The Brief

The results of the city of Los Angeles’ 12-month guaranteed income pilot program are here, more than a year after 3,202 low-income people received their last payment with no strings attached.

Researchers touted an increasing sense of financial well-being, parents spending more time with their children, and lower levels of psychological and sexual abuse as city officials promised a push to expand the program.

Each participant was given $1,000 each month, for a total of $12,000 over the course of a year, to use however they wanted as part of the “Basic Income Guaranteed: Los Angeles Economic Assistance Pilot program,” otherwise known as BIG:LEAP.

And Councilmember Curren Price, who led the effort in L.A., said the data speaks for itself — researchers found positive trends in food security, sense of community, and reducing intimate partner violence and fear of community violence.

“But we witnessed transformation in the participants that went beyond data,” Price said at a news conference outside City Hall on Tuesday. “It also empowered participants to start businesses, to move into their own homes, and to reclaim their hope from despair.”

About the people in the program

The goal of the program was to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, according to the research report, and more than 50,000 people applied in just 10 days.

The selected participants were in deep poverty and “teetering on the edge” of losing housing, struggling to pay their bills, and battling to meet their most basic needs, the researchers noted.

The average age of people in the program was 37 years old, almost every household had children, and 80% were women.

Nearly half identified as either Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish, a little more than a quarter identified as Black, 15% white, and about 3% identified as Asian.

The average annual household income was a little more than $14,200, and 71% of people in the program received SNAP/CalFresh benefits.

A map of the city of L.A. with the number of program participants in each council district.

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BIG:LEAP Research Report

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The highest number of participants were in Price’s 9th district, which includes Exposition Park and South Central, followed by Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s 8th district and Imelda Padilla’s 6th district.

What the research shows

Researchers from USC, UCLA, and the Center for Guaranteed Income Research found that people in the program immediately prioritized savings after describing a sense of stress that “this was their one and only shot at stability in an extremely unaffordable city.”

Bo-Kyung Elizabeth Kim, an associate professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and one of the authors of the report, said they saw a positive impact on the financial well-being of people in the program, including their ability to pay off a $400 emergency expense.

“Families with children have a really difficult time covering these emergency expenses, and we saw that people who received guaranteed income in the city of Los Angeles were significantly more likely to be able to cover this cost,” she said.

About 10% of people said they would be able to cover an emergency expense before the payments, which grew to about 15% by the time the program ended.

Poverty and food insecurity go hand in hand in Los Angeles County, according to the report, with 44% of low-income people struggling to put dinner on the table last year. But Kim noted they saw significant strides among those receiving guaranteed income.

With L.A. being one of the most expensive housing markets in the country, housing security was another major consideration. Nearly half of the people in the program spent more than 70% of their monthly income on housing expenses.

But they were able to hold onto housing and put the payments toward rent, which the researchers said worked to prevent homelessness for some people who had been falling through the cracks.

The monthly payments also became a tool for escaping and healing from unsafe relationships or intimate partner violence, which includes stalking, psychological aggression, sexual and physical violence. More than half of the people in the program reported psychological abuse from intimate partners in the past year, with 30% reporting physical abuse.

Some used the money to escape unsafe living situations and avoid returning to an abusive environment. The researchers noted that “healing took place physically and emotionally,” including through prioritizing therapy and reconstructive surgery.

Plus, Kim noted that people were becoming better parents throughout the program.

“They were able to spend more time with their kids,” she said. “They were able to provide more quality attention to the kids, and especially in the quantitative findings, we saw a significant increase in participants more willing to put kids in child enrichment activities, extracurricular activities, sports, and whatnot.”

What people in the program say

Ashley Davis, a 37-year-old single mom to an 8-year-old son, told LAist the BIG:LEAP program helped her financially, mentally, and physically. 

She said she used to be stuck in a routine of constantly worrying about bills and covering car repairs, but the monthly payments gave her some much-needed breathing room.

“Essentially, a lot of the stress that I had been dealing with, it was being alleviated by that extra income,” she said.

