasn't able to generate any more money because the whole city was shut down. So I ended up homeless, like really fast — within months,” Piñeda said.

She got into a hotel room through the Project RoomKey program and connected with the women’s center, where she learned about the job training program.

“ I didn't know how to do anything else, so that's why I got in LA: RISE to learn a new trade," said Piñeda. “They put me with candle making, and it's very similar to bartending, like I'm mixing and pouring and creating scents, being creative with it.”

The Downtown Women’s Center runs a company called Made By DWC that hires and trains unhoused women. It includes a cafe, clothing boutique and consumer goods line that sells candles, soaps and bath salts.

Piñeda completed 300 hours of paid job training. After she graduated, Made By DWC hired her full-time.

“ I did one job training program and I was on my feet and I’m stable now,” said Piñeda, who currently rents an apartment in Compton. “I'm saving to buy a home. I was able to get a car.”

Today, she trains and mentors other women at the women’s center.

“ It is hard when you're in the program and you're trying to navigate housing or trying to navigate what you're going to eat tonight,” said Piñeda. “I understand that pressure because I went through it.  So I'm always reassuring them, like, ‘You're doing fine. If you're not, we'll talk about it, but you know, like, keep up the good work.’”

Nearly half of the program’s participants have moved on into competitive, unsubsidized jobs, according to LA:RISE.

Stories like Piñeda’s show that programs like this can be extremely helpful to individuals, but it’s harder to quantify how effective they are as a solution to the homelessness crisis.

A 2019 study of the LA:RISE program found participants had higher rates of employment and higher earnings than their peers in the short-term, but no measurable advantage years later.

Other research on workforce programs showed they had little effect on participants’ long-term housing stability.

LA:RISE reacts

The organizations that work with LA:RISE say its success is evident.

Long before she became executive director at the Center For Living and Learning, Maria Alexander had been held in county jail and then lived on the side of a L.A. freeway. Then she started a paid job training experience through a workforce development program.

“The strongest evidence that this program works is that we hire directly and operate our entire organization with over 90% of our staff hired from the LA:RISE program, including management and our finance team,” Alexander said.

She said county leaders should not ignore the role job training and a steady job play in ending homelessness.

“To invest in drug treatment and shelters and then drop the ball upon transitioning into the workforce will cause irreparable harm,” Alexander said. “Having a work location with peers who have overcome the same obstacles and can provide motivation, inspiration and much needed hand holding is immeasurable.”

Downtown L.A. nonprofit Chrysalis, which works with LA:RISE, has been doing this kind of work for four decades, connecting unhoused Angelenos with job training and paid gigs answering phones, cleaning streets or serving food.

The nonprofit says the budget cuts will mean a 50% decrease in its participants, or 100 fewer people next year.

“Last year, 2 million voters told our elected officials that they wanted Measure A and the supportive services it would fund,” said President and CEO Mark Loranger. “LA:RISE is a part of that promise and should not be cut from the budget.”

Representatives from the Center for Employment Opportunities, which works with LA:RISE, said it will also have to drastically reduce enrollments.

“Taking away funding from people who are ready and able to work, those who are ready for full engagement and participation in the workforce and housing would put more Angelenos at risk of long-term homelessness,” said Tiffany Elder, a spokesperson for the organization.

Next steps 

The new county budget goes into effect July 1.

In addition to the remaining $1.8 million in funding from L.A. County, the program also receives about $3 million in annual funding from the city of L.A.’s Economic and Workforce Development Department.

That department recently requested an increase in LA:RISE funding from the city, but that appears unlikely given the city’s budget deficit.

Kelly LoBianco, director of the county’s Department of Economic Opportunity, said she hopes the cuts are only temporary.

“ We think it's an important program and an important model at a time like this,” she said. “We do feel like in addition to maintaining these levels, there’s also a need to scale them to meet the moment.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has mostly blocked efforts to investigate misconduct within its ranks, according to the county inspector general, who announced his retirement Tuesday after 12 years on the job.

In an open letter, Max Huntsman cited examples of how the county has thwarted his efforts to watchdog the department, which in the past has been plagued with accusations that deputies use excessive force and lie on the job.

Huntsman said one example is former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s misuse of criminal enforcement powers to discredit critics, such as opening an investigation into former County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

Villanueva was sheriff from 2018 to 2022.

“My requests for investigation were rejected,” Huntsman’s letter reads. “Even after receiving an official subpoena, the Sheriff’s Department has failed to turn over records regarding the improper surveillance.”

He added: “Sometimes members of the public wonder if frightening new surveillance techniques will be used for improper purposes under the guise of criminal investigation. Sadly, the answer is yes.”

Before becoming inspector general in 2013, Huntsman, 60, was a deputy district attorney who specialized in public corruption. He told LAist on Tuesday that the inspector general job wasn’t something he wanted initially.

“I didn’t want to go work for politicians,” he said. “But the need to provide some kind of independent reporting and analysis was significant.”

The Sheriff’s Department issued a statement saying it valued the Office of the Inspector General and all county oversight bodies and that it wished Huntsman and his family well in his retirement.

The department said it “continues to make great strides in advancing the department in a transparent manner.”

LAist also reached out to the county CEO and county counsel for comment, but they declined.

After George Floyd

In the letter, Huntsman says the state of California has come a long way in strengthening the power of local law enforcement oversight bodies, in part because of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

After widespread protests — and lobbying by Huntsman — the state provided authority to inspectors general to enforce subpoenas requiring law enforcement agencies to hand over documents and authorized external investigation of police misconduct, including deputy gang conduct.