Davis had developed gastroesophageal reflux disease, otherwise known as GERD, and her doctor was considering putting her on heart medication, so one of the first things she bought was a juicer and healthier food options.

She started to take walks, because “walks are free,” and signed her son up for an indoor playground that allows them to chase each other around in a safe and secluded space.

Then she realized she wasn’t able to celebrate her son’s recent birthday, so she ended up getting passes to Legoland, and the payments helped Davis take Sundays off her cosmetology job.

“Instead of me working pretty much every day of the week, I now had an off day to go spend time with him,” she said.

Davis also started feeling better about her future, and she ended up enrolling in nursing school. The program paid for the books while she “knocked out all the classes with straight A's.”

Overall, she said the money helped cover a lot of basic bills their household needed to stay afloat. Davis is now looking forward to finishing school and acing her exams, but she’s still taking it one day at a time.

“The situation was just wonderful,” she said. “I didn't even realize like you're basically being helped out of struggle mode or focusing on when is your paycheck going to come.”

What’s next

Price said they can’t stop here with “full momentum,” and that’s why he’s introduced a motion to launch another $4 to $5 million guaranteed basic income program, along with Councilmembers Harris-Dawson and Hugo Soto-Martínez.

If approved, he said this program would specifically target people experiencing intimate partner violence, domestic violence, and transitional age youth, which are young people aging out of foster care of juvenile justice systems.

Price added that he’ll allocate $1 million of his district’s discretionary funds to go towards people experiencing homelessness.

“We will move forward, we will guarantee income,” he said. “That's been proven to break cycles of poverty and housing insecurity, and these are issues that have plagued our region for decades, and now we have research to show that it can be alleviated.”

Southern California summers aren’t exactly known for mugginess.

But uncharacteristic humidity has been clinging to the region for almost a month, and it looks like there’s little relief coming our way.

It’s not enough moisture to create much, if any, rain, but it is abnormal for this time of year

The dew point in Southern California is normally around 60 degrees at this time of year, forecasters say. But in downtown Los Angeles yesterday, the dew point hit almost 70 degrees.

Scientists say humidity generally becomes uncomfortable in the summer when the dew point is higher than 65.

“We do get these prolonged periods of heat, but what is unusual is the humidity,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Lewis.

So, what’s causing this mugginess?

A confluence of atmospheric forces, some hundreds or even thousands of miles away, is collecting and trapping moisture in Southern California.

“It's basically the combination of the warm ocean temperatures, as well as we've just been in the right pattern for some tropical moisture" to be sent our way, Lewis said.

Storms in the Pacific

Storms are to blame, at least in part, for the uncharacteristic humidity in the region this summer.

Two in particular have contributed to moisture levels in Southern California as they traveled across the Pacific Ocean in recent weeks.

Tropical Storm Fausto formed off of Central America earlier this month before moving off into the open ocean and moving toward Hawaii. It briefly was elevated to a Category 2 hurricane over the weekend before weakening again into a tropical storm.

Fausto is expected to continue weakening as it passes to the north of the Hawaiian Islands over the next few days.

The other, stronger storm, Hurricane Genevieve, also formed off the coast of Central America and has been moving relatively parallel to the Mexican coast, several hundred miles offshore.

Genevieve was elevated to a Category 5 hurricane on Monday.

The storms aren’t solely responsible for sending moisture hundreds of miles across the ocean.

Other weather patterns closer to home, including the system of high pressure air currently settled over the Western U.S. and the North American monsoon, siphon the tropical moisture from the storms into our region.

Thankfully, forecasters say, Hurricane Genevieve is not expected to create as much moisture as Fausto and other recent tropical storms.

Warming oceans

Forecasters also say warming ocean temperatures are adding to the humidity.

When the ocean is warmer than usual, the wind blowing inland off the water is also warmer. The warm seawater also evaporates faster, releasing more moisture into the air above it. That moisture is then carried inland by the wind.

Ocean warming is not new in Southern California, but it’s getting worse.

The region has been hit with a series of marine heatwaves over the last decade. They generally recede during the winter, but the current one has lasted for over a year. Scientists say these ocean heatwaves are likely being worsened by human-caused climate change.