The Sheriff’s Department — backed by county lawyers — has resisted.

“Los Angeles County may not follow those laws, but it will not be able to avoid them forever,” Huntsman wrote. “The county refuses to require the photographing of suspected gang tattoos in secretive groups that the undersheriff has identified as violating state law.”

“Just a few weeks ago, we requested some information regarding an investigation, and a pair of commanders refused to give it to us,” Huntsman said in an interview with LAist.

Origin of the office 

The Inspector General’s Office was created by the county Board of Supervisors in 2013 in response to a scandal that included former Sheriff Lee Baca covering up the abuses of jail inmates.

Baca went to federal prison.

Since then, the office has issued dozens of reports with recommendations for improving living conditions inside jails that some have described as “filthy,” stopping abuses of juveniles inside juvenile halls and providing shower privacy for inmates as part of the requirements under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

“All of these abuses were reported by the Office of Inspector General and recommendations were ignored,” Huntsman wrote. Often, it took court orders to enact change.

“When we first blew the whistle on the torturous chaining of mentally ill prisoners to benches for 36 hours at a time, it was only a court order that ended the practice,” he wrote. “Time and time again, this pattern repeated itself.”

Huntsman wrote the county has permitted the Sheriff’s Department to block oversight and defunded the Office of Inspector General by removing a third of its staff.

“It's not surprising the county has driven out two successive chairs of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission,” he wrote.

“Government always claims to value transparency and accountability, but shooting the messenger is still the most common response to criticism,” Huntsman wrote.

Despite setbacks, Huntsman values work 

Huntsman told LAist on Tuesday that he was proud of his career as a public servant.

“I’ve really enjoyed the work and I’m sad to have it end,” he said.

It’s a sentiment he echoed in his letter, adding that despite the setbacks and roadblocks, he was proud of the people with whom he shared the office.

“It has been my honor to work with a talented, brave and tireless group of public servants to ensure that the public knows what its government is doing,” he wrote.

He noted the inspector general’s reports are fact-checked by the office and public.

“When government abuses occur, they are sometimes kept secret, but that is no longer the case for much of what is happening in Los Angeles County,” Huntsman wrote. “What you do about it is up to you.,”

Huntsman’s last day is Friday.

Topline:

The backstory: Last month, the council's Transportation Committee voted to bring a proposal forward to implement a policy change that allows the city to impound and immediately destroy abandoned or inoperable RVs worth less than $4,000. The change is inspired by new state law AB 630, which was created to prevent previously impounded RVs from ending back up on the street.

The motion, authored by Councilmember Traci Park, reports that abandoned RVs pose as public and safety hazards.

What's next: Councilmember Nithya Raman requested that an implementation plan be presented to the council's public safety and housing and homelessness committees.

Go deeper: L.A. pushes policy to make it easier to remove RVs from city streets.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it had reached a proposed settlement agreement to end a popular, yet controversial Biden-era student loan repayment plan.

The Saving on a Valuable Education plan, better known as SAVE, was the most flexible and generous of all income-driven repayment plans, promising expedited loan forgiveness and monthly payments as low as $0 for low-income borrowers. Republican state attorneys general, led by Missouri, sued the Biden administration, arguing in court that SAVE was too generous.

The legal challenges put all SAVE borrowers in limbo for months, during which they were not required to make payments on their loans — even after many had already spent years in a pandemic payment pause. Interest resumed accruing on SAVE loans in August.

"The law is clear: if you take out a loan, you must pay it back," Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement announcing the proposed agreement. "Thanks to the State of Missouri and other states fighting against this egregious federal overreach, American taxpayers can now rest assured they will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for illegal and irresponsible student loan policies."

Tuesday's agreement, pending court approval, would end the long legal battle over SAVE by ending SAVE itself. The Education Department would commit not to enroll more borrowers in SAVE, to deny all pending SAVE applications and to move the roughly 7 million borrowers still enrolled in SAVE into other repayment plans — though some of those plans are also in flux.

The department also said student loan borrowers would have "a limited time to select a new, legal repayment plan." Borrowers will have to choose between two types of plans: 1.) fixed payment plans or 2.) plans with payments based on a borrower's income.

The two new plans created by Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will roll out in July 2026, and will include a revised standard plan and a new income-driven plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan. Though SAVE borrowers will be expected to change plans before then.

The SAVE plan's days were already numbered. Under the OBBBA, borrowers would have had to change plans by July 1, 2028. Tuesday's news would move that deadline up, though the administration has not provided a timeframe for the changes.

If the proposal is approved by the court, transitioning millions of borrowers to other plans will be a Herculean feat for loan servicing companies that handle day-to-day loan operations.

"It's gonna be bumpy," says Scott Buchanan, head of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance. "Remember, SAVE borrowers have not been in repayment for years. They're gonna have a ton of questions and will need a ton of hand-holding to get back into repayment."

The settlement arrives as millions of borrowers are struggling to keep up with their payments.

"We are sitting on the precipice of millions of borrowers defaulting on their loans," says Persis Yu, of Protect Borrowers. "And instead of choosing to defend a plan that would have been affordable for these borrowers, this Department of Education has capitulated to the AGs and is going to make life much more expensive."

The American Enterprise Institute, AEI, recently published an analysis of the latest federal student loan data: In addition to the 5.5 million borrowers who are currently in default, another 3.7 million are more than 270 days late on their payments and on the edge of default. Another 2.7 million borrowers are in the earlier stages of delinquency. In all, some 12 million borrowers are worryingly behind.
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