But there is some short-term hope on the horizon for humidity-haters.

One, Hurricane Genevieve is not expected to pull as much moisture into our region as other recent weather patterns. And two, forecasters expect drier air to flow in from the northwest, cutting down the humidity a bit, especially inland.

That may not reach people who live along the coast, however, where the higher ocean temperatures will help keep the coastal humidity elevated, especially at night.

Los Angeles-area eviction lawyer Dennis Block has agreed to one year of probation after the California State Bar Court found he violated a court order and engaged in other misconduct.

The decision came through a stipulation — similar to a settlement agreement with the court — in which Block admitted to charging clients improper fees, representing a landlord and their tenant at the same time, signing off on an error-filled court document a junior attorney in his firm generated using ChatGPT and failing to pay court-ordered sanctions for nearly three years.

LAist first reported on these disciplinary charges in January.

Block, who runs a firm that claims to have evicted hundreds of thousands of tenants, is expected to be placed on probation for one year. He will also be required to take classes on ethics and proper handling of client funds if the State Bar Court’s recommendation is approved by the California Supreme Court.

The State Bar Court recommended Block be suspended from practicing law for one year, but allowed the suspension be stayed as long as he complies with ethics rules and his probation conditions.

David Bramante is one of the clients who reported Block to the bar. He said he paid Block $17,000 up front to work on a court motion that needed to be taken care of quickly.

“The Ellis Act work I paid for never got done,” Bramante told LAist. “And when I terminated him, his office wouldn't give me a real accounting of where the money went.”

Bramante said it was only after many months and the State Bar’s investigation that Block’s firm refunded him the money.

Three legal ethics experts told LAist the disciplinary actions the bar recommended against Block are in line with similar cases they have seen in the past.

“This is a pretty serious sanction,” Scott Cummings, a UCLA law professor who teaches legal ethics, told LAist.

Cummings said suspension and disbarment are the two highest forms of discipline given by the bar.

Even though the suspension is being stayed in this case — because Block cooperated with State Bar investigators and has had a long career without disciplinary issues — Cummings said it seems like the bar is sending a message to Block and other attorneys that they need to treat their clients’ interests and money with the highest level of care.

Still, others think the court didn’t go far enough.

Richard Zitrin, an emeritus lecturer with UC Law San Francisco, called it a “slap on the wrist" considering the level of wrongdoing in the case.

“The failure to suspend Mr. Block is letting him get away with clearly unethical conduct that harms his clients,” Zitrin told LAist.

Other clients who were not involved with the bar’s investigation also claimed they had negative experiences with Block’s firm.

Xavier Jones said he hired Block’s firm for a few months in 2025. He told LAist there were no issues at first. Then, he said he saw Block’s attorneys start coming to court unprepared for his case. He said he also felt Block was overbilling him for the firm’s services.

Block would hang up on him when he asked legal questions or about how much he was being billed, Jones said. He said there were two times the firm’s lawyers came to court without having a copy of the tenants’ lease, which he says he sent them.

“I'm paying for this, for them to show up, for them to do their back-end work,” Jones said. “It's just unprofessional, it's embarrassing, and it's costing me a lot of money.”

Jones said he stopped working with Block in November. He said he had lost about $70,000 in unpaid rent, legal fees and other costs he believes could have been avoided with proper legal assistance.

LAist reached out to Block and his attorneys this week for comment, but did not receive a response. Last month, Erin Joyce — Block’s defense attorney — told LAist that the State Bar Court’s investigation into her client was “thorough” and found “no conduct by the firm involved moral turpitude,” which had been alleged in the original charges.

A year ago at this time, the streets of Los Angeles and other American cities were the sites of highly visible, large-scale immigration raids. While those scenes have died down, immigration enforcement remains more quietly active.

Federal data show Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained more people in June, at 43,000, than in any month since January 2025. Locally, Los Angeles Police Department officials say June had the highest tally of potential unlawful conduct by federal immigration officers. The 12 incidents investigated mark the most since the department began reporting the data in March.

German Hurtado, LAPD immigration affairs liaison, said in an interview that he noticed the uptick of reported immigration enforcement incidents, but could not say what caused the increase.

In February, Mayor Karen Bass issued a directive requiring the reporting. Police commissioners approved the most recent report at their meeting Tuesday.

Hurtado said the increase seen in June might be reflective of the department’s efforts to capture more of the potential issues.

“We’re finding better ways to improve how to capture these incidents,” Hurtado said. “It could be a combination of everything, but I did see that it was a large increase.”

He said those efforts include changes in how they label calls related to federal immigration enforcement actions and adjustments to the way department computers store the information.

What’s in June’s report

Here’s how that process worked, according to the department’s report:

The LAPD first identified 45 potential federal immigration enforcement actions by searching internal reporting systems for immigration related search terms. The immigration affairs liaison determined 33 of those incidents were unrelated to immigration enforcement.

At the commission's meeting on Tuesday, Lisa Ridoutt, assistant inspector general, explained these incidents included:

• 26 notices from federal agents conducting surveillance in the area
• 2 reports of protests
• 2 medical related incidents
• 1 report of DHS agents executing a search warrant unrelated to immigration
• 1 federal task force meeting
• 1 call reporting someone believed they were pushed from behind by a federal agent. LAPD reviewed security footage and determined no crime had occurred.

The department then looked deeper into 12 enforcement incidents that qualify for reporting under Bass’ executive directive, which asks the LAPD to report when officers document or receive reports of suspected unlawful conduct by immigration officers. Two of those incidents involved an LAPD response in the field, according to the report. The department also says neither resulted in officers being on the scene for an active enforcement action.

The report states the LAPD does not know the overall number of immigration enforcement actions that happened in June.

The 12 reported incidents are a significant increase from previous months. The department reported just four incidents in May, four in April and none in March.

Hurtado said the number of incidents has increased every month since March, potentially because the department is getting better at documenting them.

“It takes a while to teach 8,700 people exactly what to do, so as we are rolling out different training, the officers are now being more observant of it, documenting it more," Hurtado said.

The increase, he added, could also stem from federal authorities communicating with LAPD more. He said federal immigration authorities have not asked LAPD for support during enforcement actions.

The backstory

For decades, the LAPD has refrained from directly enforcing immigration laws. That’s because policing experts say doing so could deter witnesses or victims from cooperating with law enforcement.

State and local laws have codified that policy in recent years and further prohibited California law enforcement from assisting in federal immigration enforcement.

The mayor issued two executive orders last year with instructions for how city departments interact with federal immigration officers.

Executive directive 17 mandates the monthly immigration reports from the LAPD and instructs officers to activate their body-worn cameras whenever they respond to potential immigration-related incidents.

Ridoutt, of the Office of Inspector General, said that while officers did activate body-worn and in-car video systems, the OIG found some recordings were not properly titled or tagged and that some videos or photos from community members were not uploaded to the department’s evidence database as required by department policy.

The Inspector General’s Office reviews the LAPD’s reports to ensure compliance with the directive. Ridoutt said the office will be releasing a more comprehensive report in October or November.

Calls for increased transparency

At previous meetings, commissioners have asked for more details about what calls for service or incident reports entail.

Hurtado said the executive directive just requires the department to release aggregate numbers.

Shiu-Ming Cheer, deputy director of immigrant and racial justice at the California Immigrant Policy Center, said the directive calls for greater transparency than what the LAPD’s monthly reports currently provide.

The June report, for example, notes that LAPD twice dispatched officers in response to a report of ICE activity, but provides no description of the department’s role once officers arrived. Cheer said the public should know whether officers were responding for crowd control, interacting with federal agents or serving some other purpose.

Cheer said the LAPD’s monthly reports should explain what happened during the incidents the department counts.

Sophia Wrench, an attorney with Public Counsel, agrees.

“A central purpose of Executive Directive 17 was to provide increased transparency and build public trust, but LAPD’s reporting month after month falls short,” she said in a statement. “The lack of information in its monthly reports only creates more confusion in the community, building greater fear and mistrust of the police.”